Life Has Begun At 22

So I don't normally post personal stuff on here because who wants to hear about me right? :) But I feel the need to share something with you all. I am totally introverted, have severe social anxiety, and am just naturally afraid of new people and new places. In social aspects I feel like i'm a 22 year old that's really 6. Here is what June 2013 has looked like for me.

Exactly 3 weeks ago today, June 8, I attended my first ever Pride, put on here in Spokane, WA by an amazing group called OutSpokane, with a friend. I came home that night and messaged them on Facebook to see if there was a way something Asexual related could be included in next year's pride.

June 10, 2 days later, I had a response and a friend request from a man named Michael.

On June 13, I went to the LGBT Center for the first time to meet Michael in person. While I was there, I met the Center's two co-chairs and one of the people that runs the Center everyday, Stephen.

June 22, I was sitting at the first meeting of the first ever Asexual Group in Spokane and I was leading it thanks to the help from Michael, Stephen, and the LGBT Center. I was also invited to join the group OutSpokane when they start their meetings again in August to help with next year's pride.

That was 1 week ago. In that week I have spent several afternoons just hanging at the center with the two main guys that run it during the day, Stephen and Brad. I also went to a gay bar and bistro to celebrate DOMA day with Michael and met some of his friends (first time at a bar btw). Then there's last night...

Last night, Stephen convinced me to meet him downtown at a different gay bar. This one was less chill, more club like. In the span of a few hours last night (the first one being spent clinging to my bar stool trying to not burst into tears out of fear), I met a ton of new people, got hit on for the first time (in person that I was aware of), made new friends with that same guy after telling him I'm Asexual, was told I was both fun AND awesome by that guy, talked to strangers without anyone I knew standing right by me, saw my first drag show, AND was forced to get up in front of everyone in the bar along with a few other "drag show virgins" to do a silly dance as my induction in to the gay community! And FYI I didn't drink at all because i hate alcohol so this was all done sober totally terrified out of my mind.

My point here isn't that you should run out to a gay bar and get smashed or anything. My point is that this is what joining the LGBT Community has done for me in the last 3 WEEKS. I have never been able to make friends, true good friends, easily and now suddenly I have at least 2 that are determined to help me get over my social phobias and shyness. One who has become a leadership idol and mentor as well as friend and the other is now my best friend, a real best friend. Something I haven't ever truly had before. I know I have people that will be there for me and care about me.  I feel like I'm a part of a community that I fit into. I feel like I have a chance to do something good and make a difference somehow. I have a purpose.

My life is turning around in a positive way, and all I did was get enough courage to walk into that Center.

If you are struggling with being you or don't feel like you fit in anywhere, locate your local center. LGBT Centers are amazing and no one should ever be afraid to go into one. You never know how making that step can impact your life in a good way.


xoxo

http://www.thelgbtcenter.org/

'Tis A Proud Day Indeed

As of 10:00 AM EST this morning, the United States Supreme Court struck down both DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act) and California's Prop 8! DOMA was ruled unconstitutional and Prop 8 was dismissed due to "lack of standing". 

So what does this mean to people in the US?

With DOMA no longer in effect, same-sex couples that are legally married on a state level are now recognized on a Federal level. However, it is still up to the state to decide if same-sex marriage is legal in that state. Couples can now file joint taxes, be eligible for Social Security survivor benefits, be put on their spouses insurance if they are a government employee, AND have hospital visitation rights to each other. These are just a few of the many Federal rights DOMA took away from same-sex couples. What's truly amazing, however, is that married same-sex bi-national couples can no longer be separated due to immigration issues. This means approximately 24,700 same-sex couples in the US no longer have to worry about being separated by thousands of miles.

Now onto Proposition 8. Prop 8 being dismissed means that same-sex marriage is now reinstated in California. This makes California the 13th state to legalize same-sex marriage!

People in the nation's capitol, as well as all over the US, celebrated and rejoiced after the Supreme Court's decisions were announced. This is truly a day to be proud to be an American.

A Day History Tried To Forget - Remembering The Upstairs Lounge

June 24, 1973. To many people this is an insignificant date. Perhaps to some it is a wedding anniversary, a birth date, or even a death date, but this date has a far more significant meaning to the LGBT Community. However, not everyone in the LGBT Community knows what this date means. I'm ashamed to say I didn't know the significance of this day until just a little while ago. So what is this significance that I'm talking about? That history itself seems to have forgotten?

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the massacre at the Upstairs Lounge. The United States' largest LGBT massacre to date.

40 years ago today, just a few days short of the 4th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, it was a Sunday in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the final day of national Pride week. Back in those days pride celebrations weren't open like they are today. In the 70's things like gay slurs and discrimination against LGBT members was still part of the norm (as horrible as that is...). So celebrations were held in private locations. That is what was occurring on this particular day.

Members of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) (the nation's first gay church - founded in 1969 in LA) gathered for drinks and good company at the Upstairs Lounge, a second-floor bar on the corner of Iberville and Chartres Street. Everyone was having a nice time. The atmosphere was so peaceful and friendly that two gay brothers, Eddie and Jim Warren, were comfortable enough to bring their mother, Inez, with them to the bar.

In order to enter the bar, you had to ring the bell and wait for someone on the inside to unlock a steel door that opened onto a flight of stairs leading down to the ground floor. Just before 8:00 pm the door's bell rang. The bartender that night, Buddy Rasmussen, sent his friend Luther Boggs to answer the door thinking it was a taxi driver he was expecting. What Boggs found when he opened that door was much more sinister and deadly then any mere taxi driver.

Someone had sprayed Ronsonol lighter fluid all over the steps leading to second floor entrance and lit it on fire resulting in a powerful fireball exploding into the Lounge as Boggs opened the door. Sources say the next 15 or so minutes were full of smoke, fear, screams, and the sound of glass breaking as panicked patrons tried to escape the burning inferno. The windows of the Lounge were covered with steel bars 14 inches apart intended to keep people from falling out of them. While some managed to squeeze through those bars to escape, sadly, that night those bars caused many to perish inside. The MCC's Pastor, Rev. Bill Larson, was one the patrons that tried to escape through those bars. He got stuck half way through and perished screaming “Oh, God, no!”. When police and firefighters appeared on scene that night, they found Larson's body fused to the window bars and left it there until the next morning.

Thirty-Two people perished that night in the fire. Among them were the Warren brothers and their mother as well as Luther Boggs and the MCC's assistant pastor, George “Mitch” Mitchell. Mitchell originally did escape, but, he went back in to try to save his boyfriend, Louis Broussard. The lovers died clinging to one another in an embrace.

As for the aftermath of this horrible event, the tragedy continues. Churches refused to do funeral services or burials, and when Rev. William Richardson, of St. George’s Episcopal Church, agreed to hold a small prayer service for the victims, he was rebuked by the New Orleans' Episcopalian bishop. News programs wouldn't cover the story, radio shows made jokes, and the event was barely a blip on the nation's radar. The New Orleans' police barely conducted an investigation for the arson, going as far as to say the fire wasn't arson but started from an "undetermined origin". The one person that came forward to confess, SEVERAL TIMES, was Rogder Dale Nunez, a troublemaker with known mental problems. He wasn't even taken seriously by police. Nunez eventually committed suicide in 1974. To this day, three victims remain unclaimed.

Even 40 years later, in this day and age, we still don't talk about this horrific massacre in LGBT history. Yes, the past can be painful and full of anguish, but both those that lived through the Upstairs Lounge massacre and those that didn't deserve to have it remembered, to have themselves remembered.

History has tried to let us forget what happened on this day, but we must always remember the Upstairs Lounge.

xoxo

NOH8 On The Hill #3

If you have been paying attention to LGBT news here in the US in recent weeks, then you are already aware that Supreme Court is due to announce it's decisions on Prop 8 and DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act) sometime this week. With each passing day, the nervousness and tension seems to get a bit more tangible amongst the LGBT community and it's allies. 

In anticipation of the Supreme Court's decision, the NOH8 Campaign, which is famous for doing pretty amazing photo shoots with various community members, allies, and celebrities, has done a NO-H8 photo shoot with 67 Members of Congress, as well as two Senators, who have spoken out in favor of Marriage Equality. 

This record breaking photo session, entitled #NOH8onTheHill, included Senators Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut as the first and second US Senators to pose for the campaign. Also included in this session was Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is the ONLY Republican representative to pose for the NO-H8 Campaign.

This was the 3rd NOH8 On The Hill photo session done by the campaign. These awesome 67 members of Congress join the 31 previous ones from the other two NOH8 On The Hill sessions to make a total of 98 members of Congress from 27 different states to pose for the NOH8 Campaign.

“Our nation is based on the principle of equality. That is what this is all about" -Rep. Ros-Lehtinen

To view the rest of the photos from the #NOH8onTheHill session as well as the statements each member made visit http://www.noh8campaign.com/article/noh8onthehill3.

The DOMA Project

American laws protect bi-national couples from being separated by deportation if they married........... unless they are gay.

DOMA was put into effect in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton and his administration. The act restricts federal marriage benefits and required inter-state marriage recognition to only heterosexual marriages in the US. The law passed both houses of Congress by large majorities. Section 3 of DOMA is a real doozy. It states that same-sex marriages aren't acknowledged in regards to federal purposes. Meaning same-sex spouses aren't eligible for benefits that heterosexual spouses are, including insurance benefits for government employees, Social Security survivors' benefits, immigration, and the filing of joint tax returns.

As if the issues of tax returns, government insurance, and Social Security benefits wasn't bad enough, it is the immigration part that really causes all kinds of horrible problems in the US. Even though same-sex marriage is now legal in 12 states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Maine, Maryland, Washington, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Minnesota) as well as Washington D.C. and 3 Indian Tribes (Coquille Indian Tribe, Suquamish Tribe, and the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians) DOMA still allows these LEGALLY married bi-national couples to be separated by deportation. While if bi-national heterosexual couples get married in the US, their marriage allows the spouse from outside the US to remain in the US to live, and they are not subject to deportation. The Organization,The DOMA Project, is working to stop this injustice in the US government.

The video below has recently been getting around online and is the very heartbreaking, tear jerking real life story of husbands Jason and David. They have been together for 6 years, married for nearly 1 year, and due to DOMA have been separated 17 times.

Please watch the video and visit the DOMA Project for more information and to find out how you can help.

http://www.domaproject.org/

The Salvation Army: Sinking To A New Low

Although it is the middle of June, let's take a moment to discuss Christmas shall we? What kind of things do you think of when you think Christmas? Nativity scenes, Christmas Trees, lights, snow, holly, fun shaped cookies? What about red buckets and tingling bells? That's right.......... the Salvation Army.

If you are "in the know" about LGBT news then you're already aware of their less then stellar practice of not accepting the LGBT community, or helping them as they do the rest of the community at Christmas time. As if that wasn't bad enough, they have sunk to a new low.

A Salvation Army Media Relations Director, Major Andrew Craibe, went on record on a pubic radio show to say that the Salvation Army believes gay parents should be put to death! The Salvation Army believes they are upholding Christian beliefs by hating the LGBT community, and this new statement is referenced to Romans 1:18-32. This passage includes a admonition that homosexuals “deserved to die”. The Salvation Army training manual even has several chapters devoted to the "sin" of homosexuality.

Learning about this just makes me angry. They will willingly take money from the LGBT community, but believe people that are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Genderqueer, Asexual, Pansexual, or anything else shouldn't be helped and think LGBT parents should die. This is ludicrous!

The radio journalist, Serena Ryan, questioned Craibe about how Christian their death beliefs were, stating "But how is that Christian? Shouldn’t it be about love?". Craibe responded with "Well, the love that we would show is about that: consideration for all human beings to come to know salvation…[or die]".

Reading this makes me seriously question this man's sanity.

While this whole article might really make you upset and bring you down, it's important to remember this: the Salvation Army works because of donations and purchases from their theft stores. If we all work together to stop donations and stop shopping at their stores then the company doesn't win.

To read the article in full, please visit http://tgvnews.com/2013/06/salvation-army-says-gays-need-to-be-put-to-death/


I've started a petiton after reading this article. If you'd like to look at it and sign it please visit - https://www.change.org/petitions/the-salvation-army-stop-their-discrimination-against-the-lgbt-community

The Alternate Life

 This video was shared with me on the blog's Facebook page by the genius behind it. The creator, Jonathan Hannigan,  is a young man currently attending film school, and, based on this film, I'd say he has a very bright future a head of him. =)

Here is what he had to say about this film -

"It's about a homophobe, that gets to see what it's like to live in a world, where he is persecuted for his sexual orientation. Sometimes, walking in other people's shoes can make people change, stop hating and enable them to live a live themselves." - Jon Hannigan

Personally, I think this film is very well done and has a very powerful message. Please share it with all your friends and family in support of this young man and the message behind this film!

ENJOY!

Idea!!

So recently I've been trying to think of a way to tell people about the blog and it's Facebook page offline. Talking to new people makes me really nervous most times, but on the rare occasion I start talking to someone I don't know and find a common topic being LGBT I want to have an easy way to lead them here. So..... I thought, why not BUSINESS CARDS!?

I know this isn't a business by any means, but business cards can be used for purely informational purposes and not business ones right? Plus, if I have them when I go to next year's Pride or another LGBT event here in town, I can bring some with me and give them to people! I can also send them in the mail to different LGBT organizations or drop them off in person for the ones here in Spokane.

I posted pictures below of what the front and back of them look like. Why not drop me a comment and tell me what you think?? Please?

<3 <3 <3

The FRONT

The BACK

My First Ever Pride Festival!

So yesterday was the annual Pride Parade and Rainbow Festival here in my hometown of Spokane, WA. I've never been to Pride before, but when I heard the ad for it on the radio a few days ago I really wanted to go, despite being really afraid of big crowds. My awesome best friend, B, agreed to go with me. She's bi =) Just a random tidbit hehe!

We went after we got off work so we didn't get there till about 4 pm and missed the parade completely, but it didn't matter, it was still awesome! I've never felt so comfortable around so many people before!

There were dozens of booths for groups, information, and lots of cool stuff to buy! There was bouncy houses, a climbing wall, and other games for kids and families along with food stands and face painting. People were walking around in fun clothes with friends or in couples, some even brought their dogs! Everyone was just super nice and friendly.

I took a few pictures, got some pamphlets, just observed people (in a non-creepy way I promise!), got a free Harvey Milk button =D, and signed some petitions. (I love signing petitions for stuff I care about!) I didn't take a ton of pictures because I was still very nervous even if I was having a great time, but I posted a few below that I took and there is more on our Facebook page if you want to stop by! (https://www.facebook.com/WallysGayWorld)

I also splurged a little and got a new ring that says EQUALITY =, a cool leather bracelet with a wooden turtle on it to match the one my bestie got, a new rainbow flag water bottle, and TWO new stickers for my car!!

Overall it was an AMAZING afternoon! I felt so welcome and so comfortable.No one looked at my antics (talking super fast and being overly happy - happens when I'm excited and nervous at the same time lol) and made me feel like I was just weird. I felt completely at home at my first LGBT event. I'm so sad that Pride is only once a year!

The amazing group that put Pride together is called OutSpokane. Here are the links to their website and Facebook page =) If you stop by their page, let them know where you heard about them <3

http://outspokane.com/

https://www.facebook.com/OutSpokane

My Two New Car Stickers!