Category Archives: Armistead Maupin

>Tag. I’m It?

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1) What is your current obsession?
Blogging? Nah, that’s too easy. It’s actually publication, as in, trying to get a book published! Dammit!

2) What are you wearing today?
Right now, I have an ankle brace on–relapse of the tumble from a few weeks back–grey socks, plaid shorts and a plain white T.
3) What’s for dinner?
Dinner was leftover pizza…..cold. Don’t knock it!

4) What would you eat for your last meal?
Something spicy, very spicy….Indian or Thai. As long as there was lots of ice cold beer to go with it. No dessert, because i don’t really have a sweet tooth.
5) What’s the last thing you bought?
Other than the aforementioned ankle brace? A flatscreen TV and an umbrella for the outside dining table.
6) What are you listening to right now?
Show tunes. i know……Gay! But they’re doing stuff from Miss Saigon and I love that show!
7) What do you think of the person who tagged you?
Oddly enough i got tagged twice and i don’t remember either time.
First up is Lou from The Quiet Life. Excellent blogger, thoughtful, provocative….makes me think. She has some tales to tell about life on the other side of the world. How cool is that?
Then we have DuPree from Chlorine In The Gene Pool who is so fabulously, uproariously funny that I cannot read his blog while drinking anything lest I do a spit-take.

8) If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
I would love a farmhouse in Avignon, among the grapes, so i could make wine and drink wine and live wine. Someplace peaceful and beautiful.
9) If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
New York City. I would never sleep. Love it there.
10) Which language do you want to learn?
I’d like to relearn the French i forgot from high school.

11) What’s your favourite quote (for now)?
It’s not from a poet or anything like that, but I do love this song lyric from Crowded House: Mostly I want to free myself from the burden of inaction. Mostly I want to raise myself to any plane I can imagine.
12) What is your favourite colour?
Green. Used to be blue, then black, now green. Although I’m told I look dashing in red–I say it’s because the color matches my eyes.
13) What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
I have a black wool coat Pea Coat that, for years, I couldn’t wear–living in Miami winter lasts about thirty minutes. Up here in Smallville I get to bring it out all winter long and I love it.
14) What is your dream job?
I’d like to be an author, at least in the published sense of the word. I’d also like to help people, even if it is just by listening. There isn’t a lot of actual listening going on these days. I could own a bookstore, too, because I do loves me some readin’.
15) What’s your favourite magazine?
I get The Advocate, This Old House and Entertainment Weekly. I love them all because they really have nothing to do with one another.
16) If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
Well, that’s about $161 US buck-a-roos, so I think that would buy Carlos and me a lovely dinner….if we stick to one bottle of wine. If. We. Stick.
To. One.
17) What are you going to do after this?
Relax and put the wrapped ankle up. The Real Housewives of New York: The Lost Footage is on tonight. Guilty pleasure.
18) What are your favourite films?
All About Eve; anything with Bette Davis. Anything. Same goes for Meryl Streep. Then we can add The Red Violin, Angels In America, and Longtime Companion. The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me In St Louis.
19) What is your special talent?
I have the uncanny, though friends say annoying, habit of seeing both sides of any issue and understanding them. Not agreeing, mind you, but understanding.
20) What inspires you?
Music. Weather. Carlos. Sounds of life, like my animals purring. So many inspirations, so little time.
21) Your favourite books?
Anything by Armistead Maupin, Caleb Carr, old Anne Rice. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb; How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ethan Mordden; In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse by Peter Mathiessen; I’ve never really met a book I didn’t like.
22) Do you collect anything?
I do not and I have no idea why. Except to say that I like to live simply, so i don’t like a lot of “things” around. So, I guess I could say, I collect memories and emotions and experiences.
But then, sitting and thinking and looking at Question 21, I guess I’d have to say I collect books, because I rarely get rid of any of them.
23) What are you currently reading?
I am reading three books because I’m crazy like that. The Mayor Of Castro Street: The Life & Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts; I am also reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris; and The Promise Of Rest by Reynolds Price.
24) Go to your book shelf, take down the first book with a red spine you see, turn to page 26 and type out the first line:
“As I’ve told you, my father said, clearing his throat once or twice, Professor Rossi was a fine scholar and a true friend.” From The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Not the greatest sentence, but it is a good book.

25) By what criteria do you judge a person?
Honesty. Fairness. Manners. I look for those things in others so I can make sure to tend to them in my own being. Sometimes you need a guide.
And now, I can tag Joy at Babble On, Charlie at Berry Blog, Stephen at Post Apocalyptic Bohemian and Beth at Nutwood Junction because they are all so interesting and have such things to say.

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Filed under Armistead Maupin, Beth, Bette Davis, Books, Chlorine In The Gene Pool, Smallville, The Quiet Life

>When Is It Enough?

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Armistead Maupin, writing in the foreword to Milk: A Pictorial History Of Harvey Milk:
“To us old-timers the argument for Proposition 8 was a blast from the past, a throwback to the evil theocratic Save-the-Children bullshit that Anita Bryant was spewing over thirty years ago. Why, then, was our response so maddeningly weak-kneed and closeted? Why didn’t you see images of gay people in any of our ads — or even the word ‘gay,’ for that matter? Are we that ashamed of ourselves? The answer is no, thankfully; most of us aren’t.
And a growing number of young people have lost patience with the black-tie silent-auction-A-gay complacency of the organizations that claim to be fighting for our rights but don’t want to ruffle feathers. These new kids are friending each other on Facebook (whatever that means) and taking to the streets on their own. My husband and I met a few of them when we picketed the Mormon temple in Oakland last month. They have love in their eyes and fire in their bellies and a commitment to finish this fight once and for all.”
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When will it finally be enough to galvanize the gay community to fight? What more needs to happen? Joy, over at BabbleOn, says if she was a gay woman, living in a world like today, she would be angry all the time; angry at being denounced as less than; being equated to terrorists; being called the worst thing to happen in the history of the world.
I’m beginning to think a lot like Joy.
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A committee of the Idaho state senate refused…REFUSED…to consider a bill that would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Idaho’s 1968 Human Rights Act currently forbids workplace and housing discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color, national origin or mental or physical disability. The measure defeated Friday would have prohibited discrimination in employment, education and housing on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
So, go ahead, be gay in Idaho. But be prepared to be denied the simple basic rights allowed EVERYONE ELSE in the United States because you’re gay.
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Mad now?

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Gainesville, the bustling Central Florida town that is home to the massive University Of Florida campus, will next month vote on a repeal….A REPEAL…of their LGBT rights ordinances.
Christian activists there have placed an amendment on the ballot that will make it legal to fire, not hire, and deny housing to LGBT people.
Charter Amendment One , if approved, would make the city of Gainesville’s anti-discrimination ordinance the same as the Florida Civil Rights Act, removing current protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
Gainesville. Idaho. Pot-tay-to. No homos.
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Pissed off now?
Keep reading.
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Thousands of anti-gay Christian activists jammed Hawaii’s capitol building in Honolulu to protest a proposed bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples.
Some took up positions around the block, holding signs that read

“No Civil Union”
“Destroy the Core of 444”
“We Sed No Already”–apparently education is not foremost in their minds.
“Say Yes To Jesus or Burn In Hell”
Not quite as musical as “God Hates Fags” but still, hate.

But there’s good news!
They don’t want us marryin‘ in Hawaii….or civil unioning……unioning? But at least they aren’t trying to get us fired or kicked out of our homes like they are in Idaho and Gainesville.
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Now? Anyone? Pissed off? Hello? Is this thing on?
There’s more.
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When first given the job of head of the RNC–Repugnant National Committee–Michael Steele said the Republican Party should reach out to gay voters.
Looked like a change in the right direction.
Wrong.
Steele now says that the GOP would not budge on LGBT rights, calling even the consideration of civil unions “crazy.”
from a radio interview with Mike Gallagher:
GALLAGHER: Is this a time when Republicans ought to consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?
STEELE: No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country? I mean this isn’t something that you just kind of like, “Oh well, today I feel, you know, looseygoosey on marriage.” […]
GALLAGHER: So no room even for a conversation about civil unions in your mind?
STEELE: What’s the difference?
What’s the difference? The difference is treating people with respect, equal rights for all Americans. The difference is being human to all human beings and not be some double-talking-kiss-ass-homophobe-goosestepping-alongside-hate-mongers.
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Still not mad?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm .
Colorado, anyone?
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During the Colorado state senate debate on extending health benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees, Sen. Scott Renfroe (Repugnant) compared gays to murderers…MURDERERS…. and quoted Bible verses calling for homosexuals to be put to death.
A government official, an elected official, calling for people to be put to death because of their sexual orientation?
Only in America, apparently.
On the floor of the State Senate, right-wing Senator Scott Renfroe also referred to gay and lesbian people as an “abomination” and an “offense to God.” Renfroe then quoted the Book of Leviticus suggesting that gay people should be put to death. Of course, he also said that women were created to be “helpers” for men, quoting the Book of Genesis.
So, I wanna get this straight. Or gay.
I can be fired and not hired; I can be denied housing. The Repugnant man wanted to reach out and now he thinks reaching out is crazy. We’re murderers. Abominations.
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Now? Pissed? Now?
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While same-sex marriage bans have failed in North Carolina’s legislature for the last six consecutive years, those wacky hatemongers refuse to give up.
They are once again proposing a constitutional amendment on the issue.
Here are their arguments:
“Moms and dads are not interchangeable:” Senator Jim Forrester, lead sponsor of a proposal that would put this issue on the ballot for North Carolina voters.
“Throughout the entirety of sacred scripture, marriage is always and only recognized as a union between a man and woman:” Bishop Peter Jugis, of the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.
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This is how I see it.
Everywhere I look they are trying to legislate who I am, who I love, how I live, where I live, where I work, what I do.
That is NOT America.
That is NOT right.
So I am mad now….if I wasn’t before.
Are you?
Are you, as gay men and women, just going to sit idly by and let this happen. Even if you as gay people don’t want marriage for yourselves, isn’t it up to the individual to have that right, to choose marriage or not to choose marriage?
Are you going to say nothing as they strip your ‘inalienable’ rights away?
And what about you straight folks? i know you’re out there. Hell, I know some of you.
Are you going to say it’s enough?
Because, after they come for the gays, who’s next to be denied, to be less than?
Who’s next?

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Filed under Armistead Maupin, BabbleOn, California, Discrimination, Florida, Hawaii, LGBT, LGBT Rights, Michael Steele, North Carolina