The songbirds were confused at first but then they figured it out - they had two mornings in the same day to wake up and sing for.

“And make no mistake about it, you are dumb. You’re a group of incredibly well-educated dumb people. I was there. We all were there. You’re barely functional. There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups, but the screw-ups, they’re a-coming for ya. It’s a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb,” - Aaron Sorkin, at Syracuse’s commencement.

Ever since President Obama came out for same sex marriage earlier this week I’ve been thinking of my friends and lovers who died early on in the AIDS plague. People can dismiss Obama for waiting too long, for playing politics, for whatever reason - but since his announcement I have wished that I could bring back all my brothers for one day because they would be astonished at this news, as am I. Back in the late 70s to early 80s gay marriage wasn’t even on our radar. What was on our radar was sex and lots of it but in our private moments, when the bushes and bathhouses and bars were exhausted, what most of the men I loved back then wanted was someone to love, to share his life with and be with. At least I think that’s true. It’s what I wanted. That’s why I wish them all back for a day, today, to lounge around on my patio and porch, and see what they would have to say about gay marriage.

I can see several of them being crazy by how “legitimate” we’ve become but you have to remember we came of age in the 70s and the world was our private pearl, to hang on to and polish and no one, no one, was going to take it away. Gay marriage was as foreign to us as condoms.

I wonder if AIDS had never happened and if all the gay men who died because of it were still alive, moving through life like I am right now - would “gay rights” have proceeded more quickly? There were so many of us, the numbers are astounding - you need only ponder all the deaths to realize that the gay male population bubble would have been huge but would the numbers alone have been enough? Along with the passion? Along with the courage and creative energy? That’s why I wish I could call them back for a day - well, not really, I want them back for good - so we can live our lives out to their natural end, together.

It makes me swell with pride that a President of the United States, President Obama, said he was, said he was, well. . .

You know what, I can’t go on. I’m too emotional, I’m crying, and I want to honor that.

More to come. . .

Thank you, President Obama, for announcing your support for gay marriage, especially on the day after Amendment 1 passed in North Carolina.

I’m speechless. . . more later.

YA HOOOOOOOOO!

I’m sad and disgusted to hear that North Carolina voters passed Amendment 1. I keep hearing that voters didn’t understand what they were voting for. I believe that emotions for the Amendment were stirred up by lots of misinformation but none more important than that of the Reverend Billy Graham, Sr., putting out the word that he supported the Amendment because of the Bible. Yes, this is the same Billy Graham who defended President Nixon after Watergate and President Clinton after his blow job. I wish I could write his obituary - may this hateful decision of his be his legacy.

Reminds me of Proposition 8 passing in California, another Constitutional Amendment banning marriage between same gender couples, thanks to the deluge of money that poured into the state from the Mormon Church.

The time has come, in fact, the time has long since passed, to consider taxing individual religious institutions that engage in politics under the guise of being separated from the state.