OK, I'm gay. And I'm an atheist.

But I'm still a kind, generous, moral, upstanding citizen.

(Yes, believe me, an atheist can be *far* more moral than many "Christians" today.)

My family is very conservative. They send me all sorts of Republican election propaganda. Today, my mother (my *mother*!!) sent me a faked Michelle Obama piece (http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/roomservice.asp) about lobster and room service at the Waldorf Astoria. My great uncle sends me "humor" that toes that Republican line ("remember the good old days before gay rights, when everyone was Christian" as if that were ever really the case).

Up to now, I've let these things slide. I love my family. I really love my mother. I respect my great uncle. I've figured, "Well, everyone has a right to their opinion" or just "They don't really understand", so I let it slide.

Not any more.

I'm fed up with people (Republicans) telling me I'm somehow worth less because I'm gay. Or that this is some "choice" I've made, and if gays really just try harder to like women, everything will be OK.

Well, I've got news for them. I tried for 30 years. I was married to a woman for 14 years. And guess what? Even after all that trying, I couldn't change. I couldn't continue to deny to myself who I *really* was. (Denial is an ugly place. An ugly, ugly place.)

So I'm not going to sit idly by any more. I replied (replied-to-all, even!) to my mom's e-mail, and I told them all flat out that I"m gay and I'm proud of being gay, and I'm sick of Republicans telling me I shouldn't be who I really am.

I'm not going to cower any more. Life is too important. Being a full human being is too important.

Stand up for yourself. No one else will.

Well, I'm not currently planning on going to any Halloween parties. Just as well, as I don't have any ideas for what I'd be.

But if I do go at the last minute, I could always go as Ben Bernanke:


Unfortunately, he's not nearly as interesting to ape as Sarah Palin. But oh well.

Well, my blog here has been empty for over a year, so I guess I should post something?

I'm home sick, and just found an interesting blog here from someone I saw on a chat site. This, being the world wide web, lead to me looking at his friends, and his friends' friends, and his friends' friends' friends (it's amazing what you do when you're home sick alone and you don't have a partner--OK, maybe I'm a little nosy, too), and realizing there are a shitload of people I know on here.

How people can keep up with these things, though, I'll never understand. I'm just too busy. Maybe it's an age thing (don't you be calling me old!).

iPhone.

Duh!