None of my family is attending my Same-Sex Wedding

Our Wedding is October 3rd and none of my family is attending. 

When I sent the invitations out I set my expectations low, so as not to be disappointed, however, I never expected this. My fiancé has received many more yes rsvp's than no's. She keeps reminding me that her family will soon be my family when we marry, but somehow that doesn't make me feel a whole lot better.

I feel crushed. Utterly and completely crushed. Am I that big a loser? What did I EVER do to deserve this?

We just went to a family reunion for my family. Everyone was nice and all smiles and hugs. Not many spoke to my fiancé, but they all hugged her when I introduced her and when we said our goodbyes. I don't get it. I remember how odd it sounded when my Uncle said numerous times, "I don't know WHEN I will see any of you again". You know, everyone getting older, moving away, etc. But I kept thinking each time he said it that he would see a lot of us at my wedding. I just never really thought they would all rsvp no. Never in my wildest nightmare would I expect no one from "my side" to come.

No one has even expressed why, other than my sister, who is younger than I who told me the 2 hour drive was too far. I single-handedly catered her wedding 20 years ago...And she can't drive 2 hours?

If anyone were to say it was because of their religion, I would respond that it's not about anyone's religion...it's about my happiness...it's about supporting your family. Do any of them realize what it's going to look like and more importantly, FEEL LIKE when my adult children walk me down the aisle? We will not see any of our family. (My adult children are special needs and I honestly don't even know how to tell them, and more importantly, how can I possibly hide my feelings so I don't somehow trigger their illness?)

To my family who have chosen the cruelest way possible to express their opinion, their judgement of gay weddings...of my gay wedding...God is the only judge! 

I've gone thru a hell of a lot up until this point and I really don't think I deserve this. I can't even count how many times someone had told me 'God won't give you more than you can handle'. 

This is my wedding...our wedding, I should be grinning from ear to ear, jumping up and down excited, walking on cloud nine, but instead...I'm crying, sad...crushed to think...is this really happening? 

Kudos to President Obama, Mitt Romney you are a bully!

 Kudos to President Obama for coming out for Gay Marriage.  Yes, it's been a long time coming, but I understand the strategy, so to speak.  When President Obama was a Senator here in Illinois I often emailed him in response to emails from HRC whenever something affecting the gay community was coming up for a vote.  The replies, probably by staffers, but no doubt with Obama's sentiments, was always positive and in support of the gay community.

Mitt Romney on the other hand, you should be ashamed of yourself.  Not because you choose to not support gay marriage, but because you clearly yourself were involved in a hate crime when you attended prep school.  What Mr. Romney did, instigating an attack on a fellow student...a student who was "different", was a hate crime.  He gathered friends and instigated an attack on a student with “bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye,”.  The other friends held down John Lauber while Romney savagely cut off Lauber's hair with scissors.  For Romney to say:

"Back in high school, you know, I did some dumb things, and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously, I apologize for that… You know, I don’t, I don’t remember that particular incident [laughs]… I participated in a lot of high jinks and pranks during high school, and some might have gone too far, and for that I apologize."

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/05/mitt-romney-bully.html#ixzz1ulACnr3W

 For Mr. Romney to say "if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously, I apologize for that".  IF?  IF?  Really?

Obviously Mr. Lauber was hurt and offended, but unfortunately he is not here to tell us exactly how this incident affected his life.  Mr. Lauber passed away in 2004 from cancer.  No doubt the incident traumatized Mr. Lauber.  An attack like that would traumatize anyone, homosexual, or heterosexual.   

I think all my readers know my politics.  I'm a democrat.  However, parties aside, I would never vote for a man who portrays this incident as a prank, that he didn't even know what "gay" was at the time, a man who brushes off this incident, the way Romney has is clearly not Presidential material.  An incident like this, and the way Romney has responded to it's publication goes to his character.  I don't think anyone with that kind of character belongs in our White House.

If Romney is capable of such an attack, an attack on another human being's dignity...what else is he capable of?


©2008-2012 Fire Crotch Rocket

Tim Gunn Rocks!

If you're reading this right now and you're having suicidal thoughts, please call The Trevor Project Lifeline 1-866-4utrevor (1-866-488-7386). It's a toll free, confidential, nationwide lifeline for LGBTQ youth.
They also have a website TheTrevorProject.org

I received this email today from HRC (Human Rights Campaign):

Dear Lola,

Add your name: Mr. Packer, I hope you will cease putting young people in real peril and acknowledge the scientific truth: Sexual orientation cannot be changed, nor should it be.

The recent suicides of several gay teenagers have made national headlines. Yet this is the moment – of all moments – that a top Mormon leader decides to broadcast a verbal rampage against gays to millions of viewers.

I couldn't believe it either. Boyd K. Packer, the second-highest leader in the Mormon Church, said in a sermon broadcast to millions yesterday that same-sex attraction is "impure and unnatural" and can be overcome, and that same-sex unions are morally wrong.

Do we need more proof than the suicides of teens as young as 13 that words like these can do unimaginable damage?

We cannot stay silent. By speaking out together, we can show the Mormon Church hierarchy that it has literally risked the lives of children by inciting their tormentors. And we can ensure that the young people who heard this sermon know that it is scientifically wrong and profoundly misguided.

Add your name to our open letter debunking Boyd Packer's lies.

Speaking before 20,000 people and broadcasting to millions more, Packer said same-sex unions are morally wrong and "against God's law and nature" – and that the church hierarchy would continue to support marriage bans like Proposition 8 (which was funded largely by Mormons).

It makes me physically sick to think how many young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender kids had to sit in those pews and listen to that venom.

Comments like these are exactly what makes young LGBT kids think there's no way out but suicide – that their parents will reject them, that their communities will shun them, and that living openly will bring pain or violence – that even God looks on their very identity as a sin to be "overcome."

And these lies fuel the bullying, harassment, and violence that plague our schools.

Packer's lies have been disproven over and over again by science and by the spiritual experience of Americans who know their LGBT neighbors and care about them. We know sexual orientation cannot and should not be changed and that two people falling in love is beautiful, not evil.

But unless we refute these lies whenever groups like the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the Mormon Church repeat them – whether through letters like this or projects like HRC's www.NOMexposed.com – we risk another young person hearing them and believing that LGBT people are "defective." And that belief contributes to violence and suicide.

Help us speak out so young people understand the truth – and so that Mormon leaders know that spreading this poison puts lives at risk.

Americans are sick of the Mormon hierarchy trying to dictate what they should believe. They know commitment and love when they see it. That's why they are turning away in droves from limitations on their friends' and neighbors' freedom to marry.

Thank you for helping take a stand for the truth.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
President

©2008-2010 Fire Crotch Rocket

Trickle Down Homophobia - Gay Teen Suicides

If you're reading this right now and you're having suicidal thoughts, please call The Trevor Project Lifeline 1-866-4utrevor (1-866-488-7386). It's a toll free, confidential, nationwide lifeline for LGBTQ youth.
They also have a website TheTrevorProject.org

I received this email today from HRC (Human Rights Campaign):

Dear Lola,

Add your name: Mr. Packer, I hope you will cease putting young people in real peril and acknowledge the scientific truth: Sexual orientation cannot be changed, nor should it be.

The recent suicides of several gay teenagers have made national headlines. Yet this is the moment – of all moments – that a top Mormon leader decides to broadcast a verbal rampage against gays to millions of viewers.

I couldn't believe it either. Boyd K. Packer, the second-highest leader in the Mormon Church, said in a sermon broadcast to millions yesterday that same-sex attraction is "impure and unnatural" and can be overcome, and that same-sex unions are morally wrong.

Do we need more proof than the suicides of teens as young as 13 that words like these can do unimaginable damage?

We cannot stay silent. By speaking out together, we can show the Mormon Church hierarchy that it has literally risked the lives of children by inciting their tormentors. And we can ensure that the young people who heard this sermon know that it is scientifically wrong and profoundly misguided.

Add your name to our open letter debunking Boyd Packer's lies.

Speaking before 20,000 people and broadcasting to millions more, Packer said same-sex unions are morally wrong and "against God's law and nature" – and that the church hierarchy would continue to support marriage bans like Proposition 8 (which was funded largely by Mormons).

It makes me physically sick to think how many young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender kids had to sit in those pews and listen to that venom.

Comments like these are exactly what makes young LGBT kids think there's no way out but suicide – that their parents will reject them, that their communities will shun them, and that living openly will bring pain or violence – that even God looks on their very identity as a sin to be "overcome."

And these lies fuel the bullying, harassment, and violence that plague our schools.

Packer's lies have been disproven over and over again by science and by the spiritual experience of Americans who know their LGBT neighbors and care about them. We know sexual orientation cannot and should not be changed and that two people falling in love is beautiful, not evil.

But unless we refute these lies whenever groups like the anti-LGBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the Mormon Church repeat them – whether through letters like this or projects like HRC's www.NOMexposed.com – we risk another young person hearing them and believing that LGBT people are "defective." And that belief contributes to violence and suicide.

Help us speak out so young people understand the truth – and so that Mormon leaders know that spreading this poison puts lives at risk.

Americans are sick of the Mormon hierarchy trying to dictate what they should believe. They know commitment and love when they see it. That's why they are turning away in droves from limitations on their friends' and neighbors' freedom to marry.

Thank you for helping take a stand for the truth.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
President

©2008-2010 Fire Crotch Rocket

The Kids Are Alright

Yes, they are. And thank you to Harriet of Harriet And Friends for drawing my attention to this article.

Kids Raised in Lesbian Families Better Adjusted, Study Finds - Yahoo News

"the study's author, Dr. Nanette Gartrell, told U.S. News and World Report that there were no psychological differences between the kids who said they had been stigmatized and those who hadn't. She said that the deliberation involved in the preplanned pregnancies may well account for the well-adjusted nature of kids raised in lesbian families."

My girlfriend pointed out one thing about this report, that wasn't taken into consideration, and that was that many heterosexual couples undergo extensively preplanned pregnancies when they have fertility difficulties. Those couples that go through in-vitro fertilization are in a sense, quite similar to lesbian couples seeking to have children. So, while she was happy to see a positive report about lesbian families, this didn't seem to be an exhaustively researched study, one that compared lesbian families with heterosexual families, created in the same fashion. Not that we should dismiss this study, just that, perhaps the hypothesis was likely not completely thought out.

Ok, I'll give her that and also add that I personally think that children raised by lesbians are perhaps more well adjusted because living in a lesbian household, one is exposed to more liberal ideas (perhaps), and are raised to be more accepting and open-minded and perhaps the end result is being more well adjusted.

I personally think that any article that puts lesbian families in a positive light is a good thing. The more that we can show the world that our raising families is not detrimental to children, and is at least as nurturing or possibly more nurturing than a traditional heterosexual family, only serves to help us achieve our end goal. That is...in a nutshell...that we are no different than anyone else, except in who we love and we deserve the same rights and privileges.

©2008-2010 Fire Crotch Rocket

Gaga Flashmob Protest in SF For Hotel Workers Rights

©2008-2010 Fire Crotch Rocket

“She’s basically a short man with boobs,”

Yes, that's exactly how Cynthia Nixon, one of the stars of Sex and The City described her partner of six years in an interview in Cynthia Nixon Is More Than Just Sex - The Advocate.

I have to say when I heard about this on a local Chicago radio station I was shocked. How must her partner, Christine Marinoni feel about having her partner describe her this way? Did she take it in stride? Did she think it was funny? Was she on some level hurt?

I'm sure Ms. Nixon said it in jest, still, it's out there for everyone reading it or hearing about it to interpret it on their own way.

Personally, I consider myself a soft butch and I would have been offended by such a comment, whether it was meant in jest or not.

What do you think?

©2008-2010 Fire Crotch Rocket