Blind Prophecy

This week is pop music whores. Because I can’t think of a category I’d actually care about.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Katy Perry will melt my popsicle	Ke$ha likes my beard	Miley Cyrus isn’t telling me to go to hell, she’s not a brat like that

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Let’s just go ahead and pretend that Miley Cyrus is 22 years old so no one has to have the (legally incorrect in most states) “but she’s not legal” comment. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Charlie. Smart, kind and sexy.
Fuck: Josh. Behind all that cocky ego is an insecure little boy who probably tries really, really hard to impress you between the sheets. Also, I like his brand of snark.
Kill: Sam. And not just because I think it’s funny that this is the second week in a row I have someone with an embarrassing threesome sex tape leak (NSFW), but because I find him terribly boring.

Filed under: games, music by Jere Keys
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This is how I learn family news now, apparently.

Anyway, that’s my baby sister getting engaged. That means the balance has officially tipped and we’re about to about to reach the first time where a majority of my siblings are married.

I’m very happy for her and I actually met this guy a few years ago when I was living in San Francisco. I hope. If she’s engaged to someone else, I’m going to be really embarrassed to have said that. Because right now, all I officially know is what you see in that FaceBook update. That and apparently they’ve decided on December 30 just to make sure I’m stuck spending another shitty New Year’s Eve in Utah even though I live in New York City so I can definitely be there.

Does anyone think flying into NYC on Dec 31 is a bad idea?

ETA: In fairness to my sister, she did send me a text message last night. It could have arrived before the FB message, but I didn’t see it until after I’d written this post and scheduled it to publish in the morning.

Filed under: Mi Familia by Jere Keys
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Had another fun night out last night. Despite our very best efforts to go somewhere else, we ended up at The Ritz again. What was cool, though, was that we got to see a live performance by Michael Chase DiMartino, who you probably know from his ASL interpretations of Britney and Gaga songs on YouTube (which are mostly being copyright blocked by the record labels these days). He’s moved on to his own material anyway, performing as Chase.

Unfortunately, the pictures I took didn’t turn out great – and you should never try to edit photos on your phone while intoxicated – but I like how this one of me came out:

Anyway, keeping busy otherwise. I start training for my TA/mentoring end-of-summer job this week. I accepted a position on the staff of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. I have my flight and hotel booked for Lavender Law, so I have 6 weeks to get down to my birth weight for Miami Beach (I also need a new swimsuit, my current one is about 6 years out of style). It’s also, apparently, time to start updating my resume and beginning the job hunt for next summer.

Filed under: NYC, personal by Jere Keys
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As I mentioned yesterday, I’m having a marathon of The West Wing this week. To the extent that you know the show, make your picks based on the characters – not the personalities of the actors who play them. If you don’t know the show, well, whatever criteria you normally use.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Charlie Young as played by Dulé Hill	Josh Lyman as played by Bradley Whitford	Sam Seaborn as played by Rob Lowe

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Ryan Reynolds. I even tried to use a less-than-flattering photo of him to avoid skewing the results, but it’s official, he’s too hot.
Fuck: John Legend. I bet he has moves.
Kill: Eric Dane. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s hot, but I’ve seen the NSFW video (seriously, click on that link and you’re gonna see bits and stuff) and I’m not impressed with his bedside manner.

Filed under: games, television by Jere Keys
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We had rain today, which kept us stuck at our desks through lunchtime today. Nice break from the heat, but still…

So I’m working on this big project taking a look at state lobbying laws, and the more I work on it, the more I think this entire area of law is a fucking mess. In some states, if a nonprofit group writes an open letter about a proposed law, they suddenly have an obligation to register as lobbyists and make huge financial disclosures. Other problems I’m running into are poorly defined terms (for example: when a governor vetoes a bill, is this an executive official engaged in legislative action? or an executive official engaged in executive action? If the latter, in what context does a law that applies to “attempts to influence executive officials in legislative action” apply?), contradictory information (I’m not kidding when I tell you there’s a state that lists different registration fees in the statutes passed by the legislature, the administrative code written by the governing agency, and on the website of that same agency), overly harsh penalties (really, a possibility of a $10,000 fine and ten years in jail for filing a financial disclosure form late?), and generally a lot of poorly considered, poorly executed rules. At any rate, I was joking with my supervising attorney that the general lack of scholarship on this subject means I have some fertile ground for journal notes this year.

Speaking of journals, I was accepted to three of the school’s journals this year (I applied to four) and I have to make a decision by Friday about which, if any, I sign on for. We have a meet-and-greet with the journals tomorrow night.

Yesterday I got to go to a cool cocktail reception with the lead attorneys from the ACLU on the Constance McMillen prom case. It’s kind of a neat story from the lawyer’s perspective. It started as a routine demand-letter situation and escalated into the center of a national media circus.

Not much else to report on. I’m falling into a The West Wing marathon, which is sure to destroy my concern for a social life for the next few days, even as I force myself to get out of the apartment.

Filed under: law school, work by Jere Keys
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Most people probably heard how New York got hit by a big heat wave last week. It seems to be cooling down a bit now, but there were a few days where it was almost unbearable.

Harlem Hydrant. This shot was more interesting a moment earlier, before the kids playing in the hydrant ran off.

Usually, our office is colder than is comfortable. Something about servers and computer equipment, but it’s a little odd dressing in the lightest clothes possible for the commute to and from work, but packing a hoodie in my bag to make it through the day.

Speaking of the office, it’s been a very interesting summer to work in the LGBT equality movement. While Lambda isn’t involved in every LGBT case out there, we obviously pay very close attention to what is going on. There have been a lot of high profile cases like Doe v. Reed (the state can disclose the names of people who sign anti-queer ballot petitions) and Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (school can deny funding to anti-queer groups that discriminate against people who don’t share the same values and beliefs) at the Supreme Court, building precedent that the Constitution protects the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Lower level cases like the twin cases out of Massachusetts overturning part of DOMA (Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. US Dept of Health and Human Services) and the pending decision in California about the constitutionality of Prop 8 (Perry v. Schwarzenegger). There are also less high-profile, but equally significant, developments like a ruling that you cannot fire a person based on gender identity simply because you anticipate that other people might have a moral objection (Glenn v. Brumby). Additionally, things have happened like the Obama administration’s directive to hospital that receive federal funding to establish policies that respect LGBT patients and their families. I hear that federal housing authorities may soon adopt a new, broader definition of family, which will help poor and low-income queer people who rely on government assistance for basic housing to access the system legally (under the current system, problems can sometimes come up like only members of a family may live together in government-funded housing, excluding same-sex relationships not recognized by state or local law from the ability to live together legally and receive assistance).

Sure, not all the news has been positive. Civil Unions were vetoed in Hawaii. The military study of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is a joke. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld their ban on same-sex marriage. Still, when you take a step back, the overall trend is very inspiring right now.

Anyway, I don’t know what my point is, except that I’m sometimes amazed at how many moving pieces there are to this movement: from teenagers wearing pro-gay t-shirts at school to LGBT seniors trying to find long-term assisted living.

There’s not much else going on this week in my life. Had five days off last weekend after Pride and the Kagan confirmation hearings, finished the last day of my summer class, spent most of the week skipping the social scene and trying to stay cool. To that end, it’s been catch-up week on movies I missed because of Law School. I saw Kick-Ass (somewhere in the world there is a Hollywood producer who actually says “you know who would be perfect for this movie? Nic Cage” — we should find this man and beat him senseless.) and Iron Man 2 (good enough to watch again) and Shrek: Forever After (meh) and The Fantastic Mr. Fox (cute) and How to Train Your Dragon (really cute) Youth in Revolt (likable but forgettable) and some other stuff.

Filed under: personal, queer rights by Jere Keys
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Beards are hot. Not like 100 degrees in New York so kill me before I have to get on the subway hot. Like sexy hot. Everyone says so.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Eric Dane	John Legend	Ryan Reynolds

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Graham. He says he’s not gay. A lot. My experience tends to indicate that means he’s a super-gay super-freak in the sack.
Fuck: Session. But it would be a total hate-fuck.
Kill: Kyl. Remember, he’s the senator for Arizona who makes McCain seem moderate and centrist.

Filed under: games, unnecessary beefcake by Jere Keys
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I’ve found that most cities I’ve lived in, I tend to find a bar I’m relatively comfortable at and return there often, at least for for a while. In New York, that bar appears to be The Ritz. My friends and I have been there on various nights of the week and always seem to have a decent time. While the drinks aren’t the most (or least) expensive you’ll find, we typically pregame somewhere else before heading out, because the point of The Ritz isn’t drinking, it’s dancing.

In the middle of the summer, the dance floor is a sweaty, humid, uncomfortable, crowded mess. I love it. I was out dancing until around 3am last night and even ran in to Garrett, my buddy from San Francisco. I flirted with a guy named Juan for while out on the front porch area, and generally had a great time.

Anyway, I’m not really writing this blog to advertize for the Ritz, I wanted to point to one more example of how I’ve given up on any notions of privacy in the internet age. I signed up for foursquare a few weeks ago and I’m having fun with it. For those who don’t know, foursquare is a social media platform that allows you to “check in” to various venues using your phone’s GPS. It’s basically a way of telling your friends where you’re at, as well as meeting new people who are in the neighborhood.

So, if you want/need to find me, check out my foursquare profile. Better yet, sign up yourself and friend me so that I can more easily stalk you, too.

P. to the S.: A propos of nothing, new Scissor Sisters album, Night Work, is pure joy and “Whole New Way” is my pick for song of the summer. I’m totally willing to fight you over that.

Filed under: NYC, personal by Jere Keys
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Pride in New York was a lot like Pride in all the other cities I’ve been to, except that I wasn’t really in charge of anything. I still spent a lot of time working, though, as I was representing Lambda at several events.

Anyway, got to see a bunch of friends, meet new people, and generally have a great time. The photos and video clips have been uploaded to Flickr.

After Pride I fell into a K-hole all week (and by “K-hole” I’m referring to watching gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings), but I have a long weekend starting tomorrow. If I had money for it, I’d totally head off to Fire Island or whatever people do. Instead, I’ll probably watch television in my room for several days and end up at the bar with my friends.

Filed under: NYC, Pride by Jere Keys
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Sorry about last week. It’s been a busy time. Between Pride and Kagan madness, I haven’t had much time for the bloggy lifestyle.

Because I’m spending the week with the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week’s contest will be the crusty old white men asking stupid questions of Elena Kagan.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona. Just when you thought racism couldn’t get any racismer, Kyl doubles down on attacking civil rights legend and brilliant legal mind Thurgood Marshall. I expect that tomorrow he’ll suggest Kagan is unAmerican for once driving a car made by “the Orientals” or something.	Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. He’s terrified of the gays and how they make fragile military recruiters feel like second class citizens. Once complained about people who “would rather defend the Constitution than protect our nation’s security.” … supporting and defending the Constitution … I guess everyone complains about having to do their jobs.	Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Poster boy for gayface. Now I’m not saying this unmarried Southern gentleman is a homosexual, but I am saying that when I heard him use the word “probative” I giggled.

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

Bonus Round: Based on his tie selection for the hearings, which category would you place bipartisan-curious Senator Arlen Specter in?

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Kristin. Sure, I like a bit of lezzie vibe in any girl I marry.
Fuck: Rutina. She’s hot. For a girl.
Kill: Anna. Ruined Rogue in the X-men movies. Not that interesting on True Blood.

ETA: For those who might be influenced by such things, Sen. Lindsey Graham said this week: “I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men – I’m sure hundreds of ‘em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge – but I ain’t available. I ain’t gay. Sorry.”

Filed under: games, politics by Jere Keys
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