scoopny

Wow you did post a lot.

Aww... feel better. I'm definitely game for moving someplace warm! heh.

Celebrating my own spring break! Yah! Although *looks out window* it doesn't look much like spring.

I think one problem is that gun control is largely done by the states. One study found that many of the guns that wind up illegally in places like California and New York were purchased legally in places like Texas and Virginia and then shipped illegally around the country. Sure gun control can work, but the way we do it, it's certain to fail. There's this myth that criminals are buying weapons that are "stolen." Instead they are buying guns that have been laundered.

Danny definitely made my gaydar go on high alert. I'm sure there's at least another.

I agree, also you know, especially in the states, sometimes you just have to try to make the world a better place where you are, someone has to change the attitudes of the homophobes, we can't all leave, it's not even feasible.

Let me explain how the boy scouts works at least for me. Well at the beginning everyone was it. But by the way you're 15, a lot of guys (especially straight guys) are distracted by girls so who wants to spend a week in a tent with a bunch of boys? Except, of course, those special type of boys ;-). Or at least ones who are a little curious, heh. Also we had the Order of the Arrow, which was basically a scout group that pretended they were Native Americans, right down to the loincloth .

We in the States are not lucky enough to get that show. I'll start a petition with BBC America! :lol;

But of course the problem with the case I think is that the Boy Scouts were allowed to remove people who were gay, even though these people never said anything as scouts about homosexuality and it left open the possibility that gay people were banned, even if they were opposed to homosexuality while straight people who support gay rights would not be excluded or even religious people who believed athietists belonged in the organization. Anyway that's my rant about the Dale case.

Yeah the argument in the Boy Scouts case was that the Boys Scouts were not a private organization but a common carrier like a hotel or a teen center, which meant it couldn't exclude people because of that person's beliefs. The Supreme court by a 5 to 4 decision found that the Boy Scouts were not a common carrier even though it took every boy who applied because it said one of its core beliefs was that homosexuality and atheism were against its beliefs and the court ruled that the state couldn't force them to accept members who had beliefs that differed from the Boy Scouts. It was basically a 1st amendment case.

Yeah even if there was an anti-discrimination law that protected gay and lesbian workers, it may not have helped this guy since religious organizations would be exempt if they are hiring someone who is teaching one of their core beliefs (so like the catholic church wouldn't be required to hire a gay rights activist as a priest, but it couldn't discriminate against the same person if he or she was applying for a job as a secretary). Although he might have a case if he can prove he was just a scuba instructor and not a guy teaching the "Boy Scout values." Whatever those are. What would work is if the every state and the Federal government refuse to give the boy scouts any benefits unless they stopped discriminating against gays. Then they would quickly change their policies, the benefits the boy scouts get from the government are quite vast.

Oh I use a cable modem when i'm at home and whatever wireless T1 connection we have at school. But it's around 2-4 Mbps per second depending on how good the connection is.

In fact, one study found that cities that are more tolerant of gays experienced more economic growth than less tolerant ones, so not only are you better off emotionally moving out of intolerant areas if you can, you'll be better off financially. The Rise of the Creative Class, Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race.

As a former Boy Scout myself, I'm always sad when I read stories like this, if I had known when I was younger how they discriminated against gays, I never would have joined it. This article is about a lifelong Scout employee who abruptly lost his job after his bosses learned he was gay. http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/08/scouting.html

Well I can't be as detailed as you. But from what research we could do in my family is that my mother's side of the family lived in tidewater Virginia in the early 19th century and descended from somewhere in Africa. We found the first members of our family listed in the 1870 census, which was the first to list the names of free blacks. Prior to that slaves were not listed by name in the census or given a full name on their birth certificates so it's very hard to trace their roots. We become basically invisible. My great-grandfather fought in WWI and my great-great grandfather was a crab fisherman on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. My grandfather moved to New York when he was 16 and lived in Brooklyn for the rest of his life while my grandmother was born in New York city and her mother was half-native American. There are still a lot of holes in my family tree and one day I'll work to figure out what I can about my family.

You know what I hate about A&F's models? They are so ridiculously white that when I walk into the store, I don't feel like staying because I'm surrounded by white guys. I know it's weird, but you know maybe they could mix it up a little? If you're gonna want me to buy your clothes, I've got to at least imagine myself wearing it.

It's pretty well known that Montreal has a lot of high end fashion stores. It's definitely not a backwater. No A&F? That's probably a sign of good taste by you Canadians, LOL. I find A&F overpriced stuff you can find at the Gap. It's not as nice as Mexx.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Short answer, depending on where you go to high school, college can definitely be better and if you have a choice, you should go to a gay friendly college. Both my undergraduate college and current graduate school are both ridiculously gay friendly.

Yeah the thing with buying the same day is that you have to be flexible about what you see and just choose among what's available.

Yeah I have a bunch of straight guy friends, it can be hilarious I freak them out on purpose sometimes when they talk about girls in graphic detail and I'll start doing the same about guys. I also help them out by approaching straight girls first for them. They're grateful.

Being a native New Yorker, let's just say I've seen just about every musical that's appeared on broadway in the last 20 years. Most recently I saw Spring Awakening (agreed on the sexual stuff, hehe. But I am so not complaining about that), The Color Purple, Sweeney Todd (it was on broadway last year), Avenue Q, Wicked, Rent. I've seen les mis, mammia mia, phantom and so forth. You can get cheap tickets for broadway, there's a half-price ticket booth inside the Marroit Mariquis hotel for same-day showing of Broadway shows. There's no need to pay $400, that's only for the most exclusive seats.

I don't think you should be held back by what others think, write the story, if people don't like it, they won't like it, but there's plenty of art about incest.

I really don't have any problem with someone choosing to stay in the closet, it only gets me mad when they start lying about it. I don't think Mika or Ricky Martin have lied just avoided the question, which really, is the same thing as saying yes but that they really don't want to talk about it. Which is fine, not everyone has to be an activist. It's when you get people like former N.J. Governor Jim McGreevey who was prancing around with his wife campaigning against civil unions, etc., that makes me mad.

Well to put it one way, if I got into a relationship again, I'd fall in love. That doesn't mean I don't love my ex, it's just that well it ended real badly and I don't want to do that again, but it doesn't mean my love for him disappears, it just changed. I did have one friend who was in a three-way relationship and that seemed to work but times changed and they drifted apart. Now he has just one BF he met at school. Then I have a friend in an open-relationship and well that just seems way more complicated, because he likes to go on dates with other boys, so does his BF. I guess that can work and I try not to judge but it seems very complicated to me.