1000 Words

Almost Famous

Over the weekend, Wilber and I were having a lazy-Saturday-afternoon bagel in the bagel shop near the house. We noticed a news reporter and her cameraman outside the window of the shop, looking in at the customers. Wilber joked, "They must be coming in to interview me."

Sure enough, the reporter and cameraman walked inside and walked straight over to our table and said, "We'd like to interview you two."

"About what?", I asked.
"About your thoughts on same-sex marriage."

"What?", I thought. "Are we wearing a sign or something? Is G-A-Y stamped across my forehead?" I was a little perturbed by the implication.

As it turns out, the lady was a reporter for a Filipino news network, and they were interviewing New Yorkers about their feelings regarding same-sex marriage and its not being legal in this state.

On camera, I made some comment about how it's a shame that it's not legal, etc, etc. Very creative, I know. Then they turned the camera to Wilber. He spoke so eloquently about how New York is such a diverse, progressive city and how it's counter-intuitive that same-sex marriage isn't legal here but is legal in other seemingly less-progressive states. Well said, babe. You're a natural in the spotlight.

I thought it was interesting, given my previous blogpost, that someone would then turn on a camera and call on me to defend my viewpoint.

So today, I'm walking down the street and this representative from the Human Rights Campaign (a GLBT-rights organization) stops me and asks me to become a partner of them and support the end of workplace-discrimination for gays. People are coming out of the woodwork this week calling on me to advocate for equal rights for the GLBT community. "YES!", I replied. Awesome!

Gay rights is one of those things that I believe strongly in. But sometimes I am still a little wary of making that belief known publicly.

Not anymore.

I'm a member of a community. The community needs help.

Here I am!

Let's go do this thing!

Freedom To Marry

This week is Freedom To Marry Week. Americans celebrate this week the importance of ending exclusion of same-sex couples' right to marriage. We likewise engage in conversations with friends and family about advocating for equal marriage rights for all Americans.


Check out Al Gore's endorsement.
http://current.com/items/88817757_gay_men_and_women_should_have_the_same_rights

Check out the Human Rights Campaign's Million for Marriage petition. Sign the petition and forward it on to others who will sign it.

A small fire

I was woken up last night by one of my roommates banging on my door and shouting "Get out! Get out!" I scrambled out of bed in a panic and opened my bedroom door and I there was this haziness in the apartment and it smelled of smoke and gas and my roommate was shouting, "There's a fire! Get out!"

I was only in my undies, so my first thought is "Get clothes on." I managed to throw some clothes on but I was in such a panic that I found it hard to know what drawers even to go to for clothes. I've had the thought process before, If there's ever a fire, what would I grab on my way out? I figured I would grab my Bible, my laptop, some photo albums, etc.

What did I grab last night? Nothing! I looked at all those things and said forget it, it's not worth the time it would take. They can all be replaced. I just grabbed a blanket off my bed because it was below freezing outside last night.

We called 911 and three firetrucks showed up. They immediately found the fire in the basement. Part of the boiler had caught on fire and they quickly put it out. It appears that no structural damage was done to the house. In fact, they told us it was safe to sleep in the house last night. Only thing we're missing is heat right now, because the landlord has to put in a new boiler now. Before I went back to bed, I started looking around the apartment for the smoke detectors, wondering why they hadn't alarmend. There were none!

People, make sure your apartment has smoke detectors. I assumed the landlord had them installed, but he did not. I'll be putting them up today, along with carbon monoxide detectors as well. You just never know what could happen.

The Obama Wagon

It's no secret that Sen. Obama is generating much hype these days. He seems to be effectively mobilizing a generation of disenfranchised twenty and thirtysomethings. So why am I finding it so hard to believe what he says and to jump on the proverbial wagon? I've read blogposts here and there and listened to his speeches. I'm not sold, though. It's hard to believe what anyone says during the heat of the campaign trail. What if he's just spewing inspirational/feel-good/yes we can rhetoric? On the other hand, if he is going to be the next JFK-esque political icon, do I want to be the guy who says no to that?

Help me out, Obama fans. Tell me why you're sold. Without using the word inspirational.