We finally got the home internet hooked up again. All three of us sat around the living room with laptops tonight, eating Chinese food and watching crappy movies. I listened to Hilary’s speech on the internet while Jennifer and Jacob watched Constantine.

No word today from the staffing agency, but I spent a good portion of the day working on my personal statement and recommendations for law school - projects that didn’t require an internet connection.

This evening, I went over to the GLBT Center of Cincinnati for the first 2009 Pride planning meeting. 24 days. It took me 24 days before I agreed to take a major position - this time chairing the Festival subcommittee which includes vendors and food/beverage. I’ll be needing help on the committee, so please let me know if you’re willing to lend a hand. I’d especially love to see some women and/or people of color get involved. The committee is disturbingly lacking in both departments. I’m not going to hold my breath on the transgender front if we can’t even get lesbians to show up.

Anyway, based on my first impressions, I almost wish I were planning to stay longer than a year. There’s so much that could be done in the community, and I’ll do what I can, but the clock is already ticking and this time next year I hope to be telling you all about my first days of law school.

Posted: August 26th, 2008 under Cincinnati, Pride, personal.
Comments: 2

Last week I ran across this announcement:

Joe Penno, Cincinnati GLBT Pride Chair 2009 and Community Center President - reminds you the first planning meeting for Pride 2009 in the Greater Cincinnati Area is Tuesday August 26, 2008 at 7 pm.

The location of the meeting is the Community Center at 4119 Hamilton Ave, Northside (Cincinnati), Ohio.

Please make a note of it.

I made a note. I flagged it with a personal flag. Now I keep looking at it.

I swear, I have a sickness. Since 1997, there have been exactly 3 years in which I did not involve myself in my local Pride celebration. For one of those, I was in the middle of Alaska, and the other two were in San Francisco where I worked 24/7 as a professional queer activist.

There’s only one solution. I need a boyfriend who threatens to divorce me if I say “yes” to volunteer projects. Until then, what do I sign up for this time? (Barry - maybe we could chat a bit about the organization before I sign my life away)

Posted: August 19th, 2008 under Cincinnati, Pride.
Comments: 5

I decided to stay close to home on Saturday rather than hitting the Dyke March and Pink Party. I just wasn’t in much of a mood for crowds. Instead, I had one of the best Caesar salads in the city at L’s Caffe and finished reading my first for-fun book since starting to study for the LSAT.

The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton… I’m happy to report that LKH is finally giving us some plot that isn’t sex, sex, sex. This book comes the closest to capturing the tone and feel of her early Anita Blake books that I enjoyed so much. It’s not that she’s done away with the sex, it’s that it doesn’t overwhelm the plot… which features Anita solving a crime and fighting new monsters. It almost makes me want to go ahead and read the next book in hardcover. I won’t, but I’m glad to see LKH getting this series back on track. (See some of my previous Anita Blake series comments here and here)

Anyway, on to the big event…

Sunday morning I slept in until a reasonable weekend hour and made my way downtown without rush, which was a novel experience in itself. No rushing to meet up with friends, no being in charge of anything, no plans and no drama. I didn’t even care if I saw the whole thing. Even so, I still got to the Parade with time to spare. I stationed myself near the grandstand and was able to watch about 3 hours of parade. The weather went from gray and overcast to sunny and warm while I was standing there getting sunburned because I didn’t think I’d need sunscreen.

After the parade, I made my way into the Festival for a little while. I quickly came to the realization that without a radio in my hand or friends to entertain, I have no idea what to do at Pride. I wandered by some booths, had a couple drinks, talked to a few cute guys, then called it a day. In fact, I had time to go to the gym, do some shopping (groceries and new sunglasses), and head home for an early evening with Safeway sushi for dinner.

Anyway, there are a buttload (bigger than an assload, smaller than a truckload) of photos from the parade after the jump…
Read more »

Posted: June 30th, 2008 under Pride, San Francisco, books, queer rights.
Comments: none

The Trans March was cool. There was a lot of anti-HRC sentiment being expressed because of their ENDA strategy. The other big topic, of course, was the current American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders for the revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Many trans activists want Gender Identity Disorder removed from the list of mental disorders and treated as a physical medical issue instead. I agree.

Also, I was a good ally today. As the march was getting underway, I picked the same spot for watching and taking pictures as a bunch of reporters. They were looking at signs that said “Burn the DSM” and had no idea what it meant. Thank goodness I’m one of those professional queers who pays attention to these sorts of things, because I was able to give them some background on the current controversy and stress its importance.

My favorite part of the rally and march, though, was Margaret Cho’s appearance. I was right in front of the stage and could totally make out her nipples through the hoodie she was wearing (it was cold and windy - there were a lot of visible nips).

Anyway, some video and photos…

2008 San Francisco Trans March

See all 73 photos.

Posted: June 28th, 2008 under Pride, queer rights.
Comments: none

With the club creatures in town, and after a very late night, we met up near Jennifer’s house for a late brunch (sometimes also known as “lunch” but it was a Sunday and most of us were gay, so “brunch”). It was rather late by the time we finally made our way to the Folsom Street Fair.

Warning, the pictures that follow this cut are NSFW.

Posted: September 30th, 2007 under Pride, San Francisco.
Comments: 1

 How awesome is Wilson Cruz? And hooray to Tylenol for producing this PSA for the LOGO family of websites/television.

I just finished watching both seasons of Noah’s Arc, and I’ve been a fan of Cruz since I periodically caught My So Called Life and his appearances in Rent. I also saw Cruz last June in the SF Pride Parade…

Okay, so I mostly saw his ass, but it was hot.

via After Elton

Posted: September 9th, 2007 under Pride, homeless youth, queer rights.
Comments: none

The Arrival of the Rainbow Flags on Market Street marks the beginning of Pride Month in San Francisco

Between the rainbow flags downtown and the various Utah Pride reports popping up on my flist, it seems that Pride season is in the air. I’m probably more attuned to this than 90% of the public, but Pride has been a major part of my life for the past 10 years. It’s actually a little startling to realize that June is upon us and I’m not nearing panic-mode over anything related to the parade or festival. I may have to volunteer next year, but I’m enjoying my year off to the fullest.

Things were relatively quiet in the office today. We’ve reorganized some job descriptions lately, so Dave is now full-time in Communications, which has already dramatically reduced my workload. I’ve still got a bunch of ad deadlines and mini-projects to tackle, but it’s more manageable.

Posted: June 5th, 2007 under Pride, livejournal.
Comments: none