Hello everyone! I thought I would catch up with you very quickly. It seems since last Wednesday, when we had our gay rally, that I’ve been going full tilt and haven’t had the ability to get my feet back under me. We planned on Wednesday for the rally. It was cool to connect with the older gay community and they made me, Lauren, Lucy, and Steve (yes Steve I’ve kinda had a thing for) feel very welcome.
I ended up scribing for our group. There were two; I guess you would say leaders, for us, one gay guy and one straight pastor. We discussed a variety of plans to show our solidarity. What we decided on was solidarity bands for our arms, red, white, and blue (because we are all American citizens) speakers, including myself and Lauren (which made me nervous because I’m not completely out) and then there was a symbolic wedding ceremony wedding all us gays and our supporters. Our protest was set for this past Saturday on the Erie County Court House steps at 1:30pm.
The meeting was great but there was one problem. The straight pastor kept trying to keep things civil. It was the whole “you can’t fight hate with hate” idea. Which is a wonderful idea but I was hot under the collar. I wanted some loud protests. I wanted us to be expressive; I wanted us to use a mega-phone etc. But this pastor kept it civil, which is probably better but to be quite frank I want people to be scared of us. I want people to be scared of us not because we are gay but because we mean business. I don’t force my sexuality on anyone and when people feel the need to force their own moral belief on what a marriage is on me I want them to know that I don’t like it. I want people to take stock in what I have to say, I want to be heard and I want them to listen and answer me. But that is just me and this being my first rally I didn’t think it would have been to great of me to high jack the rally and go on a religious crusade looking for the mormons. I kid…and not that their would be a ton of mormons in Erie…I digress.
Also this weekend we celebrated a late birthday bar crawl for me but it was Lauren’s birthday as well. So we had friends staying at our place from Friday until Sunday…then on Sunday Lauren’s parents and siblings came down to visit for the afternoon. Needless to day I was constantly going this weekend. In fact I ended up taking a mental health day yesterday. Not only did I sleep in, I cleaned our kitchen and bathroom, did the dishes, baked a cake for Lauren’s birthday (I wanted to do laundry but our washer and dryer was out of order), and I wrapped gifts. It was very busy. Then I had two business meetings this morning.
The Saturday rally was awesome. We got an early lunch and talked about gay stuff then headed over to the court house. We were there with our signs and umbrellas (it rained), we had our solidarity ribbons on etc. There were a couple of speakers one of them was a lesbian I went to college with that I didn’t know was a lesbian…and I saw another girl who was a partner with me in a class that turn out was a lesbian too. It was like we all came out to each other coming to the rally. It was a weird but awesome moment! Both Lauren and I spoke on the steps of the courthouse. It was scary but empowering. We briefly talked about how straight people need to be our voices to and help promote gay marriage and I talked about how I was a gay man and how it was unbelievable that people still try to take our rights away from us in 2008 etc. We had between 80 to 150 people it was hard to estimate. We ended up on a variety of news outlets. It was really cool and empowering. I felt like a part of a community for the first time. There were no real protestors protesting us. We did have a variety of people drive past and beep for us from their cars which was awesome. Afterwards we went to a coffee house with others from the community and other supporters. It was cool getting to know others. Plus I’ve decided to try and get a little more into some community activism. So we will see how it goes. Overall it has been going going going. I want to say that I’m ready for Thanksgiving break but it is going to be just as busy at break as it is now. I have work stuff on Friday, a dental appointment on Monday, then home for Thanksgiving back to Erie the next day, then over to Ohio for another wedding reception for the couple from Oklahoma then we have a friend staying with us until the first Tuesday of Dec and lets not forget the whole Christmas shopping deal that is coming up. whew… So that’s about it in a nut shell.
In terms of the dating world; Craig and I are still seeing each other intermittently for gay wrestling matches. I’m still making attempts to take Lauren’s co-worker on a date but I can never seem to ask him or catch him when he is at work….Steve and I are now friends. I still want to make out with him but not much else…or at least I keep telling myself that. It’s nice to have a gay friend though. We’ve been hanging out much more lately. It is weird cause I feel like I like him, but I wonder if it’s just me liking having a gay friend and then some of the things he says about past ex’s makes me anxious. So I don’t know what is going on.
On a final note…winter has finally come to Erie. We got something like 2 feet from Sunday into Monday…the Farmer’s Almanac says it going to be bad this winter…did I ever mention I hate the Farmer’s Almanac.
