People, this is a long one...

Sheesh, the end of June and beginning of July are busy for me. Very busy.


First the Dyke March (bottom) and the Pride Parade (top).

Then a breather.

Then meetings, prepping for more actions.

Then a flurry of phone calls and emails.

Then there was Sunday morning. Actually, more like Sunday afternoon.

I rented a Jeep Liberty for the weekend, mostly to provide transportation to Crystal Lake.

You see, the rowing competition for the Gay Games were being held there, and, anti-gay bigots had unsuccessfully attempted to interfere with the permits that needed to be obtained to hold the competition. Some Crystal Lake and Lakewood residents were stunned by the presence of these gay-bashers, acknowledging that most of the people at the council meetings were not even from the area.

My group felt it was necessary to have a "gay-positive" presence there, since for some reason, the organizers did not even attempt to bring one themselves. The rowing event would have been a great opportunity for groups such as PFLAG to introduce themselves and break down some, if not many, of the mis-conceptions that people have about gay people, but for some reason, they didn't.

What was good though, was the fact that overall, we were well received. Almost all of our interactions were very positive. There were several members of both town's boards actually walked up to us and not only thanked us for being out there, but apologized for the anti-gay presence, saying that they were shocked that anti-gay bigots protested against the permits being given in the first place. Turns out they didn't recognize those people as their neighbors; they didn't recognize them at all.

Ouch.

When we finally got out there, it turns out that once again, we were screwed by the cops. There were several bible thumpers who were allowed to preach their craptacular interpretations of the bible for over an hour. All of a sudden, we show up with our banner and our flags, we get five minutes, and then we're told to go to the "free speech zone".

A zone that is about three blocks over from the front entrance to the rowing races.

It wasn't all that bad of a place, actually. Turns out we ended up getting the spot on the corner that you had to turn in front of to get to the parking lot. Fun stuff.

Overall, we received many car honks of approval, many thumbs up, a lot of people walked up to us and thanked us personally, some even shook our hands and took pictures of us. That was amazing.
But you and I both know that a gay positive message can't get shown without some bigots getting upset about it. Of course.

What concerns me is how much more aggressive and brash these bigots are getting. Some of these people hauled off and bee-lined directly for our area, stopping only within inches of us. It's as if the religious right and their puppet Bush have given these bigots carte-blanche to attack us, to physically charge at us, to intimidate us.

Well, it didn't work that day, boys and girls.

We had to deal with several "Christians" that day.

Now, help me refresh my memory here........

Point #1
Jesus Christ, so long as I can remember, fought against organized religion. He fought against temples, since they cost money to join and maintain your membership in them. Christ felt that people should be able to worship God, irregardless of wealth or stature within society.
Christ went to the people and invited them to hear His word; He did not force His beliefs on others. He did not rally against the machine of politics, although it was used to destroy Him. He spoke against it, but, He did not turn the people against it. He preached in homes, by lakes and on hills and the sides of mountains. HE DID NOT PREACH IN A CHURCH.

Point #2
The lessons of the bible are written as complete stories, not singular verses to be pulled out of context, manipulated to fit the needs of a single man. People have made the conscious decision to either decide that one of God's many laws is "more important" than the others, or, they have chosen to simply let someone else tell them that. Ignorance is bliss, but, Christ sought the truth.

Point #3
We're not in Canaan anymore people. Sit on that one.

Now, on to the rest of the story......

We had to deal with typical ignoramus "Christians" who kept quoting the bible, particularly the verses of Leviticus that "outlaw" homosexuality. Actually, the bible says nothing about homosexuality; it just says that a man shall not lie with a man as he does with a woman. It mentions nothing about a woman lying with a woman as with a man, which means that God is down with lesbians baby! WOOHOO!

I'm serious about that. If lesbianism was such a crime, I think that God would have said something about it. Seriously. I'm not interpreting the bible, I'm taking what it says literally. Just like you do.

While we're at it, why don't we talk about the other rules, like, say, about not eating shellfish, husbands not sleeping in the same bed as their wives while they are having their period, or even in the same house for that matter, wearing poly/cotton blends and touching the skin of dead animals. Oh, and let's not forget about that whole adultery being punishable by death deal. What about having sex with animals? That shit is punishable by death too, and, I don't hear you morons clamoring around that crap. Nice of you to decide which one of God's Laws to obey.

My personal favorite was a "Christian" woman in a mini-van. Here's how it went down...

Her "Excuse me, I'm a Christian."
Me "Okay"
Her "So, as a Christian, if I said that homosexuality is wrong and against the bible, am I a bigot?"
Me "No. You are entitled to your opinions. My problem is when you think that your religious opinions should become civil law."
Her "But it's God's Law."
Me "I understand that, but, it doesn't mean that it should become civil law."

At this point, another member of my group got into a shouting match with her, and, a few moments later, she was being ordered by a cop to turn her vehicle onto the main road. She kept shouting something, but, I simply yelled back at her;

"Sweetie, you might want to have some consideration for your fellow man and move your car. Go on, be respectful of your fellow man. Just like the bible says."

It's fun stuff being someone that can actually meet these people toe to toe. They just don't like it.

After all of this, we ended up going out for some awesome Thai food. It was amazing. It's actually better than the stuff we get after my group's monthly meetings. Hot damn, it was really good.

All and all, it was a good day.

No, I have not forgotten about my blog. I've had an interesting several weeks, and, I've been trying to catch up on my sleep debt.

I'll get to this, I promise.