To Wordpress, And Beyond!

I'm moving the site to Wordpress, here. Basically, the User Interface is just better. Plus, it makes posting stuff on social networking sites so much easier.

So, if everything goes to plan, at some point tomorrow, I'll be switching over. Then anyone who goes to this site should be redirected to the wordpress site: radicalcentristblog.wordpress.com.

Surprise: Anderson Cooper is Gay

Following a host of other out celebs (such as Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, and Zachary Quinto) Anderson Cooper came out as gay today in a published e-mail to Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast. You can see the email here. I almost didn’t write anything about it, because even the novelty of coming out quietly is starting to wear off, and that’s really quite encouraging.

If You’re Into Vanilla Sex, the Kink Community Has a Lesson For You

So I was reading through a bunch of blog articles a few days ago, and ended up at this article on Pervocracy about how the rules of consent in kink culture could translate to “vanilla” sex. It’s about a month old, which in internet years is like a decade, but I still want to discuss it because I think it’s awesome.

When Preventing Rape is Too Costly

I was absolutely at a loss for words when I came across this article at Think Progress about talking about how the American Action Forum was against new policies proposed by the Obama administration aimed at preventing rape and sexual abuse in the U.S.’s prisons. They complained that the measures were too “complicated” and “costly.” I was quite enraged by the response. We’re talking about preventing rape, for crying out loud, and they’re complaining it’s too complicated and costs too much. What the hell is going on?!

Queer Dictionary Revisited

Below is something I wrote at The Good Men Project after writing a three-part “queer dictionary.”

Wait just a minute, you say. There were only meant to be three parts to the queer dictionary. Well, I lied. Okay, not really. I didn’t lie; I just needed to revisit¹ a few terms in Part 2. Oh, also I need to admit and apologize for screwing something up, which I’ll do in just a second. (My haters are rubbing their hands together in glee, and my lovers are...well never you mind what my lovers are doing just now).

Feminism, “Manning Up,” and the Zero-Sum Game

As a woman and a feminist I have a very specific perspective on the term ‘man up.’ It’s a highly gendered phrase, for one thing. The phrase implies that manhood is something that is achieved beyond simply being male. It also implies that certain characteristics, such as stoicism and strength, are masculine traits.

The Endless Cycle of Oil Dependance

When I was growing up in California, pretty much everyone drove everywhere. When I was 16, I was the odd one out as someone who didn’t have a driver’s license and a car. Ten years later in the U.K., I only know three people who have their own cars. A whole lot of people I know don’t even have a driver’s license. I think a large part of that is to do with public transportation. Brits complain about their bus and train system a lot, but it’s a sight better than what we get in much of the U.S.

Palestinian Hunger Strike

I’ll be upfront about my opinions about Palestine: I’m for a two-state solution. In part because I think that’s the only way to solve a lot of the conflict in that region. I also recognize that the Palestinians have as equal a claim on the land as the Israelis. Mostly though, Israel lost the upper hand with the Six-Days War and the subsequent treatment of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, which isn’t to say Hamas’ actions have been great either. Both sides have committed horrible acts of violence against each other.

Privilege the Video Game: Version 1.1

Among my e-mails, the other day, I found something from Julie Gillis with a link to this article about privilege. Basically it compares privilege (social inequality) to the difficulty setting of a video game. It acknowledges that other factors (such as individual personalities and abilities) influence what effect privilege has on a person’s life. In the case of the linked article, the other, personal factors are represented by ‘stats’ in video games. Basically the analogy is like this: difficulty setting (privilege) is about how the world perceives and interacts with your character, while the stats (personal circumstances) are about how well you are individually equipped to deal with the world.

Obama and VAWA

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has been a controversial bill since it was first passed in 1994. It has been up for reauthorization multiple times since then, as well as facing a Supreme Court hearing. It’s been modified and changed along the way, including creating more gender-neutral language, including same-sex couples, and even eliminating some parts of it on the grounds that those parts were unconstitutional.

Newsweek Declares Obama First Gay President

Obama Newsweek Cover

Same-sex marriage has been in the news a lot lately. North Carolina voted to ban it, along with civil partnerships, and a day later Obama held an interview where he voiced his personal support for same-sex marriage. Although I am frustrated at the limits of the support Obama gave, I also understand that it is a pretty big symbolic victory, particularly considering the fact that we’re right in the middle of election season. I also understand those people who are heaping praise on Obama and are unwilling to criticize his statement as perhaps not going far enough. I get it.

Matthew Shepard’s Mother Speaks About Romney’s Alleged Bullying

Perhaps the most tragically famous mother of an LGBT individual is Judy Shepherd. She’s been fighting for LGBT rights for the past 14 years, ever since the tragic murder of her son, Matthew Shepherd, because he was gay. If anyone can understand the emotional impact of having one’s personal life thrust into the media, it’s her. And if anyone can understand the tragic impact homophobic and anti-LGBT actions can have, it’s certainly her. Her reaction to the news that Mitt Romney apparently bullied a kid when he was in high school being perceived as gay was understandably strong.

Obama Personally Supports Same-Sex Marriage

Barak Obama

The relationship between federal and state laws in the U.S. is surprisingly complicated. Sometimes state and federal laws clash. Sometimes the federal government has to persuade state governments to enact certain laws. Rarely is the relationship as simple as federal trumps state. In many ways it’s a good system. The U.S. is geographically and culturally quite diverse, and the federal system we have helps ensure that the cultural and political norms of one region don’t overshadow the norms of another. However, as it’s a system that was created by people, it’s not perfect. There is one aspect to our system that I wish was more national instead of federal, and that is with regards to civil rights.

Marriage Map

On November 4, 2008 I sat in a pub in Durham, U.K. with a bunch of other U.S. students watching the election results come in with anticipation. However, unlike most of those other students, my attention wasn’t really focused on whether Obama would be elected or not. I kept waiting to hear about the results from the three states that had ballot measures banning same-sex marriage. I was particularly anxious about my home state of California. Up until just a couple weeks before the election I had been sure that the ban would be shot down. It’s California, one of the most liberal states in the country. Yet as I sat in that pub, refreshing a website with election data every 30 seconds, I was really worried. The Yes on 8 Campaign had seemed to be so much more successful than I had thought it would be.

Stephen King Wants to Be Taxed More

Apparently Stephen King, along with a few other rich Americans, wants his taxes raised. The whole article is a pretty good read, which is no surprise considering it’s written by a major award winning author. He makes what I think are some pretty good points throughout, but what I want to focus on is the part at the end where he says this, “I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share!”

Homophobia or Heteronormativity?

via Tumblr

As an LGBT advocate I often consume media with a concern for LGBT representation and perception in the back of my mind. When I am watching, reading, and listening to media I’m also looking to see whether it reinforces, challenges, or ignores anti-LGBT stereotypes. So when I first read this article, I immediately viewed it through that lens. To me, it seemed quite obviously and blatantly homophobic.

Guild Wars 2: Beta Edition

Human Mesmer

I am a big nerd, from way back. From the moment I started reading Animorphs in 5^th grade and subsequently bought every single Animorphs book ever published, my future was sealed. Even so, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I started to play MMOs. I just couldn’t ever get into the idea of playing a video game for very long. I started with the big one, World of Warcraft and I really liked it. It took a while, but eventually the shiny newness of WoW disappeared and I was left with a game I didn’t really like all that much. So I stopped playing. Then along comes the weekend beta event for Guild Wars 2 last weekend and I again found myself absorbed by an MMO.

Who in the World is Richard Grenell?

Richard Grenell

One of the strange things about presidential campaigns is that they will often thrust previously unknown people into the spotlight. I mean, how many people could name Alaska’s governor prior to 2008? Not a lot. Romney’s not even the official nominee yet and his campaign’s already been hit with issues surrounding one of the less well known members of his campaign. Until yesterday, Richard Grenell was Mitt Romney’s spokesperson for foreign policy and national security. If Romney is elected, Grenell probably would have held a high ranking position in his administration. He was going to be a major player. Oh, did I mention Grenell is gay?

C4EM: An Acronym You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

C4EM

Contrary to what a lot of people outside the United Kingdom think, same-sex marriage isn’t actually legal in the U.K. Instead they have civil partnerships, which grant all the same rights as marriage, except for the label. There is a home office consultation underway asking the population its opinion on civil same-sex marriage. Pretty much the U.K. is considering changing its policy regarding same-sex marriage and so it’s conducting a poll, sort of.

Gay Sex on T.V.

***This article contains spoilers for the HBO series Game of Thrones through Season 2, Episode 3***

In the past couple of decades, LGBT representation in mainstream media of the U.S. has progressed in leaps and bounds. We have popular television shows that focus exclusively on gay and lesbian communities, shows with gay gangsters, gay slobs, and gay teenagers, one Oscar winning movie about a gay political figure and another one about gay cowboys. As for real life people in the media, there are out news anchors and political commentators, out actors and actresses, and out musicians. We’ve come a long way from Jodie Dallas and Xena; it would be easy to think that we’ve achieved equal representation in the media. Unfortunately, we haven’t.