Reasonably Logical

We’re coming up on the holiday (and for me, birthday) season once again. To anticipate some questions, I’m throwing up my wish list here. Unlike last year, there are some physical things for myself on here. Having said that, a gift in the form of a charitable donation will always be appreciated.

First, I’m looking to get a small electronic picture frame. Something that I can use to display my pictures of family and friends on my desk at home.

Second, I’ve got a list of programming books I’m slowly making my way through.

Finally, I’m trying to rebuild my collection of backpacking equipment. (Next up: A new stove, and a small pack) A gift card to REI Inc or Outdoor Sports Center would be greatly appreciated. Given how picky I am when it comes to gear, please do not try to buy me anything directly.

I was on the phone this morning with MorningStar and got a very pleasant surprise. Before ending the call, the representative I spoke with - Carrie - took a moment to give me her direct dial extension. I had not asked for it, nor would have given the simple issue I called with, but it was a very nice touch none the less. Its nice to see that some companies are still making a concerted effort to be customer friendly.

I’m posting my Christmas list for this year so I can easily share it with friends and family. It’s a fairly simple list; there’s only one thing on it! I’m requesting that all of my Christmas gifts be in the form of a donation to a charity. Most of my gifts in recent years have been gift cards of one form or another. Given the economy this year and the probability that some companies may be going bust - and thus not honoring gift cards - I’d much rather have that money go to a good cause. Besides, I’ve still got plenty of cards from last year!

I would prefer a charity that is involved in one or more of the following areas: youth issues, homelessness, education, or gay (GLBT) rights. Below I’ve included some suggestions for charities that I consider worth of donations, but I will accept a donation to any worthy cause. The only requirement I have is that the charity in question does not discriminate based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race or citizenship status. For example, Covenant House, Catholic Charities, or the Minutemen would not qualify. The one exception to this I will make is that I will except donations to the Boy Scouts of America.

When you make your donation, please let me know the charity and amount. I will be tracking the total amount raised and will post it here at the end of the season.

Suggested Charities

Point Foundation (National) - Point is a scholarship fund for GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) youth. Statistically, GLBT youth are much less likely to go to college than their straight counterparts. Point tries to do something about that. I’ve been contributing to them regularly since my first year in college.

Sylvia’s Place (New York, NY) - Sylvia’s Place is a homeless shelter in NYC for GLBT youth. I volunteer at the shelter regularly. Sylvia’s Place is run on an absolutely shoestring budget; every penny donated is much appreciated.

Avenues for Homeless Youth (Minneapolis, MN) - Avenues is an emergency shelter for homeless youth in Minneapolis. I’ve never worked with them directly, but did have a chance to interview the director while in Minneapolis for MBLGTACC 2007. I was impressed with the programs, in particular their GLBT Host Home program. Avenues is not exclusively an GLBT shelter, but is very welcoming for GLBT youth.

Lamda Legal (National) - Lambda is one of the premier legal organizations fighting for gay rights in the United States. They have been fighting the good fight for many years, both at the national level and in partnership with statewide organizations. They have been instrument in some of the most important legal victories of the last decade: Lawrence v Texas and Goodridge v. Mass. Department of Public Health for two. A donation to Lambda goes directly towards changing the laws that make GLBT individuals second class citizens in our own country and states.

Boy Scouts of America - I am an Eagle Scout and can say first hand how much good this organization does for so many youth. I disagree with their discriminatory policies, but support them non-the-less. Keeping in mind the national policies, I request that you make any donations directly to your local council rather than the national umbrella organization. List of Councils, Orange County Council

Electronic Frontier Foundation (National) - If you’re not on their weekly email list and you care about freedom of speech on the Internet, you really should be.

Everyone, I have a birthday coming up at the end of November and I’d like to ask a favor of you. If you were otherwise considering giving me a gift, please don’t. Instead, I ask you to do two things: 1) Vote against Proposition 8 if you’re a California resident, and 2) make a donation to the No on 8 Campaign whether you are a Californian or not. The upcoming vote is likely to be a very close one and your support is much more valuable to me than any physical gift could be.

Here’s a few (of the many) reasons you should oppose Proposition 8:
- You believe in separation of church and state. Proposition 8 is a direct effort to introduce religious morality into the state constitution. Even if you don’t personally support gay marriage, the thought of having one particular religion’s idea of morality inscribed in the state constitution should scare you.
- You don’t believe a minority should be at the whim of the majority. Proposition 8 takes rights away from a minority group. If it passes, the majority of the population will be voting to directly strip rights from a minority. Given that everyone is a minority in some way (race, sex, age, occupation, etc..), do you really want to be setting that precedent?
- You believe in equal rights under the law for all. However you look at it, the CA Supreme Court has very clearly stated that denying gay people the right to marry is discrimination. Proposition 8 wouldn’t change that fact; it would simply inscribe discrimination into the state constitution.
- Finally, and most importantly, because I’m asking you to. This is an issue that is important to me personally, and I am asking for your support.

For the record, the above is not a generic form letter or anything like that. I wrote it (from scratch) because this is a cause I personally believe strongly in. I would greatly appreciate your support in opposing Proposition 8.

Yours,
Philip

I am sending an email with the text above to many of my friends and family in California and around the country. This is a cause I believe in, and I’m asking my friends and family to stand with me.

If you’re reading this, I encourage you to do the same. From what I’ve heard, this is going to come down to a very close vote. Every single person you talk to, and every single dollar you raise will make a potentially critical difference.

Update (11-20-08; Yes, after we lost.): Pam’s House Blend has a really good argument about why everyone - gay or not - should be downright scared by the Prop 8 decision. Go read it! But first, I’ll leave you with a poem to think on.
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”

Couple bequeaths fund to help gay youth, fight AIDS
By DON CUDDY
Standard-Times staff writer
June 09, 2008 6:00 AM

I have the utmost respect for these gentlemen and their effort to make a difference even after they themselves have passed on. Personally, I hope to make a difference in the world before I die, but if I can’t or maybe even if I can, I want to do something similar to this.

Last night some friends and I went down to NYC to see Avenue Q. I’d heard good things about it and knew I liked the sound track, but I was still surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Avenue Q is fricking hilarious. (Definitely an adult sense of humor.) I really liked how it used humor to poke fun at real social issues.

Here were my favorite songs and why:

• “What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?” - Funny
• “It Sucks to Be Me” - Funny, but also pokes fun at everyone. Who hasn’t had that moment of self pity when there’s no good reason?
• “If You Were Gay” - I had so much sympathy for Rod during this song. Poor guy.
• “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” - So true, so true. Now if only we could non-PC enough to just admit it.
• “The Internet Is for Porn” - My favorite song. So funny, and so true. This ones is a lot better on the sound track then it was live though.
• “I Wish I Could Go Back to College” - This song is *so* me. Especially the last line.
• “For Now” - My life right now

Of course, it didn’t hurt that the lead actor (Howie Michael Smith) was really cute.

Well, I’m a little late getting this up here, but back in March I had an article published in Metroline - a gay & lesbian twice monthly news magazine. On pg 24, both the text and pictures of the article on the NHGLCC’s Dorothy Awards are mine. I was the event photographer and wrote up a quick article after the fact. The pictures didn’t print great, though they’re not too bad overall. The originals look a lot better than what made it into the magazine.

“Out & About: The 5th Annual Dorothy Awards”
Metroline (Volume 35, Issue 5), pg 24

Yesterday, I attended Our True Colors - a LGBT youth conference for the state of Connecticut. Overall, I enjoyed the conference, but there were a few things that didn’t work out quite as expected. For one thing, my black North Face jacket went missing part way though the day. I’m a little irritated by that, but well what can I do about it now?

I left Stamford at about 6:30 am, stopped at work to pick up my camera, the drove up to University of Connecticut (UConn) where the conference was being held. After checking in, I went to part of the opening keynote before heading out to prepare for my first workshop of the day.

My first workshop was entitled “Exploiting Technology to Further Your Mission.” In retrospect, that was probably a bit abstract for the age of the people attending. (Most high school, with a few college students, and middle schoolers thrown in) Partly as a result of that, and partly due to the day’s low attendance (see below), I only had one person attend. Worse, he was not involved in any form of LGBT organizing or activism; he’d been drug along by a friend. We ended up talking about the uses of technology in Physics since that was his major. Overall, it was a complete bust.

My second workshop (title “Practical Lessons in Managing Your Volunteer Base”) was more of a success. While I only had one person show up again, this time the attendee was there because they were actually interested and needed advice. I ran through my slides, but since it was just the two of us it really became a one-on-one counseling session. That type of one-on-one interaction is what I enjoy the most about teaching, so for me the workshop was more than worthwhile.

As I mentioned before, Saturday attendance was way down. Apparently, most of the high school students come up on Friday when they can come on school field trips. Also, the weather was bad (rain + some snow) so a lot of people stayed home.

After my workshops were over, I went to a workshop on over the counter drug use by LGBT youth. It was absolutely fascinating. This was a topic I knew next to nothing about, so I learned a lot from the workshop. I’ll probably be putting up a separate post about that workshop.

After the last workshop, I volunteered to help with the cleanup. I worked with one other volunteer to take boxes from the conference and load them onto the truck to go back to the True Colors office. Once we got mostly through that, we broke for a few minutes to eat a quick dinner. (It was during dinner that my jacket walked off.) After dinner & hunting for my jacket a bit, I got recruited to follow the truck back to Manchester and bring the driver (Brian - the volunteer I’d worked with earlier) back to the conference. All told, that trip took about an hour.

After getting back, I spent a little more time hunting for my jacket and then checked out with the volunteer table to head home. (It was about 9:30 pm by then.) On the way out, I stopped to talk with a guy nicknamed “Dragon”. Turned out we had a lot in common - including our shared difficulties in social situations - so I was able to give him some hopefully useful advice. We ended up talking for about 30 minutes before I took off to head home. I got home around midnight, talked to Matt and some friends from work who were over, then crashed.

I just got back from the MBLGTACC 2008 conference. I was there for four days, but the time went by so fast it felt more like four hours. I spent a lot of time volunteering at the conference, and the rest spending as much time with as many friends as possible. Being back in Champaign reminded me just how much a part of me wishes I hadn’t left.

The end result of everything else I was doing was that I only attended two workshops and one of the three keynotes. Probably my lowest attendance record ever for a conference. Well, that happens when you spend all your time running the thing. (For once, I was not in charge. Yeah!)

And on that note, let me offer my congratulations to the conference committee and in particular the co-chairs. Nicely done guys! Now go get some sleep. You all need it.

I can’t believe it, but I somehow managed to miss mentioning Mandy’s award in my post about Creating Change. Mandy Carter - my co-facilitator for our “Out (or not) in the Child Welfare System” workshop - was honored by NLGTF for her forty (yes 40) years of activism in social justice movements. Mandy has been active in the African-American, women’s, and GLBT rights movements for significantly longer than I’ve been alive. Congratulations once again Mandy.

Our workshop co-conspirator Pauline Parks, wrote a wonderful blog entry over at VisibleVote08 about Mandy’s award and her acceptance speech. I’m mentioned in passing about halfway through the post.

Pauline, Mandy, Matt Foreman and I took a picture following Mandy’s acceptance speech. Unfortunately, my camera was still setup for outdoors and the shots didn’t come out at all. Once I manage to get a copy from Mandy or Pauline, I’ll post it here.