Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Still

It’s been one year today that my Ito passed away. He’s been on my mind a lot for the past several weeks. I couldn’t believe it when I realized that it had already been a year. I miss him. I found out last night from my Mom that Ito’s wife Amelia died too – three or four months ago. Our family found out by accident. Her insanely selfish daughter never bothered to tell anyone of her Mother’s husband’s family. Asshole! It’s really beyond my comprehension how someone can be that selfish. Maybe that’s a good thing. I could never be that cruel. Most of Amelia’s family certainly never made life easy for Ito or for anyone else in our family. Amelia on the other hand was a woman unafraid to speak her mind; completely opposite of my Ita. My Mom and the rest of Ito’s children never quite took to her because of this. It was different for the grandchildren. I would have liked to have been able to say goodbye to my Ito’s wife of over ten years. Life has been all over the place since my Ito died. Right now it’s good; better than I even expected. A lot of pleasant surprises have come my way. Still, I miss him. I’ve lost all of my grandparents now but I think this one hit me differently. I was a lot older and I think because of that I appreciated the fact that he was still with us and in good health. In the meantime, my Mom and Uncle continue to work on his house so they can put it on the market. I don’t think I want to see it again. From what she tells me they’ve really updated it. I’d like to remember it the way it was when my Ito and Ita lived there: the swing on the tree in the backyard, the old TV in the living room with some novela on, the bathroom that somehow always had a fresh bar of Ivory soap, and my grandparent’s bedroom where you could always count on seeing that rubber, oval ‘thing’ that Ito would keep his change in. I won’t forget.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Another Place I Won't Be Pegging On My Travel Map

As I continue to spend every free moment (is there such a thing?) organizing the event that I am involved with next week, I stumbled upon another disturbing issue that I don’t think a lot of us know about. With so much hardship going on in the Middle-East already, how would you also like having to hide (even from your own family) the fact that you are gay for fear that you will be executed? Today is July 19th, the International Day of Action Against Homophobic Persecution in Iran. There will be vigils worldwide. I don’t know why West Hollywood is not a part of this or why I had to stumble upon it to find out. A year ago today in two gay teenagers were publicly hanged after being reported by a family member. A family member! WTF! To add insult to injury, the Iranian Government twisted the story to peg them as Serial Child Killers, which was their ‘official’ reported reason for the hanging. Apparently this is not something new. Public executions of gays in Iran have gotten rarer in recent years. Why? Well you see Iran evidently does not want to draw attention to its failure to eradicate same-sex behavior in their 'Islamic paradise'. So instead they make the official report say something like they were executed for charges of kidnap or rape because these two crimes appear to attract little sympathy from anyone in Iran or throughout the world. In reality, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders are all continuing to be executed.

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Look how tough these assholes are that they can't even show their faces as they put the ropes around these two boys!

Today there will be demonstrations all over the world recognizing this issue and remembering Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni; two teenagers who were by all reports a loving couple living in a really fucked up land. If you’d like to read more about this: http://www.homanla.org/New/Vigils.htm direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/06/global_protests.html http://www.homanla.org/New/executions.htm From time to time here in LA friends make comments about how much has changed in recent years that we can openly, for the most part, live as a gay person. Each time I hear this, I have to stop myself from cringing. I really think that we take a lot for granted living here. It’s because of this that we need to keep ourselves informed of what’s going on all over the world with people just like us who only want to live a happy, true life. We have come very far but have so much farther to go.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

No Place For Gays

I love the Caribbean. I’ve always wanted to visit Jamaica. The more I learn about it unfortunately, the more I realize I have no business spending my hard earned money and precious free time there. Today I read an article announcing that a recent benefit concert was cancelled due to an outcry by the ‘black bloggers’. Upon reading more I discovered that LIFEbeat had scheduled an upcoming concert in New York. LIFEbeat is an organization devoted to raising money and awareness in the fight against HIV/AIDS through music. For some asinine reason two of the scheduled performers at the “Reggae Gold Live” concert were well-known for their anti-gay stances, which they promote in the lyrics of their music. According to LIFEbeat, they were aware of the views of Beenie Man and TOK but thought their presence would “create dialogue around AIDS and the Caribbean-American community" and an "opportunity for groundbreaking change and good to come from it." Then suddenly, after all the protests, the organization cancelled the entire concert and stated the reason being "the possibility of violence". I had heard of these artists but had not heard their music. So I pulled up some lyrics of the songs that were mentioned. Beenie Man’s “Han Up Deh” is a song that calls for hanging Lesbians and shooting Gays. TOK’s “Chi Chi Man” also preaches of murdering gays. I remember when I scheduled my vacation to Aruba a couple of years ago I looked at Jamaica and discovered that they were extremely homophobic on the island. I never like to generalize but in this case it’s pretty damn accurate to make that statement. I mean we’re talking to the extent that their gay organization, JFLAG (Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays) won’t even publish where their offices are for fear they will be confronted. The group itself was founded by a man named Brian Williamson who was murdered for being gay just back in 2004, the year I went to Aruba. In December of 2005, just seven months ago, Steve Harvey was murdered also for being gay. Steve Harvey worked for an organization called Jamaican AIDS Support for Life where he ran a support program for gay and transgender people with HIV/AIDS. While reading into this I stumbled upon a travel site called All-Jamaica.com. Under their section called Gay & Lesbian Travelers, it encourages us to visit but points out that “homosexual intercourse” is in fact illegal there. It then goes on to promote visiting and says “Just don't expect to be able to display your sexuality openly without an adverse reaction.” Most local gays are also afraid to report hate crimes due to the fact the police pretty much take offense to them as well. Anytime I am in an unfamiliar place I obviously take notice of anything that might indicate I could be in “anti-gay company”. I realize that I will probably have to do that throughout my entire life. Whether it be starting a new job, moving to a new place, or something as simple as going to a new romantic restaurant with my partner. Spending an entire vacation surrounded by homophobia is an entirely different level though. Not only would I not ever feel as if I could relax (thus defeating the point), I think I would always have a bad taste about financially supporting their tourist industry. It’s really too bad that such a beautiful part of this world, not to mention how friendly and laid back they like to consider themselves, has such hatred for our community. Guess it looks like Monica won’t be getting her groove back there anytime soon.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Rest In Peace June

June Allyson died over this past weekend at the age of 88. June Allyson was a very well-known actress in the 40s and 50s. She was best friends with Judy Garland and always included in the typical “movie star” crowd of that time. Unfortunately, for a lot of us, June Allyson will be remembered as the spokesperson for Depend adult diapers. Lately it seems more and more there are events, people and just in general ‘stuff’ in this world of which younger generations are completely unaware. The logical answer seems that I notice this because I am getting older. I’m not so sure this is the only reason. When our parents were growing up, their parents were aware of what a record and a record player was. They might have even owned them. In my lifetime I’ve seen music generated on vinyl, reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, CD and of course, digitally. Board games, baseball cards, comic books, Barbie dolls were all things that all three generations were familiar with as kids. Today it’s easy to stump our parents with talk of Gameboys, Text Messaging, MySpace and MP3s. I heard a story the other day stating that in the past one hundred years society has seen more inventions and technical advancements than in all of civilized history combined. Think about that for a moment. If you are at least in your mid 30s, you remember life without microwave ovens, video cassette players, call waiting, caller ID and certainly cell phones. As a kid, if you were lucky enough to own a TV with a remote it probably had an On and Off button, volume control, and channel changer. And it clicked… loudly. When I was 7, I remember my Mom telling me about the cool gift her company gave their employees on their 5 year anniversary of employment. It was a digital watch, the kind that you had to press the button to display the red led numbers. It even showed the date! They retailed for about $500 dollars, back in the mid-70s. My Mom worked for Intel and they were the company who mainly were responsible for putting those watches on the market. She worked in Silicon Valley in the 60s, long before it was ever called by that name. Intel was not known by most people then. As for watches, my Mom had a regular old analog watch, as did her parents, as did their parents. I think I saw a digital watch the other day at the 99 cent store, much like the one my Mom got as her anniversary gift from Intel. So getting back to June Allyson; she may be most remembered for the Depend ads by the majority of people these days, including me. In this case, it may simply be a case of age. Or not. It could also be a matter of the fact that so much is passed in front of us on a daily basis and we’re expected to keep up with this ever-changing world that we simply don’t expend the energy to commit all of it to memory. Including June Allyson.

Friday, July 07, 2006

For A Good Laugh

There are SO many reasons to hate Walmart but today I found a reason to smile while thinking about them. Fun with Walmart Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 4th anniversary of being a vegetarian. Other than one shrimp incident that first December in Orlando, I have not eaten meat since the 4th of July, 2002. That day I spent the holiday at my house barbequing in my backyard. I set a special table outside. We had bbq Boca burgers, my special homemade quacamole and fake bacon strips. All the fixin’s along with chips and probably beer. I made the conscious decision that day and never turned back. As the years go by I appreciate my choice more and more. I recently started watching this show on the National Geographic channel called ‘Hunter and Hunted’. It’s about animals that are mysteriously and mostly suddenly hunting humans. In every case I’ve seen so far, the explanation has been that humans have been overly developing the land that once was that animal’s. It makes me sad. I don’t see that changing in the long run in favor of the animals. Today I will eat my 4th of July bbq Boca burger and feel good that I am still a vegetarian.

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