Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

Today's news related to last night's demonstration here in Salt Lake City, Utah (in support of vulnerable LGBT youth affected by the anti-gay discrimination perpetuated by LDS leaders like Elder Boyd K. Packer's right on the heels of numerous LGBT teenage suicides): Utah Gay Activists Protest Mormon Church Remarks Connect 2 Utah Thousands protest outside Mormon church over LDS leader’s anti-gay remarks LGBTQ Nation Thousands ring Temple Square to protest LDS apostle’s words about gays Salt Lake Tribune And also, from the Huffington Post today: 4 Bullied Teen Deaths At Ohio School MENTOR, Ohio — Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window. The 16-year-old's last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor ...

LGBT rights activists lay on the sidewalk in front of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' church office building Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010, in Salt Lake City. The demonstration was a response to remarks from Elder Boyd K. Packer that homosexuality is an immoral condition that can and should be overcome. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart) From Q Salt Lake : Organizers estimate a crowd of 4,500 people completely surrounded the two blocks of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints administration building and Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City in protest of Boyd K. Packer’s remarks during the church’s semi-annual General conference last weekend. I just got home from participating this protest with my parents and some friends. We were extremely impressed by the turnout (the organizers literally walked around and counted, one by one, how many people were there) and how well it conveyed the underlying core message: that hate speech results in really, seriously hurting L...

Downtown Salt Lake City was swarmed by General Conference this past weekend, where a leader for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints named Boyd K. Packer brought up "any relationship outside of heterosexuality", stating: “There are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's laws and nature. To legalize that which is basically wrong or evil will not prevent the pain and penalties that will follow as surely as night follows day." "A law against nature would be impossible to enforce... Do you think a vote to repeal the law of gravity would do any good?" And this on the heels of the suicides of at least four teenagers over the past month , all victims of anti-gay bullying or harassment? Wow, Packer. The Human Rights Campaign released a statement in response, "When a faith leader tells gay people that they are a mistake becau...

My pride well got tapped out this weekend, which resulted in approximately 2 hours of sleep fueling the entire endeavor and sleeping in until 1pm recovering from it yesterday. I also lost my voice a bit from all of the puberty-ridden squealing-while-attempting-to-scream that went on. It never, not once, sounded anything like hooting. More like a cracky, screeching ... I don't know what. Essentially, when it comes to Pride Weekend , I do everything I can to drag it out as long as possible. It's like this magical little micro-world where everyone celebrates the freedom to just, well - be . Hetero, homo, bi, pan, genderqueer, male, female, cis, trans, whatever - everyone is just there expressing themselves however they want in an environment that's safe, accepting, and celebratory of diversity. Something I wish I saw in my macro-world more often. My Pride started Thursday night with Salt Lake's first ever Miss City Weekly Drag Pageant : All of the performers ...

I worked for the company that I was laid off from for approximately 3 years doing front-end web development. I was hired on to a little team of tolerant, diverse people by a wacky feller with funny glasses who cared that a.) we were all tolerant and got along and b.) could do our jobs. Done and done. All was well in the land of employment. Then the wacky boss with funny glasses left. His position was filled by someone else who happens to be much more conservative and also LDS. I learned about his more conservative perspectives after a co-worker introduced me to his blog, which consisted of many posts complaining about the country taking a nose dive into socialism now that Obama's President, about the LGBQT community persecuting the victim Mormons over Proposition 8, etc.). Incrementally the team members I initially worked with dropped off and new team members popped up. One in particular instantly became my boss's favorite. ♥Derek♥. LDS. 6 kids. Brigham Young Univer...

My Internet access has been severely lacking. As in,  no -Internet-access. Zilch. My world has consisted of moving.moving.moving, being sick with something prolonged from moving.moving.moving and occasionally reading old world newspapers I find on the porch. Which, for someone accustomed to getting 98.6% of his news from the Interwebs, feels like dragging around and deciphering a stone tablet. It's not right. Heavy, too. Anyhoo, moving is essentially complete! Got my brother all packed and his pile o' crap hoistered over to storage. Got myself packed. My roomie got all packed. Then we ventured forth, three blocks west, into our new much-more-spacious place. The cats approve. Especially when it comes to the stairwell, the creepy basement, and all of the sunshiny windows. Rat approves, too. My last injection was on Thursday, which was the big moving day. I got it over with first thing in the morning. Left thigh. Went smooth as butta. No bleeding. I've learned qu...

News came out in The Advocate today that Utah is the USA's Online Porn Capital ! What a surprise!! Utah not only led the charge with donations to pass California's gay marriage ban -- the state also leads the pack with the highest level of online pornography usage. In fact, traditionally "red" states fill out the top three spots. Alaska is close behind, followed by Mississippi. Read more  > Over lunch today I had a conversation with a couple of my friends about our history and current state of, well, dating. See, a lot has been happening for me in terms of the libidinous effects of testosterone that essentially have me acting like a fumbly, idiotic, awkward mess around individuals who I'm attracted to, which I blog whined in great graphic depth about a bit ago . One of my friends actually referred to me as a " walking boner ". It's sad how true that statement might be. The closest I've ever felt to this was, not surprisingly, high scho...

Update! Some news and whatnot has come out this morning in regards to last night's debate: KSL.com: University hosts heated debate over gay rights The University of Utah hosted a spirited debate Thursday night between Equality Utah and the Sutherland Institute. The two groups have very differing opinions on the issue at hand: gay rights and the Common Ground Initiative. Deseret News: Groups debate Common Ground he debate between the Sutherland Institute and Equality Utah, two of the biggest players in the battle over gay rights in Utah, was scheduled and the topic selected weeks before the event took place Thursday night. The question: Should the Utah Legislature pass the Common Ground Initiative? Salt Lake Tribune: Gay-rights advocates, foes face off Gay-rights bills have been snuffed out for the 2009 legislative session, but the discussion burns on. dav.d photography: Equality Utah vs. Sutherland Institute Debate Her!  In red! What in the heck was her name? Sheri som...

I pulled the pull cord on my engine earlier tonight and the motor revved up again. Little engine that couldn't? Psssht! Who's that? Not me. So the debate tonight was something else that has compelled me stay up past my bed time, blood shot eyes and greasy needs-to-shower skin to rant and rave in my longest and most grueling blog post yet. The core of it oriented around Equality Utah presenting arguments in support of why the Utah State Legislature should pass legislation associated with the Common Ground Initiative , while the Sutherland Institute debated why these bills should not be passed. The debate began with opening comments by each side, followed by a question-and-answer exchange between both teams. The debate concluded with a terrifying Q&A from audience members (Seriously. There was an audience member who actually shouted out that gays should want to go to prison because they would get more action and another audience member compared same-sex marriage to a man...

A bit of forewarning! These next couple of posts are going to be a bit broody. See, lately I've been feeling like the little engine that couldn't . putt putt putt... Despite being surrounded by people who love and support me, some times it gets to me - the feeling that a lot of influential people in the state I've always called my home have a lot of fear and hate towards those of us who don't quite fit in the binary or heterosexual folds of life, which some of us experience in hyperdrive from a little red state bubble called Utah. Yesterday the last two bills of the Common Ground Initiative were defeated and grody, hate-filled dust has been kicked up all over the place. For example, Utah representative Chris Buttars was recently quoted as saying " Homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. And you say that around here now, and everybody goes nuts. But I don't care. " Then, referring to LGBQT activists, " They're mean. They want to ...

There sure seems to be a grandiose amount of reproductive humping like crazed horny wabbits around April, June, and July. And all year 'round, actually. Still, just this past week two of my friends have had birthdays. Today is another friend's birthday and tomorrow is another friend's AND my brother's birthday. And on Sunday there's, you guessed it, ANOTHER BIRTHDAY. Wha! On a slightly horrifying note, my dad e-mailed me something last week that was a bit... startling . See, my grandma is obsessed with genealogy and has compiled an extensive list of our dead and living relatives over the years. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that The Mormon Church has a big ol' collection of genealogy records to boot and that my ancestors were some of the original pioneers to come settle in Utah, land of Zion. So, my grandma bumbles along, doing her genealogical thang, and sends her list along to my pops, who then does his nerd thang which results in finding an open source...

This makes my stomach turn. Just last week the Sutherland Institute, the conservative think tank behind the ' Sacred Ground Initiative ' (in opposition to basic protections for LGBQT citizens in Utah) had a meeting. My friend Jude had pre-registered for the meeting out of genuine curiosity in regards to their arguments. When he arrived, he noticed that a "NO" had been scribbled next to his name. He was told that he wasn't on the list. When he pointed out that he was, in fact, on the list, they told him to follow two men, who then escorted him away from the property. Anyway, the Sutherland Institute just released 3 highly edited clips of their "Sacred Ground" meeting with god fearin' background propaganda music. I posted one below, which I felt a bit of hesitance about. But, despite how agonizing it is, it's good to know what's stirring on the other side of the argument and what our legislators and some other Utah folk are hearing. Have ...

Be forewarned; this is going to be a bit of a whiny post. I know, I know, they all are. But this one is even whinier! I haven't been able to sleep well these past couple of weeks, which turns me into a pretty whiny human being. This has not escalated or decreased since starting T that I've noticed - the constant remains: sleep-deprivation ='s whiny. However, I've been trying to be careful about noticing any mood variations and I've been incredibly lethargic these past couple weeks. Last week I was sick with a flu of some sort. This week I have a bit of a residual cough, but there's also this very dire lava lamp situation. A few months back I inherited a ridiculous lava lamp from some nerdly friends of mine who moved. One day I decided to set it up in my room and turn it on. If that wasn't embarassing enough, it all went downhill from there. I went on to then develop a routine before going to bed where I'd light some smell good tea candles, start u...

The political trananigans I've discovered in Utah are vast and abundant. Just the other night, for example, I attended a trans-specific lobbyist training that was presented by Equality Utah and we had another transtacular activist meeting. Go red state go! I decided to go to this training since, well, the prospect of lobbying has always been an intimidating one to me. Not just because it sounds very foreign and daunting, but, on another level, I’ve worried that my presence would do more damage to a cause I care about than aid it just due to being gender variant and having a more non-LDS-looking appearance. Even if I spruced up, I’d worried that an LDS (Latter-day Saints/Mormon) representative, for example, wouldn’t be able to relate to me in any way, shape, or form and could even be afraid of me. I feared that it would be an entirely ineffective – even potentially damaging – experience. I’ve been feeling differently about this lately, though. On one level, being out has boos...

Earlier today I attended a very rainy rally in support of the Common Ground Initiative (which are a series of 6 bills - more info here !) that stem from statements the LDS Church made during and after California’s Proposition 8 campaign like " we’re not anti-gay " and " the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples. " Oh, and also, Elder L. Whitney Clayton even explicitly stated the LDS Church does not oppose " civil unions or domestic partnerships. " Meaning, marriage is not the issue in this case, basic civil rights are; like housing & workplace protection (in Utah it's legal to fire someone if they're even perceived as being LGBT), death benefits, expanded health care for partners, etc., which everyone - including members of the LDS Church - can entirely agree with. In fact, something really inspirational is that three statewide polls have been released in the past week, including one by the SL Tribune and Equality Utah showi...