League of Gay Voters

It's fair to say I spend a fair amount of time on the internet (and by “fair amount” I mean “tons) and I often google controversial topics: abortion, gay rights, in-fights amongst cancer fundraising organizations. Strangely, I almost never encounter links to Conservapedia in the first, say 20 pages of hits while researching any of these topics.

If I understood google algorithms a bit better, I'd know exactly why this is, but I suspect that it has to do with the fact that even conversative websites are reluctant to link to Conservapedia. Most likely because some of the views expressed are—to use the terminology favored by respected political science professors; Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

For example, consider their entry on the “abortion mentality.” Although certain the Catholic Church complains of a“culture of death” and it's not uncommon for conservative and evengelical Protestant churches to use similar langugage, the idea of a “abortion mentality” is a new introduction into this conversation. The writers explain “Under the abortion mentality, abortion itself can become a rite of passage by which college students are initiated into the belief system and then effectively owned by this anti-life belief system for their entire lives.” Apparently, in the minds of the authors, abortion isn't just a medical procedure, it's a commitment to a lifelong philosophy that one develops in college.

Even if this were the case, who remembers what they learned in college?

But there are a few things me and Conservapedia do agree on.

Take, for example, their entry on San Francisco. They describe San Fransciso as the “one of the most beautiful cities in the world.” Well, I agree with that.

This is the view from San Francisco coastline.

They also say San Francisco has had some pretty bad earthquakes. Well that's true too.

Then the authors add “ San Francisco, with a large homosexual population, is also considered to be one of the most liberal cities in America.”

I don't know if San Francisco is one of the most liberal cities in America, after all, Portland Oregon is just up the coast and Portland is so liberal the citizens have to maintain spreadsheets just to keep track of all the different products they're boycotting.

But there are a ton of homosexuals, there, I've seen that with my own eyes.

This is the actual view out my friend's apartment who lives at the top of the Castro in San Francisco. No one is denying that San Francisco is a pretty gay place.

And then there's their article on Komen. You know the Susan B Komen Foundation, or as they are known now “Komen for the Cure.” There was a week earlier this year when the only thing in the news was the question of Komen yo-yoing on the issue of providing donations to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer prevention services.

That's primarily what Conservapedia folks are concerned about, but when they question the high salaries for the Komen executive board, I can't help but think they have a point. Especially since Komen provides funding for breast cancer prevention and breast cancer awareness and a little tiny bit of funding for breast cancer research. Yet despite the fact that such a small part of their budget is actually devoted to finding a cure, they actively sue other organizations when they use “for a cure” or “for the cure” in their marketing.

Of course, they go on to say that Planned Parenthood, somehow is the cause of the breast cancer epidemic and then they've lost me again.

So TVLAND, which lately has become my favorite network, which makes me the oldest 43 year old in the world, is sponsoring a contest. The contest is a promotional gig for their sitcom Happily Divorced which is about a character whose name I forget (played by Fran Drescher) who gets divorced from her recently out of the closet husband but they stay friends and hijinks (and Fran's high voice) ensue. It's a cute enough show, a little heavy on the gay stereotype humor, but not as bad as it could be, and the general writing is good, especially the comic timing.So, the contest. It seems slightly more complicated than this, but basically you send in a video of why you'd like to get married and then one couple will be chosen and they will have their wedding performed by Fran Drescher. I can't exactly imagine that having your wedding ceremony performed by the Woman With The Most Irritating Voice in America is going to be everyone's ideal prize to win, but I can see why it would be a draw for some. And my guess would be there will lots of publicity and also the Tvland will fit the bill for at least the location and the catering and all, so maybe this would be a great choice for a broke couple trying to break into modelling or something.

I'd complain more about this cheaping gay relationships or making them into a joke, but I know for someone, this would not be a joke at all. And I suppose if we're going to start getting married and having weddings, I guess it makes sense that we'll be a part of the reality TV treatment of long term relationships. As scary as that might possibly be.

I love my day job but sometimes going to work can be a bit hard on my butch ego as I am continually outdyked by the straight women there. I work with two women who are—as we say in the business-- honorary lesbians meaning they are not so much lesbians in the “primary emotional and sexual relationships are usually with women” sense but rather in the “give me give minutes and a tool belt and I can fix anything” sense.

Case in point, recently I noticed two of my coworkers had a particularly bad cases of poison ivy. When I asked co-worker number one where she might have gotten it, perhaps while working outdoors, she thought briefly and then recalled “well, I haven't been doing anything really out of the ordinary. Unless, well, I suppose I could have gotten it when I cleared a path through the woods around in the house. I was in a hurry because I only Sunday afternoon to reroute all our septic lines”

“You're rerouting the septic line” I asked, “I'm not quite sure whether to be impressed or call 911.”

“Well Kelli” she said in a tone of voice you might use when talking to someone who has just suffered a stroke and whose cognitive abilities you are not quite sure of, “you can't expect me to call someone for help every time I have some little project to do."

At that point Co-worker #2 walked in the door but I didn't have time to ask about her outdoor activities because we had some important business to attend to.

Me: I'm glad you are here, I'm not sure but I think the toilet is broken. It's spraying pink water all over the walls and playing a dance mix version “Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen”

Co-Worker #2: Really? Sounds interesting.” She headed into the bathroom, rolling up her sleeves/. She was dressed in a business suit and carried only a roll of duct tape and short length of IV tubing. Five minutes later she returned, wiping her hands on a paper towel.

Me: So, do you think you can fix it?

Co-Worker #2: (Simultaneously opening her mail, checking her messages on her cell phone and drilling holes in the wall so we can hang up a lovely framed photo essay that depicts great influenza outbreaks of 20th century) “Hmmm, oh it's working fine now. In fact, I think we can even use it to convert that PC health education software so we can use it on those donated Macs.

At that point, I dropped the discussion. I was looking for the user's manual for the paper clips and I didn't need any honorary lesbians distracting me.

The Williams Institute out of UCA, a partner in evaluating US Census data, recently released their evaluations of early information collected as part of the 2010 Census. The information indicated that numbers of same sex couples dramatically increased in certain states. Or to be more precise, the number of people who reported being in same sex couples increased. For example, in Alabama last year's census found 11,259 households headed by same-sex couples. The number of same-sex couples as head of household in Alabama was 8,109 in 2000. The 2010 number is 39 percent higher. Even more dramatic results results were found in Hawaii; the Census Bureau reported an increase of 78 percent in same-sex couples headed households.

According to the LGBT Task Force, including LGBT people in data collection is important because federal, state and local governments make decisions every day based on data. If LGBT people aren't included in data collection, we are essentially invisible. This gives those who would deny LGBT people full rights more ammunition and keeps our lives unequal in many different areas including health care, public benefits, employment, housing and equal access to justice.

I understand how it came to be that the census asks about only about same-sex couples who are head of household; it's a natural extension of asking about married and heterosexually partnered heads of household. And I guess counting same sex couples is a start, but it's not all that. By counting same sex couples only we are systematically NOT counting single queers. I do wish they'd occasionally mention that in the press coverage and activism materials, if only in passing.