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... and of my cousin Morris Kight: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wordweaverlynn asks what are you going to do to celebrate Harvey Milk's birthday? Me, I'm just going to make a few things explicit: I consider myself queer. But I acknowledge that, as queer goes, I'm just swimming in the privilege of plausible deniability, at least at this point in my life. I am, after all, a woman in a long-term relationship with a man. And I look like somebody's grandma. If people remark at all on my affectional life, it's generally to puzzle over the fact that I'm paired up with someone who's polyamorous, and ask me how that works. But I've spent my life since adolescence surfing the Kinsey scale; I've been known to describe my basic orientation as "mutable." I seem to be drawn to individuals, not types or genders; I've had loving long-term sexual relationships with women and loving long-term sexual relationships with men. Also hot, sweaty short-term relationships, not to mention more crushes than I can even remember. I've never tried to hide these facts, not since coming out to my own mom in my 20s and receiving the best imaginable response ("Oh, when are we going to get to meet her?"). At some periods of my life, I've gone out of my way to identify publicly and politically with the queer community. I spent one memorable election season as the public face and voice of the campaign against one of Oregon's infamous anti-gay ballot measures - in the relatively conservative, some would say redneck community where I live. But it's easy for people, even people who know me failry well, not to know these things about me. It's not that I intentionally conceal it - I'm a notorious blurter, and have no real sense of privacy - it's just that the subject doesn't often come up. So this is me, bringing it up. When I speak for gay marriage, or against hate crimes, it's not just as a sympathetic ally. THESE ARE MY PEOPLE. They always have been. They always will be. joedecker reminds us that, as they waited 30 years ago for a verdict in Milk's murder, Californians are now waiting to find out whether their Supreme Court will recognize them next week as full citizens. They were disappointed before; they may be disappointed again. What they, what *we* won't do is shut up, or go away, or give up. Civil rights movements take generations; this one is rolling along pretty well by those standards. I plan to stick around to watch it succeed. Tags: "i am large, i contain multitudes", politics, queer_as_folk
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"The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.
We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him." Read the full statement. From the inside of a tiny subprogram of a subprogram of a federal science agency (NOAA), I can attest to the chilling effect of the Bush administration's political and budget policies. For the last eight years, federal funding for basic research into fundamental questions about ocean and climate has been flatlined, while the cost of research has risen. My own program, which supports a highly competitive , peer-reviewed grant process for ocean and coastal research, has gone from supporting 18 research projects in 2000 to just seven this year - and this at a time when we are desperate for information about what's happening in the ocean. Tags: politics, science
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The Democrats are streaming gavel-to-gavel video coverage of their national convention in Denver, at: http://www.demconvention.com/(You'll have to install Microsoft Silverlight to watch it, which kind of pisses me off, given that Silverlight doesn't recognize my browser-of-choice, Seamonkey, but such is life. I keep IE around to check my Web pages for cross-browser performance, and it won't kill me to use it for a while). Given that the old-school broadcast networks are barely planning to cover the conventions this year, and that CNN and their ilk are more interested in listening to themselves talk than letting us hear what's happening at the convention, this is a way to get your fix uninterrupted by talking heads. And without having to put up with Fox News making the story all about them. I've been listening all afternoon while I work, and while it's mostly just been speeches by lesser party luminaries from around the country, they're a diverse lot, obviously delighted to get their moment on the national stage, and some of them are giving pretty terrific speeches. Who knows, maybe we'll even get a glimpse of the next Barack Obama ... I assume the GOP will stream their own convention live, too. I'm betting the music won't be as good. Tags: politics
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I have all kinds of stuff I could be doing tonight, from housekeeping to knitting to catching up on some correspondence. Instead, I'm sitting here nibbling popcorn and listening to the Oregon Public Radio coverage of the primary election. In which all the races I really care about have already been called (mostly, for a change, for candidates I actually supported.) What it is, really, is nostalgia. Because for the two decades when I was a journalist, I spent just about every election night at the nearest county courthouse, waiting for the vote counters to post the updates, phoning the numbers in to the AP, schmoozing with other reporters and picking up quotes from whatever candidates happened to be hanging around - and then, when the last returns were in (or they stopped counting and kicked us all out, which sometimes happened on long and difficult counts), dashing back to the newsroom and writing whatever piece of the picture I'd been assigned to cover, sometimes at 2 or 3 a.m. It was fun. Kind of like being in the press box at a sporting event, especially when the races were close. The first election after I left journalism, I was working for a political campaign so I still got to hang out at the courthouse, although it was with a weird perspective shift. In the 15-odd years since, I've managed to keep from turning into one of those political junkies who haunt courthouses on election night even though they don't have to. But I still miss it, and I'm finding that the public radio coverage has just the right balance of reportage, sober political geeking and goofy reportorial banter to feed my nostalgic mood. Plus no pictures to distract from the ones in my head. (Ah, they're wrapping it up for the night. Go, Obama.) Tags: nostalgia, politics
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... and it's raining. Of course. We have our traditions to uphold, after all. Yay, rain! You won't see exit polls for the Oregon primary - or if you do, they won't be particularly reliable, since the vast majority of us have already voted over the past two weeks, thanks to our vote-by-mail system. About the only people "going to the the polls" today will be those dropping off their mail-in ballots at their county elections offices (or other designated dropoff points). Some few folks do that because they enjoy the civic ritual of putting their ballots in a box, but fewer every election. This year, thanks to the protracted Democratic primary, the rest of the country actually cares what happens in Oregon. That's cool. Rare, too - I've seen reports that the last time an Oregon primary counted in the greater scheme of things was 48 years ago, when John F. Kennedy carried the state over Adlai Stevenson (and favorite son Wayne Morse). You know what else is cool? I haven't heard a single person this year put forth the "why should I vote, my vote doesn't count" argument. Say what you will about the Democratic battle-to-the-death, it's made people in small states like Oregon feel as if they matter, and that's not a bad thing. If you're an Oregon voter and you haven't returned your ballot yet, here's some stuff you need to know: * It's too late to mail your ballot. Postmarks don't count. If you want your vote counted, you have to drop it by the county clerk's office or some other official drop site by 8 o'clock tonight. You can find the address here. * If you're standing in line by 8 p.m., you'll be allowed to vote. * Don't forget to sign the back of your outer return envelope. That's how the clerk verifies you are who you say you are. * If you never got a ballot but believe you're registered in Oregon, go to the County Clerk's office and ask to fill out a provisional ballot. Take along something that proves your current address (ID, a bill, whatever). Tags: elections, politics, weather
I feel ...:  patriotic
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If you aren't registered to vote in the May 20 presidential primary - or if you need to re-register because your address has changed since the last time you voted, or because you'd like to switch party affiliations so you can, say, vote in a presidential race where your vote will actually matter - you have until the midnight on April 29 to do so. The state Elections Division provides a .pdf registration form and instructions here. You can mail it in (as long as it's postmarked no later than the 29th), or - to be safe - drop it by your county elections office. Here's where they areBecause of changes in federal law, you now have to provide ID when you register. A current, valid Oregon driver's license will do, or the last four digits of your Social Security Number. If you don't have one of those, check the Elections Division site for your options. Why register? Because you can. And because, against all expectations, our sixth-from-last-in-the-nation primary actually counts this year, at least on the (D) side of the ballot (and, I suppose on the R side if you're a Ron Paul fan - he's still on the ballot here). Fancy that. There are also some pretty significant state races on the ballot. If you threw away the voters' pamphlet you got in the mail, you might want to check it out here. Tags: politics
I feel ...:  patriotic
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Just got back from spending a pleasant evening with saoba, hanging out with a bunch of small-town Democrats at a Corvallis tavern while we watched CNN report the early returns. Ran into an old friend who's been a local Demcoratic functionary for, gods, decades (he's the go-to guy for voter databases and such), and wound up sitting with him, his daughter (an attorney who currently serves in the state House of Representatives) and a very ... enthusiastic ... 20-something who was every inch the inspired, effusive know-it-all that such Young Partisans always are. A good antidote to the old cynics at the table. It was fun. We had very good hamburgers and very good microbrews, talked out our asses about What It All Means, mocked CNN, which seemed to have borrowed weather channel technology for its Super Tuesday reporting needs, complete with the paint-circles-on-the-screen-with-your-fi nger gimmick and obscure statistical breakdowns ("Among Minnesota Republicans who oppose immigration amnesty, Mitt Romney leads John McCain ..."). And since Oregon has *all* its state House seats up for election this year, it was entertaining to watch various candidates and their supporters working the crowd. Several people tried to give me stickers for candidates I haven't heard of and can't vote for anyway, since I live in another district, 12 miles away. The results (which, to be fair, aren't actually entirely *in* yet) fascinate me. As a resident of one of the states that chose not to race to the front of the primary pack - and thus votes in May, fourth-from-last this primary season - I'm pleased that things haven't been settled by Super Tuesday. I love hearing the radio and TV pundits eat their words, and they're all having to do a lot of it this season. And I'm feeling a kind of spiteful glee at watching the Republican machine wet its collective drawers over Mike Huckabee's continued success in certain states. Hey, they've courted the evangelical right for so long they shouldn't be surprised that it's trying to choose the candidate; as the late Molly Ivins (who would have *loved* this election season) would have said, you gotta dance with them what brung you. And hanging with saoba, something I've done too damned little of since she moved to Corvallis, was good, too. Gotta do more of that. Tags: politics
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... has become the default location of my life, and I've been out so long I hardly even think about it any more. I'm surprised (on the rare occasions when the subject comes up) if someone *doesn't* know I'm bisexual; less surprised if they don't know I'm kinked, though I'm a bit old-fashioned about not flaunting the intimate details of my sex life in inappropriate settings, so that's no big deal. What is a big deal is that people who ought to know better stop getting away with pretending that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and otherwise queer people are a tiny, obscure and exotic segment of the population, and thus of no account. We're everywhere. We matter. And we vote. Which is why, each year, I sign the full-page ad the university Price Center buys in the campus newspaper for National Coming Out Day, and why I make a habit of referring to my "partner" rather than my "boyfriend", and why I speak up as a bi woman on the local LGBTA e-mail list and elsewhere even though I don't currently date anyone of the female persuasion. To those of you who aren't out, and want to be: Do what you need to do to take care of yourselves, but believe me when I say that, once you get over the "OMG I'm OUT!!!" shiny-newness of it all, life outside that closet is not much different from life inside ... except it's a helluva lot more comfortable. Tags: gender, politics, queer_as_folk
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Both houses of the Oregon legislature today approved landmark bills creating "domestic partnerships" for gay couples and adding sexual orientation to the state's hate-crimes laws.. The governor has promised to sign both bills into law. There is It doesn't quite make up for voters' passage of the (*spit*) "Defense of Marriage" amendment to our constitution in 2004. But it's progress. It's also a sign of the remarkable things that can happen when the balance of legislative power shifts. Last session, a right-wing Republican speaker of the house locked these bills up and wouldn't even give them a hearing, effectively stalling their passage. Now, with the Democrats controlling both houses, we not only got the hearings, but - despite hard lobbying from the religious right and other anti-gay forces - the bills passed with bipartisan support. I'm proud to say that my own state Senator, Republican Frank Morse, was among the bills' co-sponsors, and among the very few Republicans who objected publicly to the DOMA. Why? Because, he said, it just isn't fair to treat some citizens worse than others simply because of who they love. The battle's not won yet. The creeps are still afoot with more anti-gay ballot initiatives here in the home of direct democracy run amok. But it's still a victory, and worth celebrating. Tags: politics
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... where this generation's anti-war songs were. Richard Thompson steps to the plate with a driving, rocking, pointed new song that reminds me of why he's one of my musical heroes: Because instead of writing as a remote observer or commentator, he puts himself in the heads of the people he sings about. This isn't a new "Where Have All the Flowers Gone;" it's in the tradition of "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," "Goodnight Saigon" or Leon Russell's "Ballad for a Soldier." Dad's Gonna Kill Me. Dad, in this case, is a truncation of Baghdad, much as my generation turned Vietnam into 'Nam. But also, um, yeah. I love Richard Thompson. ETA: Thanks to the commentors who are adding other examples of current anti-war music. Keep bringing 'em on! Tags: music, politics, war
Current Music: See above
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I don't make the normal, personal-improvement sorts of resolutions. They're a fool's game, IMO, a set-up for failure and self guilt-tripping, and I try hard not to do guilt. But having just watched "An Inconvenient Truth" with my sweetie, there are some things I think I can safely resolve. In the year ahead, I will: Kick political ass at every opportunity. Up the number of letters I write to Congresspeople about issues that matter to me and the planet I call home. Corner them when they come to town and ask, point-blank, what they've done to address global warming lately. Bug them and bother them and generally make a positive nuisance of myself. Get the damned house weatherized. That's a no-brainer. Drive less. Walk more. Plant trees. Talk to people about this stuff. If anyone suggests that there's scientific dispute about global warming, set them straight. Urge people to buy this movie, watch it and pass it on to people who haven't seen it. Live by the words of the indomitable Flo Kennedy: "Don't agonize. Organize." Tags: politics, this modern world
I feel ...:  resolute
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... on the political front of late, it's not because I haven't been paying attention. To the contrary, I've been watching in speechless horror as Congress set about dismantling one (more*) of the bedrocks on which the US Constitution - and, indeed, the nation I was brought up loving and believing in - stands. Writing letters and e-mails a-plenty, yes, and slightly (but only slightly) relieved that most of my own representatives voted against the measure as it was finally approved. As pecunium points out, this was a bill that demanded more than merely a "no" vote; opponents should have invoked every procedural tool at their command, up to and including filibuster, to block its passage. Shame on them for not doing that. I still find myself incapable of writing anything coherent about exactly how bad this measure is. Fortunately, others are doing a better job than I could. Making Light provides a handly list of links to some of the best commentary. * As bad as this is, I consider it a logical extension of the so-called Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping and a host of other executive acts and knee-jerk laws that have been battering away at our foundations. There was a time when we Americans could, with a good deal of justification, hold ourselves up as a beacon of human rights, a nation where the Constitution and the rule of law promised even the least of us the fundamental right to be treated like human beings (even if that promise was sometimes slow in being delivered). This president and his followers have done more to extinguish that beacon than any administration in our history. Shame, shame on them. And shame on us if we don't use the coming elections to tell them we have had far more than enough. Just for starters. Tags: politics
I feel ...: infuriated
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