Question: How should I react to this? plasticfag.org [via hoblog] At the moment I’m torn between wry flattery and absolute blind fury. Part of me is getting mighty bored of being gay.
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Suck on that, Baroness Young…
I don’t want to go on too much about the Age of Consent issue on this site, because I think everyone knows my opinion on the matter. So instead I will talk about a site which alleges that it wishes to get other people’s opinions on the matter: AgeOfConsent.org.uk. Sponsored by the people who want to keep an unequal age of consent, it includes this page where you can vote: Vote on the age of consent debate.
Quite apart from the fact that the question is heavily loaded to completely miss the point of the whole exercise, the questionaire requires you to fill in your name, postcode and sexual orientation. One wonders why they want this information, and what it is used for once they have it. Certainly I’m not comfortable giving my name and address to homophobic right-wing bigots. Still, thankfully it doesn’t seem to have had the slightest impact on the voting, which is sizeably (59/49) in favour of equalisation. Suck on that, Baroness Young.
9am: There are stirrings in the flat. Kate has decided to get up early and is in the sitting-room talking to her mother on the phone. The acoustics of the flat mean that, despite the fact that the sitting room is at the other end of the building, almost all of her words are completely clear. I wake up, feel like I’m intruding and immediately turn on some John Lennon so that I can’t hear what she is saying. I have to be careful though, because I don’t want to wake up my other flatmate in the next room.
10am: It’s no good. I’m awake, and I might as well just admit it. Kate’s still on the phone, but I can’t hear more than a mumble, so I decide to read the book I bought yesterday. It’s really enjoyable, but I’m a bit groggy and disorientated so it’s not really sinking in. I feel kind of grumpy – like I’ve woken up in an environment that is rife with tension. There’s no reason to feel that way. But all these feelings fade in a moment when Kate knocks on the door and hands me a package from Amazon. Opening it, I am amazed to discover that it is a Random Act of Kindness from Lance Arthur – a copy of The Iron Giant on DVD along with a slightly cryptic, but very sweet message.
11am: My whole mood has changed now – I feel really cheerful and relaxed. It’s just such a nice thing to do out of the blue. I am going to e-mail him immediately and tell him what a difference it has made to my day. All gifts should be given like this – there shouldn’t be the pressures of Christmas to make giving something worthwhile – you shouldn’t feel obliged. So I’m going to carry on this sentiment and go and find someone elses Amazon wishlist and give them a gift out of the blue – maybe we can keep this going all around the net…
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On the nation’s inner Swindon…
Possibly the most depressing picture ever presented of the inhabitants of our fair isle is that, at heart, we are best represented by Swindon. I’m off now, to coiffure my six feet of nasal hair.
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Britain equalises the gay age of consent…
Finally it’s happened. Britain has finally brought the gay age of consent in line with the straight one. Now, people of either persuasion can sleep with people from the age of 16 without fear of prosecution. In the end the government had to use the Parliament Act (which says that if the House of Commons passes a bill twice but the House of Lords blocks it both times, then the government can force it through [elected representatives having to have the final say]). PlanetOut, The Independent (comment), Guardian Unlimited, The Independent (article), ITN.
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The Fat Project…
I can’t even remember the last time that I read twenty-five pages of a site in one sitting. The internet isn’t really designed for articles of that kind of length. But I came upon a site this morning with such a tasteless, entertaining premise that I found myself addicted immediately, and read every page, looked at every graph and examined carefully each photograph.
TheSpark.com’s challenge to the world was named The Fat Project. The two people who signed up for it had to gain 30lbs in 30 days. If they succeeded, they would be given a $3000 prize. Be prepared for fat calipers, unappetising underwear photos, a magician, one hundred eggs, a radio show and two cheques…
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The universe has never won an Oscar…
This week my awesome namesake Tom the Dancing Bug explains the universe from its beginning to its end. Most interesting fact – the Universe has never won an Oscar.
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0sil8 returns for Americans only…
The awesome 0sil8 stirs once more, except this time if you’re outside the US you’re out of luck.
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Help your gay children at Christmas…
A few years ago, while at University, I was quite active in gay politics – I was publicity officer at Bristol’s Lesbian and Gay Society for several years. I made some nice posters, and stood in the foyer of student buildings asking people to sign petitions for an equal age of consent. An equal age of consent that still doesn’t exist, I might add. I’d get people not looking me in the eye, and saying that they “just didn’t agree with that kind of thing”.
Every so often I’d be forced to listen to people tell me that “being gay is a choice and an immoral one at that”. But I’d be meeting young gay people who were too scared to come out the closet or who had been thrown out of their homes (and once stabbed) by members of their own families.
But it was always the statistics that made it clear to me why I was involved in the politics of it all. Gay teenagers were two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than straight teenagers. They were two to three times more likely to succeed as well. They were considerably more likely to be living on the streets, to suffer from depression or to be driven to cut themselves due to low self-esteem. When I was in journalism school I wrote a piece on a child who had been systematically taunted for being gay at school. He committed suicide as a result. Ironically, even after death, no one knew for certain whether he was actually gay or not.
All this came back to me today because of this article about San Francisco’s preparation for the holiday season. While I know that the vast majority of you are pretty gay-friendly (you wouldn’t be reading this otherwise), I’d be really grateful if you’d read this and give a thought to how you’d react if your son or daughter, or your best friend, or even if your mother or father after many years finally worked up the courage to tell you they were gay. And perhaps you could even think how you might make it easier for them to tell you if they were.
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On tetrachromat women…
Super Vision gives tetrachromat women a more colourful world … at the expense of their male children. [via Metafilter]