Also this:

Go tell John Key that there is “clamour.”

“No clamour for gay marriage”

Says straight guy who voted against civil unions.

John Key’s out of whack on this. Obama supports marriage equality. The conservative David Cameron supports marriage equality. New Zealanders support marriage equality.

Key is wrong on a lot of things and one of them is this.

Dan Savage on the bible

Why is the book of Leviticus always touted as true for homosexuality, but for almost no other thing? The wonderfully provocative Dan Savage discusses the hypocrisy.

Catching up

I need to do more of this “blogging” thing. You may have noticed my content dropping off the last few months. This has to do with life stuff that I can avoid a little more readily than I want to say what they are here.

Suffice to say, I intend to play furious catch-up over Easter. There’s a lot more trans* stuff happening atm than the whole Greer thing, and I really want to address racism and bigotry within our own communities.

Also, I just want to post more random, fun, cool things.

In the mean time, here’s a kitty I found on Reddit:

Chemistry

I’m bored and have nothing interesting to say, so here’s a quick chemistry lesson.

This floated across the internet a while ago, but whatever…

Johnny Galecki doing it right

A lot of celebrities have to field rumours spread in the gossip rags about them being gay or lesbian. It’s seen as some kind of dark secret that they should be ashamed of, which makes for juicy reading while you’re waiting in line at the checkout.

Johnny Galecki is one such celebrity, and he’s responded thus:

(I found this on Reddit. Apparently that was taken from The View or something)

Hit the nail on the head.

Magda Szubanski gets it right

“The law means that you could be a serial killer and have killed all of your spouses and yet you would still be considered fit to marry.

“But if you are gay, then you are not worthy of these same rights.”

Szubanski came out publicly on Valentine’s Day and said the above, and she absolutely nailed it.

“We pay taxes, fight wars for this country, nurse you when you are sick, make you laugh, sing and dance for you, play netball for you, star in your movies, cook your meals, decorate your store windows.

“And, chances are, gay people designed whatever it is you’re wearing.

“All Australians, including gay Australians, should have exactly the same rights, including the right to love, marry and take care of our partners.”

Love cannot be censored

Valentines Day is over for us, but it’s still finishing it’s chocolate and Hallmarked rampage over the US.

Here’s a video someone in Seattle posted to his valentine. It’s both adorable and poignant:

It’s important to remember that in many places, we still don’t have rights. Fighting for those rights, doesn’t just mean getting us marriage and adoption in New Zealand. It means fighting for the equal rights of all human beings, wherever they happen to live.

Addendum

In my last post, I wrote this:

I had originally written a spiel about “traditional marriage” being a relatively new concept, marriage as an institution failing and that they’ve found a scapegoat in the LGBT community, but that’s irrelevant. We already know that. And they won’t listen anyway.

I felt that what I had originally written was pointless in context, and so I deleted it, replacing it with the above text—there was no reason to make those points, because ultimately that wasn’t what it was about. Marriage and children is what they say it’s about, but it’s really about selfishly clinging onto entitlement.

However, I still think my original wording is important to say aloud, and it stands perfectly well out of context.

Anything that doesn’t fit into their narrow definition of the patriarchal, strictly cisgendered, father, housewife, >2.5 kids family, is an attack. That simply existing, or saying that it’s fine for gay people to exist, is enough for these people to react as if we were actually breaking into their houses and forcing them all to have gay sex in front of their children.

That they feel so threatened by the existence of same-sex marriage or even just gay people, to the point that they feel they must boycott companies that support equality, shows that they have no real concept on what society actually is. (Also note how they keep saying homosexual instead of gay or same-sex—as if using the medical term will make us less human).

It’s not their version of “the family” that brings forth children. Families take many forms, always have. To bring forth children, all you need is a sperm, an egg, a womb and a lot of love (and pain, money, etc.). The “traditional family” is a relatively new concept, and the legal definition of marriage was created on behalf of wealthy landowners to control their dynasties. The only reason it’s seen as a religious institution was because the Church of England was assigned to police it—they were part of the state, and therefore eligible for such duties.

Marriage has been redefined over and over again, and now we want to add same-sex marriage to the mix. Marriage, as it stands, is failing. More and more couples are co-habiting, and having children out of wedlock (those are not problems, but the “traditional families” crowd certainly think they are), and a half of all marriages end in divorce. 50%. And now, same-sex couples want the right to get married, and the bigots have found their scapegoat.

We need to break the spell of entitlement. Thankfully we are living in a world where people are becoming increasingly accepting and understanding of queer rights. Before long, the bigots will find themselves the embarrassing relics of history—at least until the next human rights battle comes along.

When someone tells you not to say “that’s so gay”…

Don’t say “that’s so gay.”

Simple.

Here’s comedian Todd Glass on the matter.

“But once someone makes you privy to what it does, if you still want to use it, that’s the problem”