No Fooling, Final Ruling

No Fooling, Final Ruling
27 June 2015

Any lesbian or queer fairy
Has a legal right to marry.
This bitter debate hasn’t cooled,
But the Supreme Court has ruled.
We get to count as people, too;
And merit just the same as you.
To me it seems that no one boasts,
Only rejoices in their online posts.
The affirmed sense of pride
And worthiness I have inside
Heightens the way that I feel
To make my love seem more real.

Outside And Inside

Outside And Inside
21 October 2012

The air lost its charm
And acquired a chill,
But my heart is warm
And full of goodwill.
As I smoothed the sheet,
It still retained
Some of your body heat.
The memory contained
In my heart of the embracing,
Holding you within my sweep
And full-bodied interlacing
Before falling asleep.
Yes, the weather outside
Is cloudy, raw and gray,
But my heart's song inside
Is bonny, blithe and gay.

New Doctor

The doctor I had been seeing in Point Loma told me that he was being transfered. I don't care for the nurse in that office. For me she comes across as loud and pushy. In July I had boil on the bottom of my foot and went to Urgent Care on Vandever. The doctor I saw there was gay but didn't have much personality. Today I went thinking that if the new doctor had the usual bedside manner, I would just as soon see the gay doctor with the closer office. The nurse took my vital signs then ushered me into the exam room. When she spoke about the new doctor, she smiled, really big. Finally the new doctor came in and immediately I could tell she had something they don't teach in medical school, a personality. So instead of using Donald Trump's line, "You're fired," I got to say, "You're a keeper."

John Locke Stumbling Block

John Locke Stumbling Block

2 August 2010

From John Locke’s “Two Treatises on Government” Introduction “...(I) cannot but confess myself mightly surprised that in a book which was to provide chains for all mankind, I should find nothing but a rope of sand, useful perhaps to such whose skill and business it is to raise a dust and would bind the people, the better to mislead them, but in truth not of any force to draw those into bondage who have their eyes open and so much sense about them as to consider that chains are but an ill wearing, however much care has been taken to file and polish them.”

Once in a while, upon ocassion

I ponder my religious persuasion.

Growing up innocent and unwary

I was told it was in my best interest

To serve as a Mormon missionary,

But unfortunately it left me depressed.

Following my excommunication

I wanted to make a religious determination.

Atheism in it’s superficiality

Had no ethics or morality.

By the way

Let me say

I am gay.

It seemed for me

The best church was MCC.

Their Jesus was easy to follow

Even if the theology was hard to swallow.

I had my precious Jesus, nevertheless

While on a camping trip I met the Goddess.

My quest was far reaching

To find any pagan teaching.

From commandments I was freed

By obeying the Wiccan Rede:

As long as the harm is nil,

Go and do as you will.

I noticed a dichotomy after a while

It had me puzzled and irked

In the neo-pagan lifestyle,

If magic really worked,

The disparity, which is

There are no rich witches.

One day while watching TV

I found my morality.

The program on evolution

Provided my ethical solution.

All life on earth

Is deserving of worth.

Everything living here

Has equal right to be there.

While growing up, when being overawed

All good things came from God.

While bad things and horrible circumstances

Were blamed on bad luck and happenstances.

Interesting how life seems to woo

And confirm any point of view.

Unfortunately, while it’s different than what’s wished,

While recognizing that no good deed goes unpunished

What goes around does come around

So let random acts of kindness abound.

Be a creator, not just a consumer.

And don’t forget sex and witty humor.

Connecting The Dots

Connecting the Dots

I think I have been underestimating the power of sex. Let’s consider the holy trinity of love, sex and marriage. Because I’m gay until recently I only focused on putting love & marriage together. Anybody familiar with the way gay men act, knows that in the gay community frequently sex has nothing to do with emotions or commitment. Sex between men is a simple act of pleasure for pleasure’s sake. That’s where conservatives get their panties in a knot. Sex between a man and a woman takes negotiation, give a little to get a little. There’s the rub. Gays get lots of free and easy sex while for straight men it comes at a price.

The other day at work in the lunchroom I saw an older coworker holding hands with her husband. From past observations I know the woman is very religious. Then it hit me. She gets to have church and sex together. As an excommunicated gay man I had never connected religion and erotic that way before. The thought of sex with a woman doesn’t do anything for me, but the message I get from larger society is that sex with a woman feels very good. Now if you combined the emotional high of religious ecstasy with sexual ecstasy, you just couldn’t get any higher than that. Marriage frequently is a religious rite. Which puts sex under the church umbrella. Then after marriage, all societal messages and blessings are saying go for the gusto. In my life never having connected church and sex, I think I’ve been cheated.

Now let’s expand the religion-sex connection a bit. The way I understand it, suicide bombers make the sacrifice on the promise of sex in the afterlife. After all, what’s the point of having 72 virgins if you don’t get to deflower them? In Mormon theology, people are eventually resurrected with fully functioning bodies. And the faithful ones benefiting from Heavenly Father’s presence go on to become like Him, as gods themselves peopling other worlds with their own spirit children. Now just how do you suppose those spirit children come about? Could it be sex? In other words, obedient Mormons get to have sex forever; and not all with the same wife.

Maybe the way I connected love and marriage without sex can be twisted to an analogy of why straight men oppose gay marriage. Straight men, the power brokers in today’s world, having connected marriage and sex, are repulsed by the thought of marriage being represented by two men having sex. And don’t mention polyamory. They aren’t even going there. Maybe polygamy, but not polyamory.

Yes, I think I’ve been underestimating the power of sex. Life experience leads me to conclude that decisions are made emotionally then rationalized logically. Because some people can’t conceive of themselves in a same-gender marriage or polyamorous arrangement, they seek to deny those relationships to all others.

Bear Dare

Al O spoke and Al S wrote:

Bear Dare

25 July 2010

I don’t care if my belly shows,

I’m dancing with very little clothes.

The go-go boy is chancing

Cruising for a bruising.

It’s the box on which I’m dancing,

He can have it when I’m thru using.

Undeterred Watchwords

Undeterred Watchwords

We the People, probably the most powerful three words ever written. We the People, not by the authority of deity, not by royal grant or decree, but We the People empower ourselves to ordain and establish this Constitution. We the People are doing this to form a more perfect Union of People into a form of government. We want Justice under the law. Everyone is equal under the law. We want no special exemptions, exceptions, titles or privileges for anyone. We hope to insure domestic tranquility, peace at home to promote the general Welfare. Mostly we desire to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and out Posterity. We, us here and now are that Posterity.

When you look at the US government today, sometimes you have to wonder if the government has maintained that original vision. The rest of the original Constitution mostly sets up a government by defining roles and powers. The constitution became the overarching gold standard against which all other laws were and are compared.

Then it’s almost like they said oops. We got so busy and involved dividing up the powers that we forgot we started out to create personal liberty. We better ensure it stays there. It was implied, but we better put liberty in writing, so the Bill of Rights was created. Almost everybody’s favorite amendment is the first one. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” These rights are commonly referred to as freedom of expression. Mormons love this amendment because it lets them practice polygamy and close their temples to unworthy outsiders. Gays and lesbians simply adore this amendment because it lets them have pride parades and celebrate diversity. Pagan witches worship this amendment because they can celebrate their rites free from persecution. It’s a hit the BDSM, fetish and body modification communities because they get to do their thing. Notice that each of the groups mentioned is a minority in one way or another.

When I thought hard about the purpose of government. I asked my self if any government at all is really necessary. After all most people are law abiding peaceful citizens not in need of an outside authority or enforcer. I finally came to the conclusion that government is a necessary evil, necessary to protect ordinary people from people and organizations that are big, bad and mean. The government’s purpose is to serve as a source of justice for injuries suffered, to protect the little guy from the big guy. The Constitution was set up so any minority is protected from a tyranny of the majority. People supporting unpopular ideas are protected from having to conform to the mores and values of the majority. Usually when a law is found unconstitutional it’s the result of a majority trying to impose their values on a minority. Which is why California’s Proposition 8 and anti-polygamy laws are unconstitutional. They impose the will and values of the majority on an unpopular minority.

Drool Pool

Drool Pool

1 May 2010

I drove to the bar

In my little car

Where I ran into my friend.

There was no need to pretend

The holes in his pants

Gave the whole bar a chance

To see he was there

Without underwear.

The game was pool

And my friend is no fool,

He got the other guy distracted

By the way he acted.

While aiming for a shot,

Believe it or not,

My friend posed in the right way

To put on a gratuitous display

Of his private family jewel.

You could call it dirty pool.