Martin Luther King Jr.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

love sacramento light rail stops!

aaaawwwww...the poor thing

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "bow wow and omarion":

I hope your not tryin to say they're gay or something cause you can kiss both they asses. You damn right I'm easily offended about both Omarion and Bowwow or any other artist really because they have enough problems without nothing ass bithces like you trying to start rumors!!! You probably the BIGGEST Homo of them all LOL!!!

~ The #1 Mrs. Grandberry a.k.a. Neisha

on a lighter note

uh, can you sing, "go to hell"?

on james baldwin

Some 25 years ago as a idealistic young political activist at UC Santa Barbara, Through my comrades at the un-official ethnic studies department, I learned of an author named James Baldwin. Soon after on a boring afternoon walking through downtown Hayward, I wandered into a used bookstore and low and behold there was a dog eared copy of James Baldwin’s “Another Country”. I was mesmerized by this novel. Being a privileged white boy from the Bay Area, I never had this kind of exposure. Being an enthusiastic (borderline manic) liberal (nothing short of a damn socialist) I was as empathetic as I could be. As important was my exposure to homosexuality. Reading this book was, perhaps, the first time I came across a positive (although slightly troubled) portrayal of gay men with beautiful and erotic prose of physical and emotional love between two men. It had a tremendous impact on my life. Anyway that very book has always, and still is on my coffee table.

From RaceWire

Kai Wright

Twenty Years Later: James Baldwin’s America Hasn’t Changed

Author and essayist James Baldwin died 20 years ago on Dec. 1.

Baldwin’s biographer and close friend, David Leeming, called his essays “prophetic,” as they articulated an eerily clear-eyed view of America’s peril at the hands of what, in Baldwin’s day, was politely called the “race problem.”

Perhaps Leeming has it right and Baldwin was a soothsayer. But a more plausible explanation is that Baldwin’s work remains contemporary because America’s racial caste system changed so little over the generations that his writing spans.

Baldwin considered race America’s poison pill. And he deftly portrayed Americans of all colors struggling to concoct their own individual antidotes—solutions that are temporary at best and always crazy-making because, at root, the problem is structural not individual.

Today, we still have not reached Baldwin’s understanding of race and racism. It remains a collective problem that we insist upon dealing with on an individual basis. As a result, even our greatest triumphs—the end of legal segregation, broadened opportunity for the slim black middle class—are undermined by broader forces.

In his first essay collection, 1955’s Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin describes an urban ghetto that since has changed only in aesthetic. “All over Harlem now,” he wrote, “there is felt the same bitter expectancy with which, in my childhood, we awaited winter: it is coming and it will be hard; there is nothing anyone can do about it.”

Then and now, reform efforts have failed to alter that bleak reality because they’ve made no fundamental changes. As Baldwin wrote, “Steps are taken to right the wrong, without, however, expanding or demolishing the ghetto. The idea is to make it less of a social liability, a process about as helpful as make-up to a leper.”

So today Baldwin’s Harlem still lingers atop the list of New York neighborhoods with problems ranging from dilapidated housing stock to communicable disease to food establishments that simply fail to pass health inspection. The same is true for other racially defined ghettos around the country.

What is different today is that few discuss race in Baldwin’s structural terms. Instead, we busy ourselves with word games.

We play gotcha with celebrities who use slurs, rather than noticing the morbid conditions African Americans are disproportionately asked to live within. We eagerly embrace commentators like Bill Cosby when they decry the way individuals have adapted to generations of ghetto life. But we nickel and dime any policy effort to change those conditions. We ban the N-word, and we leave the ghetto intact.

This neglect has the same impact today that it had when Baldwin dissected it in 1955. “All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand,” he wrote, “and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.”

Kai Wright, a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, New York. His new book, Drifting Towards Love: Black, Brown, Gay, and Coming Out on the Streets of New York, will be published in January by Beacon Press. He is also publications editor for the Black AIDS Institute and author of two previous books on African American history.

Iran: Young Man Executed for Alleged Sex Crime

For Immediate Release
Contact: Hossein Alizadeh, IGLHRC Communications Coordinator, 212-430-6016

(New York, Wednesday December 5, 2007) - The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has learned today that despite an order by the Iranian Chief Justice to nullify his death sentence, Mr. Makvan Mouloodzadeh was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison at 5 a.m. this morning, Iranian time. Neither Mr. Mouloodzadeh's family or his lawyer were told about the execution until after it occurred. IGLHRC is still investigating the facts in this case.

"This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights law," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director. "How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community takes action?"

Mr. Mouloodzadeh was a 21-year-old Iranian citizen who was accused of committing anal rape (ighab) with other young boys when he was 13 years old. However, at Mr. Mouloodzadeh's trial, all the witnesses retracted their pre-trial testimonies, claiming to have lied to the authorities under duress. Makvan also told the court that his confession was made under coercion and pleaded not guilty. On June 7, 2007, the Seventh District Criminal Court of Kermanshah in Western Iran found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Despite his lawyer's appeal, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on August 1, 2007. The case caused an international uproar, and prompted a letter writing campaign by IGLHRC and similar actions by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Outrage! and Everyone Group.

In response to mounting public pressure, and following a detailed petition submitted to the Iranian Chief Justice by Mr. Mouloodzadeh's lawyer, the Iranian Chief Justice, Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, nullified the impending death sentence of Mr. Mouloodzadeh. In his November 10, 2007 opinion (1/86/8607), the Iranian Chief Justice described the death sentence to be in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land.

In accordance with Iranian legal procedure, Mr. Mouloodzadeh's case was sent to the Special Supervision Bureau of the Iranian Justice Department, a designated group of judges who are responsible for reviewing and ordering retrials of flawed cases flagged by the Iranian Chief Justice. However, in defiance of the Chief Justice, the judges decided to ratify the original court's ruling and ordered the local authorities to carry out the execution.

Mr. Mouloodzadeh's execution came days after a panel at the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.

You can read IGLHRC's action alert on our website: http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=797

Our Letter to the Iranian authorities is also posted on our website in both English and Persian: http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=798

###

who me?

great show - clicky click

Thanks Towleroad

my belief results

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (89%)
3. Neo-Pagan (88%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (86%)
5. New Age (84%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (79%)
7. Secular Humanism (76%)
8. Taoism (76%)
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (75%)
10. Scientology (70%)
11. Hinduism (65%)
12. New Thought (65%)
13. Jainism (64%)
14. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (62%)
15. Reform Judaism (58%)
16. Sikhism (55%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (51%)
18. Nontheist (46%)
19. Bahá'í Faith (46%)
20. Orthodox Judaism (30%)
21. Islam (28%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (28%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (26%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (24%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (16%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (14%)
27. Roman Catholic (14%)

World AIDS Day Tribute- Essex Hemphill-PRESENTE!

Poet, editor, and activist Essex Hemphill was born April 16, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. He was raised in Southeast Washington, DC, and began to write poems at the age of fourteen. He was educated at the University of Maryland.

Hemphill's first books were the self-published chapbooks Earth Life (1985) and Conditions (1986). He first gained national attention when his work appeared in the anthology In the Life (1986), a seminal collection of writings by Black gay men. In 1989, his poems were featured in the award-winning documentaries Tongues Untied and Looking for Langston.

In 1991, Hemphill edited Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, which won a Lambda Literary Award. In 1992, he released Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry, which won the National Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award. His poems appeared in Obsidian, Black Scholar, Callaloo, Painted Bride Quarterly, Essence, and numerous other newspapers and journals. His work also appeared in numerous anthologies including Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (1986) and Life Sentences: Writers, Artists and AIDS (1993). He was a visiting scholar at The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in 1993. On November 4, 1995, Hempill died from complications relating to AIDS.

From Poetry.org


Conditions XIV
Essex Hemphill


You left me begging for things
most men thought they had below their belts.
I was reaching higher.
I could throw my legs up like satellites
but I knew I was fucking fallen angels.
I made them feel like demigods.
I believed my mission
to be a war zone duty:
don't create casualties,
heal them.
But I was the wounded
almost dead.
Helping the uninjured.
Men whose lusty hearts
weakened in the middle of the night
and brought them to tears, to their knees
for their former lovers.
They could look at me and tell
they did not want to endure
what beauty love scars give me.
So touch me now --
Hannibal, Toussaint.
I am a revolution without bloodshed.
I change the order of things
to suit my desperations.
You can raise your legs,
almost touch heaven.
I can be an angel,
falling.

my new addiction

Jay Brannan

go white boy

happy

thanksgiving y'all. thank you for your supportive comments. i am thankfull for a second chance at life, for my wonderfull and beatifull bf, my family for thier support and love my frinends both physical and virtual, my new friends at AA, and the staff at the recovery center I went through. peace. -r

I'm back

from rehab! 30 days goes by so fast! more to come soon.

going to rehab!

Ok here’s the story:

I’m an alcoholic. I like to drink but I want/have to stop. I have been trying but I have discovered how difficult it is. I’ve cut way back but I eventfully go binging. This infuriates my BF to the point of almost destroying our relationship. I have almost lost my job because of it and have hurt myself (not intentionally) I got a DUI because of it. I’ve been kicked out of bars and fought with BF and EX. I have to stop so I started looking into AA and substance abuse counseling. I haven’t started anything yet but I have to. It’s very hard. I have to do it for me and I have to do it for my relationship. In my heart I know I’d rather hold my BF’s hand than a cocktail glass. My BF is rather impatient with my progress (damn it’s hard) which leads to the second issue. Me and my BF have sort of been together for four years. about a year ago we really made a commitment to each other. I'm a nester. I want to create a home with him and have him move in with me. I'll continue this later it's kind of hard to write about this now. UPDATE: haven't seen or talked to the BF much in the last few days. test messages not replied to. feeling pretty down. heavy heart.

Congrats! Keep up the great work!

Terra Naiomi Say Its Possible

This is posted for my BF

I see the lights are turning
And i look outside the stars are burning
Through this changing time
It could have been anything we want
Its fine salvation was just a passing thought.

Dont wait act now
This amazing offer wont last long
Its only a chance to pave the path were on
I know there are more exciting things to talk about
And in time well sort it out

And though they say its possible to me
I dont see how its probable
I see the course were on
Spinning farther from what i know
Ill hold on
Tell me that you wont let go
Tell me that you wont let go

And truth is such a funny thing
With all these people
Keep on telling me
They know whats best
And what to be frightened of
And all the rest are wrong
They know nothing about us

And though they say its possible to me
I dont see how its probable
I see the course were on
Spinning farther from what i know
Ill hold on
Tell me that you wont let go
Tell me that you wont let go

Im not alright

This could be something beautiful
Combine our love into something wonderful
But times are tough i know
And the pull of what we cant give up takes hold

the last

Last Kiss: My boyfriend this morning
Last Good Cry: Yesterday
Last Crush: Some guy named K.
Last Alcoholic Drink: Vodka
Last Phone Call: Sister this morning.
Last Text Message: From my boyfriend this morning
Last TV Show Watched: CNN .
Last CD Played: well it’s a you tube clip of a song I want my BF to hear Its posted here..
Last Book Purchased: Dry
Last Book Read: Running with siccors
Last Movie Seen In A Theater: Don’t remember
Last Movie Rented: Boy Culture
Last Download: I can’t actually remember
Last Curse Word Used: fuck it
Last Beverage Consumed: Water
Last Food Consumed: Pasta
Last Item Purchased: Cigs
Last Car Ride: Driving to work
Last Word Spoken: love
Last Annoyance: at myself
Last Disappointment: The fact that I sometimes and recently felt that I wasn’t good enough to be in my relationship.

AdultLab

running into some rough times with the BF and it's breaking my heart. I know we can work through this I just hope he is wiling.

for the bible tells me so

for M

they did find a brain!

Students at Ohio State on Coming Out

HNT