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.

Found via recoiling:



Just when you thought Fox News couldn't get any worse, they turn themselves into the televised version of the Weekly World News.

By the way, the "lesbian gang" sent to prison in New York was actually 4 women who dared fight back against a man who attacked them.

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.

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.

Labels are important things. They are words that tell us something about the person, place, thing, or idea they are applied to. They are a needed part of language. They make it possible to say things in a few words (such as saying "Fred is a Communist") that would otherwise require a lengthy explanation (explaining the details of Fred's political beliefs).

The anti-labelist movement has eroded the usefulness of many words, and it is moving on to taint even more. For example, when I've been in the hospital, I've told the staff I'm a vegetarian. It is very common for them to then bring me fish or chicken, because the last vegetarian ate chicken and fish. I have to explain to them that the person who ate the chicken was not a vegetarian. They were a meat eater. They were an omnivore. They still have control over their labels, if they wanted to be a vegetarian they could simply stop eating meat. Their choice is made by their actions.

Likewise, lesbians spent a long time getting it through the minds of straight men that "lesbian" meant "I'm not going to sleep with you". However, now that a great many bisexuals claim to be "lesbians", insist on being called "lesbians", the term has become meaningless. Again, no one is forcing a label on them by calling them bisexuals. They choose their labels through their actions, and if they are constantly sexually pursuing men, they are not lesbians. Again, the choice of the label lies in the actions.

Of course anything having to do with anti-labelism is going to come back to gender. Gender can be defined medically (a doctor may need to know the status of a person's body regardless of that persons self-identity) or it can be defined socially (as pertains to a person living in or working towards living in a specific gender role.) The former definition is based on physiology and the latter is based on action. Both labels have their uses, the medical label when dealing with medical professionals, the social label (defined by action) when dealing with everyone else.

The anti-labelists are arbitrary in what is acceptable to label someone. I can label Bush an idiot, even though I doubt he self-identifies as an idiot. I can call Trent Lott a racist even though he denies being one. Interestingly enough, some of the most hard-core anti-labelists will regularly violate their own position with statements such as "you cannot be pro-life and call yourself a feminist". The anti-labelist position only serves to muddy the waters for everyone, including anti-labelists themselves.

In short: People choose their labels through action not proclamation.

stolen from jucifer:

Boston's beloved pair of swans -- feted by city leaders, residents, and tourists alike as one of the Hub's most celebrated summer attractions -- are a same-sex couple. Yes, scientific tests have shown that the pair, named Romeo and Juliet, are really Juliet and Juliet. full article

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!

purpleglitter and Mitzi joined merryperseis, pillowkisser, and me for a movie night last night. We watched Eddie Izzard - Glorious and The Incredible True Story of Two Girls in Love.

Eddie Izzard was, as advertised, glorious. He's by far the best stand-up comic I've ever seen. I'm going to keep my eyes out for any appearances he might have in the Boston area. I would definitely be willing to pinch my pennies for a month to see him live.

The Incredible True Story of Two Girls in Love was very much a disappointment. What promised to be a light hearted lesbian romance turned out to be a torturous drone of bad acting, bad writing, and bad filming. The movie had to be shut off halfway through to prevent our brains from turning into a gelatinous ooze.

I went to the Lesbian Avengers tonight. Tonight was the first fire eating night for this year. Max thought those of us who stayed around to learn to eat fire. Each time, before we eat fire, we say "The fire will not consume us. We take the fire and make it our own". The whole exercise is about a person who was burnt alive for being queer. The saying symbolizes that we will take hate, transform it, and build something positive from it

The kerosine flame looked really intimidating. In fact, the first time I tried, I put it inside my mouth, held it there, but couldn't close my teeth over it. But on the second try, I was able to eat it. It felt so empowered after eating the fire. I was beaming. I could see in the other first-time fire eaters' faces the same empowered self-amazement after eating fire. It was wonderful. And the third try felt just as amazing. Facing the fear of putting a large flame into my mouth, then closing my mouth over the flame, is such a mental boost. I'm still shocked that I did it. It's been a couple hours, and I'm still am amazed every time I say in my head, "I ate fire". I can't wait to practice again next week!

I'm feeling much better this evening. My throat is scratchy and my voice is hoarse from all the coughing I did. Other than that, I think the nasty cold is over.

Went to Lesbian Avengers tonight. I really really want to learn how to eat fire!

At the post-Avengers pizza, I was excited to learn that one of the people present was someone on my lj friends list that I had yet to meet IRL, purplepants. I also met another LJer, pillowkisser. I love all these lj-rl connections.