( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Halloween tomorrow.
Ick.
As a child I loved Halloween. We’d go to Mrs. Silver’s house across the street and she would invite us inside and make us fresh caramel apples or popcorn balls. Lord knows, one can’t do that anymore.
And we would go door to door around the neighborhood and get a real haul of treats. And somewhere, later, older kids would toilet paper someone’s house or yard, which we would discover on the way to school in the morning. I never liked the “trick” part.
Razor blades and pins and poison and just plain bad people put a stop to most of the good stuff I remember.
As I got older, the tricks became worse and the treats were few and far between.
Every once in awhile, there are too many bits and pieces running through my head to come up with a coherent topic. Doesn’t stop me from putting something together: Thought Salad, Mixed Veggies, Stone Soup, and Mulligan Stew. It just means I don’t know how it is going to turn out.
After I transitioned, I discovered it was far better for me to not be home on a night when anonymous strangers were encouraged to visit my home. It was also better if my car were not there, so that its tires had a chance of surviving through the night. Yeah, the cat scat and dog shit would still be in my mailbox whether I was home or not, but if someone decided to burn down my house, I at least would not be in it. And I wouldn’t have to face the task of opening the door expecting children wanting treats and instead discovering someone who thought I should be beaten to within an inch of my life…or beyond.
Not a pony |
At least on that score, we got a treat this year: the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Prevention Act is now law. For the first time ever, there is a federal law which specifically addresses transfolk in a positive way…that even acknowledges that we are people in the eyes of our government. Anyone who doesn’t know how good that feels isn’t paying attention…or is really, really short on soul.
On the trick side, as we have seen on the Rec List at Daily Kos the past couple of days, people can still be fired simply for being GLBT in way too many places…and way too many people think we have employment protection already, which makes it even harder to gain support for ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act currently dawdling its way through congress.
No kill I, but people have their limits, I guess, like employing one of us.
We’ve heard in recent months that we folks who would demand protections like this just want a pony. Damn straight. I want the same pony that everyone else has, if by “pony” people mean equal rights. I don’t want to be told there are more important things, that we just have to wait.
Really? Just wait? Was that the lesson we learned in the battles for the equality of other oppressed groups? Just wait?
Personally, I learned that systemically treating people as unequal and subhuman was wrong. You know what? Once learned, that lesson has never had to be repeated with me.
More tricking came from the man in the funny clothes from Guam.
Bill 185 there would recognize domestic partnerships and give Guam’s same-sex couples (some of…they are still American citizens) the same rights and responsibilities as married people:
Bill 212 allows for two people over the age of 18 to enter into a designated beneficiary agreement, Pesch said. Such an agreement would provide same-sex couples with benefits they don’t currently have, including the ability to be a beneficiary on a partner’s GovGuam retirement plan, visit a partner in the hospital, make medical decisions for a partner who is incapacitated, sue for wrongful death and determine the disposition of the body on death.
Bill 158 is standard DOMA.
Guess which version Archbishop Anthony Apuron favors.
every humanly-created law is legitimate only insofar as it is consistent with the natural moral law, recognized by right reason, and insofar as it respects the inalienable rights of every person
Tony supports the inalienable right to hate people for being gay over the inalienable right to love someone forever.
Moving back to the treat side, William and Mary junior Jessee Vasold was named her class’s homecoming queen this past week. Jessee identifies as genderqueer. That warmed my heart a little…until I read the reader responses to the school newspaper, Flat Hat News, article on the event. It would probably be better if I didn’t do things like that, but sometimes we need to know how things stand.
Submitted by Leon Wilkeson on Fri, 10/30/2009 – 11:13.
WTF? What you morons don’t realize is that the joke is on the bleeding hearts. This is the equivalent of electing the fat girl to humiliate her. HAVE YOU SEEN THE PICTURES!?!?!?!?!?!?!? IT is not a classic (or otherwise) beauty. Go hold hands and sing Peter, Paul and Mary.
There. Don’t we all feel better now? The transwoman is an IT. Leon Wilkerson is the arbiter of such things.
Personally, I think Jessee is cute. That might have something to do with looking like she could be a member of the Serven clan. I could only wish to look that good…and be that young.
I mean, the lip ring grosses me out a bit, but as someone who had sex reassignment surgery, who am I to talk?
Here’s a treat. Almost lost in most of the hubbub of the past couple of weeks was the second anniversary of the civil uniting of Debora Adler and Robyn Serven. We didn’t expect anyone would remember it, but jotter did: A Wedding came in at #9 on October 28, 2007.
A wedding, but we still don’t have a legal marriage. We paid for a domestic partnership. We’re still paying off some of the debt incurred from the wedding ceremony and reception for the civil union. And I’m sure that when we do get married, provided we live that long, that we’ll have to pay triply for that.
And if you are on the fence about marriage equality, just consider this. I legally married a woman in 1969 and was married for 24 years. I had an operation, sure, but I’m the same person. So why should I not be legally able to marry a woman now? Can’t you see how silly it all is?
Of course, it is not silly in Maine and Washington (please, Washington is Washington, not Washington state…Washington, DC is Washington, DC). Time will tell if we get treats in those places, or if the masses, in their collective ignorance, stomp on our hopes and dreams.
 Demons
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I’m told by someone who used to live in this apartment complex that it seems like busloads of inner-city kids are brought here from Newark and East Orange for trick or treating.
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Pushed down off the top already?
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…in Orange.
As a young kid, many decades ago,
the event and the limitless treats were cool.
But as the tricks got worse and worse
it got down right scary.
I remember going out one year,
and having to stomp out yard and trash fires
that older kids had set, in several places.
And now I still don’t understand,
from where, such random acts of “violence”,
arise?
And why they persist,
and then repeat, long after the senseless act,
is extinguished?
Maybe there is a deep-seated need,
for why there we have a holiday,
centered around the expression of
fear, rage, fright, and sugar rushes,
woooo … scary!
but yes, I remember it well
putting bad things in candy, my mom started putting her address labels on every piece of candy she handed out. At that time she used to get 400 kids or over on Halloween.
hope you and your love find warmth and joy……
may peace surround you…….