Labels...Who Decides Whats Not O.K.?

How important are the words we use to describe ourselves?

Recently, Erik... a wonderfull young Youtuber who goes by the name "straightactinggayguy" was feartured on Queerty in a video discussing how difficult it is to find a date when you live in the midwest...your fresh out of the closet...and you don't have contact with other gay people. Sounds innocent enough right?...I thought so at least. What actually happened incited a comment flamefest because of what Erik's screenname implies. The interesting thing that came from all this was how important the labels we apply to ourselves, and others, can be.

Rise Together

Is this how YOU feel right now?...I know it has been for us lately. I see so many people working so hard to help advance the cause of gay rights, from those who gave of their time to work phonebanks or stump door to door, to those who used whatever means the web can offer. So many of us poured our hearts and souls into California's prop 8 fight and the recent fights in Maine, Washington, and Kalamazoo. To face defeat in Maine has left me feeling like horrible sense of deja vu and like a light is going out in the world.

But now that the dust has settled everyone is looking for someone to blame. Some place that blame on the religious, others on soccer moms, HRC, And..most appropriately, our President. However, the most concerning finger pointing is directed right at us, the gay community.

Shades of Oppresion...Evergreen...

....Evergreen....

The word conjures images of of the redwood forests of my home. It puts me in mind of the thousands of acres of green mountains in Oregon and Washington state, the smell of the cool forest floor after the first rain, and fresh cut Christmas greens. The last thing I would associate with such a lovely word is the ex-gay movement...