If you use X to insult someone, you aren't just insulting that person — you are insulting X. You are saying that X is something worthy of being insulted. It doesn't matter if you think they are a horrible person. If you don't think that X is something horrible about them, then insult the reasons you do think they are horrible.

I've seen far too many homophobic, racist, misogynistic, misandristic, transphobic, sizeist, anti-disabled and anti-semitic slurs "justified" by assertions that person being insulted doesn't personally deserve respect or that they fit some bad stereotype. Use something as an insult and you are saying that it is something worth of admonishment. Your words can say a lot more about what you think than you intend them to.

People don't like to discuss who was killed in the holocaust. People don't like to discuss the fact that a higher percentage of European Roma were killed than of Jews. So thorough was the extermination of the Roma people of Bohemia that the Bohemian Romani dialect went extinct. People don't like to discuss that the gas chambers were originally designed for and operated in mental hospitals as a way of getting rid of the most undesirable undesirables: the mentally ill. People don't like to discuss that gays, "social deviants", Jehovah's Witnesses, communists, Freemasons, and the disabled were all sent to the death camps.

When you include Soviet POWs, political dissidents, various Slavic peoples, and members of "non-Aryan" races and you include the Serbs kill by the Nazi-puppet regime in Croatia – Jewish deaths, while still numbering higher than any one other group, account for a third or less of the holocaust victims. 6 million is the most cited number of holocaust deaths and it is an horrific number on its own, but it only represents the number of Jews killed. The total number of holocaust victims will never be exactly known, detailed records simply don't exist. But when taking into account all the victims, that number is in the neighborhood of 18 to 20 million.

The crimes of the Nazis against the Jews should not be forgotten, nor should they be downplayed. However, the crimes of the Nazis were not only against Jews — they were crimes against humanity.

The holocaust did not begin with the Jews or gays or the Roma peoples or even the political dissidents. The holocaust began in the psychiatric institutions. The first gas chambers installed by the Nazis were in the "hospitals". The skills that would in later years be used against other groups were developed in those institutions. It was under the auspices of psychiatry that it began.

The politics of psychiatry are dangerous, and recent history shows the appetite for forced psychiatry has not abated. Mental patients are one of the most vulnerable groups. "Normal" people fear the mad. They feel they need to be protected from us. We need to be controlled. And of course - they always know best for us.

I've heard people who would cringe at the oppression of any other group casually declare "Why would I care about a bunch of crazy people?". When people take the attitude that something needs to be done to "help" the mentally ill, they usually take the NAMI/TAC approach of forced drugging/electroconvulsive therapy/imprisonment. These approaches are not really about helping the mad, only about shutting us up. The website of the NAMI affiliated Treatment Advocacy Center , which purports to be about helping mental patients, instead relies almost entirely on fearmongering — the evil crazy people are coming to kill your cops and throw you under a train. They must be controlled.

In my more optimistic moments I hope that "sane" people figure out that what is now done to us may effect them also. The realm of psychiatry is expanding, more and more of who were once considered "sane" are being given the label "insane". The expansion of who is insane is aimed at anyone who isn't happy and productive and non-questioning of the standard paradigm. No one is "safe" from being redefined, and if you find yourself in mourning for longer than two weeks when you most dear loved one dies, you may be joining the rest of crazies who may have at one time been called human.

More than a million people have taken to the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate the Brazilian city's tenth annual Gay Pride parade. Revellers dressed in costumes danced through one of the main avenues, as music blared out of huge loudspeakers. One report quoted police as saying that 2.4 million people were at the parade, which organisers say has become the largest of its kind in the world. Gay rights activists say discrimination is still widespread across Brazil. Eighty-one Brazilians were killed last year because of their sexual orientation, campaigners say. The theme for this year's event is "homophobia is a crime" to highlight proposed anti-discrimination laws. full article

Now that's a pride parade! Wow!

While I might complain about the overcommercialization of Pride Boston, it is more of a complaint about overcommercialization in general that I dislike. It is the money culture that I live in. Almost everything that is deemed as acceptable in this society ends up corporate sponsored in one way or another. In this way the corporate sponsorship of Pride Boston speaks to the acceptance of the queer community in Massachusetts. Advertisers aren't so afraid of a backlash that they won't sponsor our events. As long as hypercapitalism rules the day, corporate acceptance is invaluable.

I had fun with recoiling at pride, even if it was a bit colder and rainier and windier than I would have liked. It's been an odd June weatherwise. Most of the candy thrown from the floats fell in the puddles, but the people passing out sunscreen and fans were hilarious. Obviously the event was planned in anticipation of a warmer day.

Every year the corporate side of pride gets more and more blatant. Near the beginning of the parade was a loud and obnoxious Delta Airlines float. Its booming stereo, by far louder than anything else in the parade, literally made me nauseous. I couldn't decided if I though the bad placement of the Stolichnaya float directly in front of the "Sober and Proud" group was amusing or disturbing.

All in all, though, I had a good time and enjoyed being there. While the weather wasn't wonderful, it was still a nice change from the normal swelter Pride is usually held in and groups like the Stonewall Warriors still counterbalance the corporateness to a degree. And of course, the Dykes on Bikes were kick ass.

I just wanted to say I love Senator Kennedy! I'm proud that he's from my state, I'm proud to have voted for him twice, and I'll be voting for him again this fall.

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life. The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda. ... According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval. Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation. The following month, 16 Rwandan religious leaders arrived in Orange County to begin religious training at Saddleback Church. Mr. Warren has said that his global initiative was developed "underground" and in "stealth". Presumably, this was done with the assistance of Mr. Carver, who directs the Purpose Driven Church in all its activities outside North America. full article

I hear time and time again the Islam is the religion of violence. Islam is the religion that endangers the world. The only reason the fundamentalist Christians have not resorted to terrorism more then they have (and, yes there have been plenty of terrorist attacks by fundamentalist Christians) is that they often have access to more "acceptable" avenues to pursue their agenda, as carpet bombing civilian populations with white phosphorus is deemed more acceptable than a suicide attack. If fundamentalist Christians lose their political prestige you can expect a series of terrorist attacks from their ranks. "Last Days Crusade" would be a likely organizational name.

I'm not saying all Christian are violent, the same as not all Muslims are violent. What I am saying is that Christianity holds no moral high ground over Islam. Both have factions that want to kill all the infidels. Fundamentalism is the problem, not any particular religion.

The [rhythm] method relies on abstinence during the most fertile period of a woman's menstrual cycle. For a woman who has regular 28 day cycles, this is around days 10 to 17 of the cycle. It is the only method of birth control condoned by the Catholic Church, because it doesn't interfere with conception, so allowing nature to take its course. It is believed that the method works because it prevents conception from occurring. But says Professor Bovens, it may owe much of its success to the fact that embryos conceived on the fringes of the fertile period are less viable than those conceived towards the middle. We don't know how much lower embryo viability is outside this fertile period, contends Professor Bovens, but we can calculate that two to three embryos will have died every time the rhythm method results in a pregnancy. ... Professor Bovens cites Randy Alcorn, a US pro-life campaigner, who has equated global oral contraceptive use to chemical abortion that is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths of embryos, or unborn children, every year. ... Regular condom users, whose choice of contraception is deemed to be 95% effective in preventing pregnancy, would "cause less embryonic deaths than the rhythm method," he says. full article

This is more to do with the anti-contraception movement than it does with the pro-life movement, as there are plenty of pro-contraception pro-lifers. But this really does make the anti-contraception camp, and especially the Catholic Church, look a bit more ridiculous (as if that really needed to be done anyway).

Of course, we all know that the best form of birth control is homosexuality.

stolen from kyrene

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian. I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman. I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights. We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time. I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room. I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me. I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again. I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear. We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men. I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me. I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman. I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman. I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male. I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men. I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that. I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual. I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me. I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind. I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love. Repost this if you want to.

maybe i'm just drunk, but i believe bush's mind can be changed
cheney seems to have gotten to him about civil unions
maybe he can be pulled away from the dark side
nah, i'm just drunk

I had decided to not smoke pot again starting today until after the lgbt pride march this Saturday. I made this decision to prove something to myself. However, what I've really proved to myself is I really like pot, a lot. It takes the edge off the day. It doesn't detract from my functionality, because I have virtually no functionality. I can barely take care of myself. So I'm going to smoke it today. Even if that is admitting that on some level I have a problem. I don't really care. But first I'm going to have a cup of coffee.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in Massachusetts. The first couples are getting their licenses in Cambridge as I type this. History is made!

I went to clintcatalyst's and Michelle Tea's reading of their new book, Pills, Thrills, Chills, and Heartache. I met up with clintcatalyst and purpleglitter beforehand and we sat around talking at purpleglitter's house. I met clintcatalyst once before, but I was waiting for my ride to the psych ward so we didn't interact much. This time we interacted quite a bit, and he is absolutely fagulous. I had big fun.

After the reading, I went out for food with clintcatalyst, Michelle Tea, and a bunch of people from the reading. I got to tell Michelle the circumstances under which I first read her books. I read Valencia in the back of a prayer group at Holy Family catholic hospital. I was on the psych ward there, and purpleglitter had brought it for me to read. Michelle really enjoyed hearing the story.

Full of pizza and fries, clintcatalyst, purpleglitter and I headed back to purpleglitter's apartment where we watched last Sunday's highly stressful episode of the Sopranos. But what episode of the Sopranos isn't highly stressful? I think that's part of the draw of the series, experiencing the stress, but have it be in no way related to you. It's actually quite cathartic and relieving.

purpleglitter took many pictures from last night, some of me, some of which I will post sometime soon. I was wearing a cute gothic schoolgirl dress that purpleglitter got me for my birthday. Stripy tights, completely gothed out. I gothed out, because I wanted to dress up for the occasion, and my red Little Orphan Annie dress doesn't fit anymore. All my dressy clothes that still fit are goth.

All in all, I must say, it's very exciting to meet people who are on your LiveJournal interest list.

interpersonal dynamics are hard to manage, even when one is sober. it is especially difficult when one is not sober. i always try to be good, but i always seem to be pissing someone off. i try my best not to.

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i haven't really been getting drunk much lately, but now i'm drinking leftovers from my birthday party. i'm quite floopy. i'd