Thursday, July 24, 2008

Gunman in My Office Building: Exciting day at work

So a couple of my coworkers left the building to have a smoke. When we got to the Lobby we heard the doorman yelling on his radio "there is a guy with a gun in the building!!!!"

Apparently the guy was chasing down his wife's attorney when he got into an altercation with the doorman and showed his gun. Then he took the elevator and was lost in the building

Then a rush of cops come into the building... the block get cordoned off..there were cops running around with shields and doggie police.

Meanwhile people still in our office lock the doors and blockade with file cabinets.

I couldn't get back to work, so my coworkers and I went to get some candy. Yes, we are very jaded new yorkers.

Drama continued with cops rushing in an out for an hour!

Finally guy was dragged out shirtless. REALLY REALLY BAD TATTOO'S is all I have to say. But he seemed happy, all smiley. One wonders why such a mellow guy was running around with a gun

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Bisexuality: Why it bothers everyone

As a bisexual person I have often why we are so well disliked. A lot of gay people will openly admit to not wanting to date bi-people, some will state they do not believe bisexuality exist and others just wish we could pick a side and stick with it. Straight boys like femme bi-girls but only because it feeds into a sexual threesome fantasy, bi-boys are universally distrusted and often viewed as disease spreaders.

Bisexuality by itself does present several problems in the gay community, some of which I will address. I am sure heterosexuals have their own prejudices against us but quite frankly hetero prejudices are too boring for me to really delve into. "Hell, abomination, Leviticus, god hates fags" blah blah.. Seriously tiresome stuff.

The first problem that bisexuality presents is that it weakens the choice argument. The argument that homosexuality is innate, biological and immutable is somewhat threatened by bisexuals. Since bisexuals seem to make an apparent choice in the anatomy of their partners, the idea that homosexuality might be a choice needs to be addressed. I have several thoughts about this, one of which is while bisexuals do choose the gender of their partners, the fact that they are attracted to both genders is not a choice for them.

The second is that though we have gotten cornered by the right wingers into this choice argument, there is no moral imperative that says if we had a choice we should be straight. I do not believe that there is a categorical imperative that states if we have a choice we need to be heterosexuals. Quite simply, we don't. A lot of our thoughts and discussions in our community has been shaped because of our need to defend ourselves from fundamental religious bigots, and that is unfortunate. We don't have to be straight, just like black people don't have to be white, even if they had a choice in the matter. We protect choices all the time, such as religious choice. Since Christians choose to be Christians, are they really in any position to tell us that we cant exert choice over own bodies?

The other problem is whether or not one believes that bisexuals are really closeted gays. When I first heard this argument, I thought it was laughable however over the last 10 years I now at least understand where comes from. I was watching the show On the Down Low on Logo a few days ago, with all these gay boys claiming they were bisexual. Dude, really, no one buys that you are bi unless you are out. Bisexuality isn't and shouldn't be synonymous with being closeted. Seriously. So please gay people, come out. Don't take my identity to hide behind.

A friend of mine says that anytime some one says they don't believe in bisexuals he hits them over the head. When they question why he did that, he says it couldn't have happened since he doesn't exist, so clearly the person is imagining things and going crazy! I think this is a very funny and effective tactic.

Some gays will not date bi's, the rationale is that we are more promiscuous and more likely to cheat. Ummm.... yeah. I think the reality is that insecurity is ugly, and projection of said insecurity is uglier. Of course bisexuals cheat on their partners, as do monosexuals of every stripe. Cheating occurs for many reasons, sexual orientation isn't one of them. However if it makes you feel any better to project your insecurity on to me, I suppose you can. It might be healthier to get therapy though. Just a thought. Most gay people however do not indulge in such bigotry.

The idea of disease spreading gays and bi's deserves its own post since really it really has to do with homophobia, racism and several other factors.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Corruption of Words: Gays and Food

I recently read the book, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto, by Michael Pollan. In this book he describes a law in 1938 imposed by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. This law required when we buy traditional foods that most of us recognize, such as bread, butter, milk and cheese we should get exactly that. " if a food resembles a standardized food, but does not comply with the standard, that food must be labeled an imitation". However in 1977 the food industry managed to get this law overturned, and fake foods were allowed to pass as the real thing. So bread, that completely isn't what bread used to be, is now considered well.. bread. This new bread has the nutrients leached out of it, and while it pleases the palate and is whiter than before, is nutritionally useless.

Anyhow as I was reading this I was thinking of the corruption of day to day words as it applies to us gay folk. Words that are comforting and provide structure to people like family, values, tradition and morality have been so corrupted, that like fake foods, the shell of the word exist but its meaning is corrupted. We have families and values and tradition and morals, but the right has succeeded to a great degree to deprive these words of their true meaning while still keeping them 'familiar'Corrupted familiar words don't repulse society quite the same way, had Focus on the Family been labeled Focus on Destroying Fags and Dyke's, I am sure society would be far more repulsed. Quite the same way that they would if wonderbread was labeled fake food.

Not only are we becoming nutritionally bankrupt thanks to corrupted words, we are becoming morally bankrupt too.