Saturday, November 17, 2007

I'm back

I have a lot of stuff going on personally (those of you who know me IRL know that The Wife has been ill and in and out of the hospital twice over the past month and my sister has been having some health issues) and professionally (can't talk about work but suffice it to say that it has been crazy busy with no end in sight.) I have had either no energy to blog or nothing I could write about. There are times when I really wish I could blog about the job or the family because I'm in a period of "you can't make this shit up" and from the outside it is so outrageous it is funny. In fact, a few days ago I emailed a friend a list of the things that are going on. I saw her last night and she said "I could have cried and that probably would have been the appropriate response but instead I laughed my ass off for 25 minutes." I was glad that she laughed. I didn't email her to make her cry or feel sorry for me, I knew she would see the absurdity of the situations (yes, plural.)

I have been so caught up in my life that I haven't really been paying a lot of attention to what is going on outside my world. I don't think I've read the paper in weeks (and we have 2 delivered to the house every day - I am grateful for recycling...) I did read Newsweek this week because I was travelling and it is a good read on the plane. Even now, I feel like I should be coming up with a list of things I need to get done this weekend and get started on the list. But I'm enjoying the quiet. The Wife is still asleep, the dog is snoozing on the couch, the cats are snoozing in one of their many napping spots, the TV and Ipod are silent, and all I can hear is the dryer, a sound that is fairly innocuous to me. It is cloudy and in the low 40s today (snow is predicted for tonight) but we still have lots of fall color.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but the moon has been fabulous this week. Earlier in the week it was a perfect crescent low in the sky, last night it was at maybe 1/3 of full but huge and beautiful and low. During the day, the sky has also been that deep blue that only seems possible in the autumn. Yesterday I started to think of winter because it was very windy and we had low dark clouds that were scooting across the sky and I knew that a cold front was coming in. Perfect hot tub weather...which reminds me I'd better get started on that "to do" list which includes "put sanitizing chemicals in hot tub" if I want to take advantage of the weather.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Homophobes with Queer Relatives

From Sarah in Chicago via Shakesville.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Mary is a lesbian, who just had a baby with her lesbian partner, Heather.

Former Senator and arch-conservative Jesse Helms, who blamed gays and lesbians for "the proliferation of AIDS" and denouncing the use of the word gay because "there's nothing gay about them," has a lesbian granddaughter.

Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the conservative Eagle Forum, was instrumental in drafting the Republican Party platform language opposing gay marriage and civil unions, has a gay son, John.

Barry "Mr. Conservative" Goldwater (who in later years came out in favor of gay rights) had a gay grandson and a lesbian grandniece.

Nixon's Chief of Staff and Watergate convict H.R. Haldeman had a gay child.

President of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality Charles Socarides, has a gay son Richard, who was liaison to the gay community under President Clinton.

Then of course there is Alan Keyes, GOP presidential candidate, family-values harper, and the guy that tried to keep Barack Obama from the Illinois Senate seat, tossed his college-student daughter, Maya, who came out during his campaign against Barack out of the family home and cut off her tuition money.

The late California state Sen. Pete Knight who spearheaded the ultimately successful Proposition 22 that bans gay marriage in California, has a gay son, David, who married his partner during San Francisco queer marriage rush in '04.

Sadie Fields, state chair of the Christian Coalition of Georgia, who helped push the constitutional ban on gay marriage, has a gay daughter, Tess.

Bill Byrne, who was head of the Cobb County Commission in 1993 when it passed a resolution proclaiming “the homosexual lifestyle” unwelcome in the suburban Atlanta community, has a lesbian daughter Shannon.

Regina Griggs, an executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX)—ie the group set up to mimic and oppose PFLAG—has a gay son.

Anti-gay rights and pro-life activist Randall Terry, has a gay son, Jamiel.

Robert Mosbacher, the man heading President Bush's national reelection campaign in 2004, and later chief fund-raiser, has a lesbian daughter, Dee.

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s half-sister Candace is a lesbian.