Leelanau Whippersnapper

Once again, the Kalamazoo city commission has unanimously passed an anti-discrimination ordinance outlawing discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people when it comes to hiring, housing, and other public accommodations and once again the wing-nuts in West Michigan are blowing their tops and screaming bloody murder.  Really, I can’t make this shit up, look at some of the comments posted on WOODTV.com’s message board pertaining to this:

UUUMMM!!! I am sure God defined a relationship to One MAN and One Woman. If anything else was acceptable…. You wouldn’t be putting it to a vote. It’s in the Bible… that a man shall not lie with another man or animal.Only a woman is acceptable. I will not put the exact location of this.I Hope you will find the time and Grace to read the bible and find that any other relationship, other than a man and a woman is not acceptable.  Our God is forgiving and your sin will be noted but forgiven, should you choose to make your wrong right. There is no such thing as “Gay Rights”. It is only Apathy to a sickening delusion.

Praise God…Praise God? I don’t think so, and neither did Sodom and Gomorrah. Why do you think it’s called Sodomy. Fire and Brimstone ring a bell? Maybe the people of America and the governments will accept it, but your “victory” is only for a short while….Have fun while you can and more power to you, but don’t be praising my God for it, you’re welcome to give the glory to Satan!

If you are a white male or female that goes to work and does your job or you own a small business and work your but off all year and you happen to acknowledge your Creator and acknowledge the Word He gave us to understand our reason for being here on earth you have very few rights. If you decide to ignor that God created humans and animals male and female for a given purpose to praise Him and live a ife of thankfulness you have all the perverted laws of this sinful counrty on your side.  Pray for this country and it’s people that we don’t destroy ourselves with our wackiness. Genesis 1: Male and female He created them to populate the earth

It is amazing to me the ignorance that plagues West Michigan in SO many ways.  I’ll be the first to admit that where I am living now is full of backwoods, gun touting, red-neck, bible beaters but in the 5 years that I’ve lived in the Traverse City area, working in a very public place, meeting hundreds and hundreds of people every week doing my job, I have never experienced the same sort of belligerent holier-than-thou attitudes that I experienced routinely while living in Grand Rapids.  The homophobia I experience up here is exalted with deep blushing and whispers…by those knowing that what they are saying in public is unacceptable in polite conversation.  Not so in West Michigan.  These folks, while they have every right to express their opinions, have no problem blasting out lies and bible verses to support their blank and completely uninformed statements.  Sometimes I wish that their God would just smite them for being so dam ignorant!

It’s very likely that this ordinance will end up on the November ballot so once again, they can put MY civil rights up to a popular vote.  Folks, one of these days, someone or some group is going to put YOUR civil rights up to a popular vote so you can feel what it’s like to have to fight for things you should never have to fight for.

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From time to time, I will run across lengthy blog posts from other people that I think are somewhat worthy of re-posting on this blog.  I’ve saved this one in my draft’s for a while now and figured that while we are still in the month of June, it would be a good idea to post it.  I spend a lot of time on this blog bitching about inequality and my tone can be at times a bit on the fuck you side of things.  The primary readers of this blog are sympathetic to my position on gay rights but in reality, I’m not writing this blog simply for my audience.  One of the great things about this platform is that it allows me a very easy method for documenting my life, my passions, my concerns, my interests, and my opinions not just for my readers but for me.  Years ago when I was in the boychoir school, when we were on tour, we were forced to keep a journal of our travels across the country.  I’ve got pages and pages of prose written from the perspective of a 13 year old boy that documents and reflects on what was going on in my life at that point in my history.  Looking back at them now, I think they are hysterical and just fun to read.  The point is, these are my thoughts on life right now and this blog is the storyline of my life.  20 years from now when the Internet has evolved even further, I can go back to these posts and read them and gain perspective on where my life was and how my life has evolved since then.  Many people keep journals of their lives, some turn them into books, others leave them in boxes for their kids to find after they pass away.  This blog is my journal.

I found the list below from a post at Pam’s House Blend.  It’s interesting to me because it does provide some perspective on how a GLBT person experiences life .  It includes political judgements, thoughts on stereotypes and a run down of things that people who are not in my shoes tend to take for granted.  The one thing I don’t like about this list is that it assumes that things are not changing.  I think attitudes are changing, and they are changing rather quickly.  I encounter bits and pieces of homophobia every day in my life, much of it at work and much of it as unintentional (I think) as comments about race and religion.  I am not ‘out and proud’ at work even though I could be and it wouldn’t cause much of an issue.  I’ve always believed that my own sexuality is not relevant to my job.  I’m not getting paid to influence you on my personal life or change your opinions and attitudes towards my sexuality.  I simply do not choose to discuss my personal life in much detail with my co-workers.  That can make me a bit of a mystery to people but I sort of enjoy that.  That is not to say however that I lie about my sexuality.  If a coworker were to ask me tomorrow if I was gay, I would not lie to them.  What advantage do I have in being dishonest?  The fact of the matter is, my personal life is simply not relevant to my professional life.  People know that, and I just don’t get asked those sorts of things at work.  Anyhow, I said that because I do feel that by not actively confronting homophobia and stereotypes in conversation with random people, it perpetuates them and it allows them to continue.  More and more, we are seeing people confront these inequities in more and more situations.  Change is happening, even if not as fast as some would like.  If you are heterosexual, think about some of these statements and how they play into your own perception of reality and daily interactions with people.  I’ve highlighted the problem statments that I encounter most often and feel the most often from other people.  These I feel are the most important to change so as to allow some normalcy to the GLBT community.

Here is a list called Heterosexual Privilage from a post at Pam’s House Blend:

On a daily basis as a straight person…

• I can be pretty sure that my roomate, hallmates and classmates will be comfortable with my sexual orientation.
• If I pick up a magazine, watch TV, or play music, I can be certain my sexual orientation will be represented.
• When I talk about my heterosexuality (such as in a joke or talking about my relationships), I will not be accused of pushing my sexual orientation onto others.
• I do not have to fear that if my family or friends find out about my sexual orientation there will be economic, emotional, physical or psychological consequences.
• I did not grow up with games that attack my sexual orientation (IE fag tag or smear the queer).
• I am not accused of being abused, warped or psychologically confused because of my sexual orientation.
• I can go home from most meetings, classes, and conversations without feeling excluded, fearful, attacked, isolated, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, stereotyped or feared because of my sexual orientation.
• I am never asked to speak for everyone who is heterosexual.
• I can be sure that my classes will require curricular materials that testify to the existence of people with my sexual orientation.
• People don’t ask why I made my choice of sexual orientation.
• People don’t ask why I made my choice to be public about my sexual orientation.
• I do not have to fear revealing my sexual orientation to friends or family.  It’s assumed.
• My sexual orientation was never associated with a closet.
• People of my gender do not try to convince me to change my sexual orientation.
• I don’t have to defend my heterosexuality.
• I can easily find a religious community that will not exclude me for being heterosexual.
• I can count on finding a therapist or doctor willing and able to talk about my sexuality.
• I am guaranteed to find sex education literature for couples with my sexual orientation.
• Because of my sexual orientation, I do not need to worry that people will harass me.
• I have no need to qualify my straight identity.
• My masculinity/femininity is not challenged because of my sexual orientation.
• I am not identified by my sexual orientation.
• I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my sexual orientation will not work against me.
• If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has sexual orientation overtones.
• Whether I rent or I go to a theater, Blockbuster, an EFS or TOFS movie, I can be sure I will not have trouble finding my sexual orientation represented.
• I am guaranteed to find people of my sexual orientation represented in the Earlham curriculum, faculty, and administration.
• I can walk in public with my significant other and not have people double-take or stare.
• I can choose to not think politically about my sexual orientation.
• I do not have to worry about telling my roommate about my sexuality. It is assumed I am a heterosexual.
• I can remain oblivious of the language and culture of LGBTQ folk without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
• I can go for months without being called straight.
• I’m not grouped because of my sexual orientation.
• My individual behavior does not reflect on people who identity as heterosexual.
• In everyday conversation, the language my friends and I use generally assumes my sexual orientation.  For example, sex inappropriately referring to only heterosexual sex or family meaning heterosexual relationships with kids.
• People do not assume I am experienced in sex (or that I even have it!) merely because of my sexual orientation.
• I can kiss a person of the opposite gender on the heart or in the cafeteria without being watched and stared at.
• Nobody calls me straight with maliciousness.
• People can use terms that describe my sexual orientation and mean positive things (IE “straight as an arrow”, “standing up straight” or “straightened out”) instead of demeaning terms (IE “ewww, that’s gay” or being “queer”).
• I am not asked to think about why I am straight.
• I can be open about my sexual orientation without worrying about my job.

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Did you think you could sneak by Sunday without some commentary from someone who is now on his second cocktail of the evening (Saturday night) and debating whether he should be writing at all?  Tomorrow (Sunday) is a big day for gay America.  Sunday, June 28 marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City.  This single event is considered to be the starting point for the gay rights movement in this country and it’s one that I can’t pass over without recognizing those who came before me.  I’m going to be 35 this year which means that gay ‘liberation’ has been part of my life for all of my life.   Certainly the act of rebellion towards violent mistreatment of gays and lesbians by authorities marked a turning point for this culture that I belong to.  No more were gays going to be singled out, beaten, harassed, insulted, and berated in this country, most certainly not without a fight.  The act of fighting back against the establishment (Police) at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in NYC marked the beginning of what has become a long struggle for acceptance and equality for gays and lesbians.  Here in 2009, that fight for equality is still enduring.  It’s only a matter of time before full equality is achieved, however, none of it would have been possible were it not for that event and a few people who were just not going to take it any more.

I’ve done a fair amount of thinking about what the gay rights movement means to me over the years.  When I came out in High School, it was about rebellion more than it was about acknowledging some inborn trait.  It’s pretty safe to say that I knew I was gay early on in life but like lots of other kids my age, it was a game of denial and lies until maturity caught up with me in late high school and I decided I didn’t give a shit anymore.  There was no way I was going to let on to anyone, even my folks, that I was different in “that way” from anyone else when I was 13 or 14.  I was a pretty different kid to begin with but I didn’t need that issue compounding on to my already complicated life.  By the time I was a Senior in High School though I had kept it quiet for long enough.  Being a young adult, I wanted to be a part of something like every other kid does at that age.  I had formed an accepting group of friends and it was not at all difficult to come out to any of them, some where surprised, but most were not.  It was my turn to decide for myself how the rest of my life was going to go and I decided that my sexuality was not going to be some scary secret.  I didn’t want to have to hide my relationships from the people I cared about, I didn’t want to be scared of who I was and I wasn’t going to lie to myself or anyone else and I decided at 17 to make that statement and haven’t looked back since.  Imagine if you will growing up gay pre-stonewall.  If you were out, you were lucky if you made it to your 35th birthday without significant scars.  All that’s not to say that I don’t know when to keep my mouth shut.  My judgment about people has not failed me yet.

So, what does all that have to do with anything?  Everyone on the Earth has strong desires to be a part of something.  You do, my friends do, and certainly I do as well.  Every one of us can think of events from the past that have shaped us into the people we have become today.  Young kids today hear about Stonewall and ask what the hell is that?  For gay kids today their big event is Don’t ask Don’t tell from Clinton, or more recently Matthew Sheppard.  Kids today don’t know about the impact HIV/AIDS had on the GLBT population in the 80’s and few recognize Reagen’s failure to act on that crisis sooner, they don’t know that gay relationships were illegal in all 50 states until just a few years ago!  That’s ancient history to them.  To an extent it is to me as well but those events shaped not just my views but the views of my parents and others close to me.  I’ve lived thus far during an era of exponential growth in freedom for gay people.  What has been achieved is substantial in this country in such a short period of time and it’s that short time frame that says to me people know what’s right and what’s wrong.  People know that denying one group of people the freedom to be who they are is wrong.  People know that when you hold one person down from being that one exceptional person, our whole country suffers.  The process can be slow but in comparison with other movements by other minorities, gay rights have been swift and decisive.  I’m proud to play a part in this movement.  I’m proud to know that by simply acknowledging who I am, I can change people’s minds.

Lest we forget, history has a tendency to repeat itself…sometimes over, and over, and over again.  GLBT equality is not the only equality fight left out there.  Other people are oppressed and stigmatized every day for all kinds of things that can not be changed about themselves.  We must all be conscious of the things that make us different but we all must recognize what makes us the same.  I hate using quotes to make a point but I’ll leave you with this as we approach the 4th of July.  It relates directly to my writing and to what we still have to accomplish:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

- Thomas Jefferson

This country has a long way to go yet when it comes to equality for EVERYONE but we are all on the right track.  Time, patience, and perseverance are the key elements towards that pursuit of happiness we all want in life.

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In what was a highly anticipated concert event for me, tonight I went to see the Indigo Girls in concert at Interlochen.  They did not disappoint.  I’ve followed this band since their inception nearly 20 years ago and I’m certainly a die hard fan, I know all the lyrics to all their songs, I own all their CD’s and I even have a number of bootleg recordings from their live shows that I’ve collected over the years.  The one thing I had never done however was go to see them in concert.  Every time they were on tour, I was either working or doing something else or I simply could not afford the tickets.  This time, the time was right and the venue was perfect.  It was a beautiful day but extremely hot and honestly, I was outnumbered easily 3 to 1 by lesbians but I expected that.  This is a band that entirely represents womyn and everything that particular spelling represents.  Anyhow, I won’t go into their politics here, that is indeed a topic for another post.

They played quite a long set.  They managed to work through their entire new album consisting of 10 new songs and they also got in nearly all the standards.  Power of Two, Kid Fears, Galileo, Ghost, Last Tears, and several songs from their Nomads, Saints, and Indians album.  Whether it’s a good thing or not, I was able to sing along with every song, even the new songs.  I think Mom, Dad, Nancy, and Joan had a decent time as well.  Mom was excited to hear a couple of the songs that Sarah had performed, in all it was a great night out and a great concert.

One of the great benefits of a band that is fiercely independent (they have their own label, do their own tours, and their own marketing) is that they get to make the rules.  Despite printed warnings from Interlochen about the use of cameras and video during the concert, the Indigo Girls really don’t give a dam especially now that they are an independent label.  You can actually go to their official web site and barter for bootlegs of their concerts.  Anyhow, I managed to get one good picture of them performing Power of Two which is one of my favorite songs.  I’ve posted the picture below as well as the song for you to enjoy.

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Tomorrow it’s back to work.  I now have to work straight through until next Tuesday.  Work is getting long right now.  I don’t hate going in to work, but lord I wish time moved faster.  I’m coming up on a vacation too so that just makes things drag.  Hopefully I’ll get back to posting more on this blog soon.  Working 50 hours a week makes me really tired and I just don’t have the motivation to write when I can barely keep my eyes open.  Oh well, this has been a good and productive summer so far, hopefully I can keep up the trend.

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Well, after a good week now of having a visual editor on my blog that was missing major components, It’s finally been fixed and I can now edit my posts without going crazy.  It seems though that when one thing starts working again, another thing breaks.  My Apple TV is not working correctly, actually the Apple TV is fine, it’s some of the software that is running on it that is currently broken.  Again, nothing I can do about it until they release a patch for the software and who knows when that will be.  Technology sucks sometimes.

I’m finally off for the weekend!  This is my first weekend off now in nearly a month and it looks like the weather might cooperate a little bit.  Sunday is the fist day of summer (and Father’s Day) and we are still only in the 70’s up here most of the time if not colder.  We’ve had no really hot days yet this summer.  I’m going to be headed out to the lake Sunday for sure but maybe Saturday too.  I’ll have to see how late I end up sleeping and what the weather looks like when I get up.

Now that the blog is finally fixed, I’ll get back into writing again here soon.  My schedule is finally calming down a little bit too so maybe I won’t be so dam tired.  I’m starting to count the days to my vacation in July.  I’ll be headed to Grand Rapids, Chicago, and Indianapolis over a period of about 6 days.  It should be fun.  I’m really looking forward to Chicago since it’s been forever and a day since I’ve been there.  I’ll be staying with some old friends who came to seem me this past summer up here.  Now I just need to watch my spending over the next month so I can have a little spending money.

Not much else to post right now.  I’ll leave you with this picture I found on one of the blogs I read.  June is Gay Pride month.  This year is also the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots which is considered to be the starting point for the gay rights movement.  Lots going on right now in politics, too bad I’m just too tired to write about it right now.  More later.

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Today is Sunday and I’m still having issues with the Wordpress update I did. I still don’t have full control over the editing functions on this blog, nor does the spell checker work. I’m a little pissed that the issue has not been resolved, others who run Wordpress blogs are also having problems, at least according to their website. So, stay with me here, eventually I’ll be able to post pictures and videos again, maybe I’ll see if I can revert back to 2.7 on my next day off so I can at least check my writing.

On to the title of today’s blog post. The Problem with Sunday. I’ve always hated Sunday. In my mind it’s the worst day of the week. Growing up it was always the last day of the weekend before having to go back to school. For most of America it’s the last day of a weekend before having to go back to work. For many people it’s the one day of the week where they have to get up, get out of bed, dress up, and go to church to worship their God and then socialize with people they would probably rather not see anyway. That’s how church was for me. It was an obligation, not something I would have freely chosen to do on my own. Some choices in life we don’t get to make, they are made for us. In any case, we learn from them. Right now in my life, Sunday represents the one single day at work when the people who come in shopping are more likely to be jerks and assholes than any other day of the week. You get contractors and builders coming in to buy supplies for their jobs for the week who are flustered by their reality, you get families coming in after Church to shop, many who are just tired and cranky for having to wake up in the morning. You get the out-of-town people who have traveled 300 miles to come to the store who then willingly complain about how far they had to drive when they wanted to buy that thing on sale that we’ve run out of. Really folks, PAY ATTENTION: ON THE LAST DAY OF A SALE, FOR A KNOWN POPULAR ITEM, IT IS UNREASONABLE FOR YOU TO EXPECT IT TO BE IN STOCK especially in a very busy store. Really, we do everything we can to make sure we have what you want to buy but it’s not really our fault that you waited until the last day of the sale to show up to try and buy it without bothering to pick up the phone to call first to see if it was still available. TAKE SOME FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY PEOPLE.

I digress. I had a whole shit ton more that I had written for this post but I decided to delete it. Writing is my outlet for frustration and anger and I suppose it’s a good one. Certianly it’s better than taking it out on random people. The human condition worries me, our singular society of selfish consumption and greed worries me, our inability to see the person standing right in front of us as also human worries me. These conditions and afflictions are the cause of so much hatred and violence in this world that it’s easy to withdraw and just say forget it and not deal with it. When will WE start drawing on our strengths rather than focusing so heavily on our weaknesses? Think about the person standing in front of you the next time something you did goes the wrong way. Empathy, compassion, and understanding will go a LONG way towards finding resolutions to problems we all create.

Now it’s off to bed. Finally I’m back to a normal schedule at work starting this week. I’ve done 3 weeks now of 60 hour weeks, I’m exhausted and frustrated that I spend all my time working. I’ve got about 6 weeks to go before I get my vacation, hopefully it will be a good 6 weeks.

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As you can see, I’ve added a new theme tonight! Change is good, change is constant. It never gets old for me. I upgraded the back end of this blog today as well to Wordpress 2.8 and it’s added several new features behind the scenes including a new theme browser and installer which just makes it easier for me to change the look of the web site on you all. Another thing it has done (and I think it’s a bug) is completely remove the visual editor which means at least for the time being, I’ve lost the integrated spell checker and style formatting buttons. I don’t have time to play with it tonight to find out how to fix it so hopefully my spelling won’t be too bad.

I got LOTS of stuff done today finally. I was finally able to get outside for a little while and mow the grass. It has been raining non-stop for nearly a week here and I think the grass grew a good 6″ in less than 3 days. It was nice to get that trimmed down a bit. My plants are just loving the wet weather. The tomato’s are coming along just fine and my herb garden is starting to take shape. Soon, I’ll have a flower bed of daisies and one of my rose bushes made it through the winter so I should start to see some flowers on it soon. I wish I had more time in the day to enjoy my little yard. As it is, I am working so much that I hardly have time to mess around out there and when I do get a day off, I’d much rather be at the lake than at my house in town (so would Gavin). Oh well, I’m glad I even have a yard.

I’ve got a new addition to my wrist now. Mom bought me and my dad new watches for father’s day and it’s been a good 15 years since I’ve actively worn a watch. It’s not a bad idea to have one, I hope though that I don’t destroy it at work. One of the main reasons I quit wearing a watch is becuase time moved SO SLOW when I wore it. I just have to quit looking at it. I like this one though. It’s got a good band and I think I’ll be able to get used to it.

I decided tonight that I would hit Subway for dinner. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a sub from them and it was a toss up between Pizza and a Sub. For what it cost me, a Pizza would have been much better. My typical fare for Subway is their Subway Melt. I can remember in Grand Rapids eating this sometimes 2-3 days a week (ya, I know, I don’t need the “healthy food lecture”). I don’t ever remember spending more than $5-6 on a meal combo. It cost me $9.50 for a meal combo tonight! That is INSANE! I can eat at Burger King for less than that, hell, I can eat at home for less than $1!!!! I do need to start looking a little harder at my diet. I’ve managed to cut back on the cheese burgers but I’m still a softie for a BK cheeseburger. Gotta have them. My goal this summer is to shed another 5-10lbs which is pretty ambitious. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to accomplish it.

I go back to work this weekend for the 3rd weekend in a row. I’m not looking forward to it. I’ve not had too many customer issues lately thank God. My co-workers have but I’ve managed to avoid the nasty people lately. That’s good becuase when you are working 55-60 hour weeks, tired as hell, and physically worn down it only takes one jackass to screw you up for the entire week. The weather is supposed to be pretty decent (still dam cold) and I hope that brings people out. I have a HUGE sales week forecast this next week. If I don’t see more people, there is just no way I’m going to make it! GET OUT AND SHOP! This recession will continue as long as people are not spending money. Well, it’s off to bed now. Have a good weekend!

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From Idaho:

A same-sex couple and their three foster children were denied a reduced admission price to a pool in eastern Idaho because the Lava Hot Springs State Foundation says the five don’t fit the definition of a family.

Amber Koger and Jeri Underwood say they and their three children were recently denied the resort’s advertised family admission price.

Mark Lowe, executive director for the Lava Hot Springs State Foundation, says the state doesn’t recognize gay or lesbian marriage and defines a family as one male, one female and children.

He says as a state agency the foundation must follow Idaho law.

Not surprising and actually this would appear to be fairly common.  I would like to know if Idaho also denies family rates to single mothers (or dad’s) or grandparents raising children, or parents without marriage licenses (common law marriages) etc.  Smells like some bullshit here, they have a lot of buffalo in Idaho don’t they?

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The story below is from Oklahoma and is one of the reasons (among many others) that I completely withdrew my involvement with children and ended my journey more than 10 years ago towards becoming an educator. I have very little patience for this sort of thing and even less patience for people who believe that becuase I am gay, I am somehow a threat to society and more specifically to children.  This is from Pam’s House Blend blog.  This country still has a LONG way to go on tolerance.

Teacher Joseph Quigley of Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City, who is also gay, found  himself at a termination hearing recently. School Board Superintendent Karl Springer’s recommended the termination of Quigley, who has been with the school district since 1994, because “he wasn’t following plans for improvement and didn’t obey administrative directives.”

Quigley’s attorneys say otherwise:

“The attempt to fire Mr. Quigley, a career teacher with a stellar record, appears to be driven by some administrators after he advocated for better protections for gay and lesbian students. The legal counsel for OKCPS has relied on trumped up and exaggerated charges to make the case for his dismissal. In fact, Mr. Quigley was the subject of harassment and false charges merely because of his advocacy for gay and lesbian students and/or the fact that he is gay.”

MetroStar News, an Oklahoma LGBT newspaper, reports that Quigley received consistent high marks on his evaluations for a decade — that clearly doesn’t indicate someone was unhappy with his performance in the classroom.What did Quigley “do wrong” in the eyes of the school? Perhaps this sheds some light on the matter:

He stated that the administration “singled him out, applied a double standard, micromanaged him and has instituted a relentless scorched earth policy to get rid of him.” He also pointed out that it wasn’t until after 2007 that his evaluations showed him to be substandard, when Ms. Walling became his evaluator. It was clarified that his evaluations suddenly went down after 2006 , after Joe advocated the inclusion of “sexual orientation” among the groups listed in the Student Handbook to be protected from harassment and bullying.

Here we go. More advocates for the beating of LGBT youth, because, of course, in Oklahoma they deserve it — and the advocate, needs to suffer consequences as well. Quigley and his attorneys are considering taking his case to the federal court.What’s really sad is that Oklahoma is in a race to top of the wingnuttery charts. It  was the only state that had no Blue counties in this past election, and voters in that state managed to turn Oklahoma even more Republican. Its LGBT and reality-based citizens pay the price;  this should be a reality check to LGBTs out there who are in deep Blue states with a host of civil rights and the luxury to focus on marriage equality. People in deep Red states are in the bullseye of the bigots with limited support from allies, national orgs (and elected officials practically MIA).

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