Writer's block has taken over my life for the past couple of hours...

I'm quite frankly fine with it, because I'm not feeling like an activist today. I'm feeling like your average 20 something that doesn't want to go drinking and clubbing on a Saturday night. Perhaps this is more of a journal entry than a blog, but oh well; it's my website, right?

Some things that I've been thinking about lately are the usuals, money, school, and life. You know, the easy stuff.

Money:
I, like everyone else, would like to make more of it. I'm totally willing to ride this current wave for as long as it will take me. You really just have to try and make the best of your situation sometimes, so that's what I'm going to try and do. I'm doing something that some people have only dreamt of, so I can't complain at all.

School:
This is causing me some serious headaches... You gotta love professors that take their careers seriously, I at least have a great deal of respect for that. I know that its been done before, but working full time and going to school full time has been no picnic. I'm just going to have to grin and bare it until I'm finally done with my degree... I know that it will all be worth it eventually.

Life:
Ugh... can't I just be superficial once? I just want to live life and hang out, is that too much to ask? Yeah yeah yeah, I know that it's good to be motivated, determined, and collected, but damn... I love just hanging out and enjoying the moment. Whatever though, I've taken the responsibility of activism, and that's something that doesn't just stop... it's something that has really taken over a large part of my life, I'm fine with that.

What I also wonder is what will be next, where will I be in a year? Where will my passion for equality take me in the coming months? Years? I can only hope that I will continue on this road, the road towards equality. I'm a small fish in a big pond, but I'm going to keep on truckin for as long and as hard as I can.

Does that work? Quite possibly one of the lamest blogs that I've ever posted. Oh well, like I said... it's my website.

That's the mentality right now... the gay scene is being overtaken by Levi Johnston's Playgirl.com photos. Prominent names like The Advocate and Towleroad have made this story primetime news on their sites... while at the same time paying very little attention to a great activist for the LGBT community.

The real story here is that David Mixner is being awarded the Point Foundation's Point Legend Award at the NY Point Honors Gala in April of next year. The Point Foundation is the country's largest scholarship/granting organization for LGBT students of merit. It's a great foundation that Mr. Mixner has support for years, and has finally agreed to be recognized by the foundation.

David Mixner was the mastermind behind the National Equality March, and has been fighting for equality since the days of JFK. He's also worked in the civil rights movement, the anti war effort protesting the Vietnam War, and a strong activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS. That's a small snapshot of his resume, but the truth is that he's a great guy that's fighting alongside today's voices for our equality.

The fact that Levi Johnston stayed front page news longer than David Mixner is a shame... these publications should really consider the platform that they have and think about what their original purpose was. Who doesn't think prestige when they think about The Advocate? Who doesn't think of reliability and relevance when they think of Towleroad? They should try to live up to their reputation more often, because the community is watching.

Congratulation Mr. Mixner, I speak for young activists everywhere when I say that we owe you a debt of gratitude to your generation of activists.

Thank you again,

Bless God and Bless the Gays.

Since I know you came for the pics...
check out some of Levi Johnston's pics HERE

This is just a follow up to my previous blog in September titled, "Why should you care about national equality rights?" I'm posting the story as written by the Ventura County Star.

Find more of the story on their website;
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/nov/21/though-suit-dismissed-hospital-staffers-to-not/?partner=RSS

By Steve Rothaus

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI - Several Jackson Memorial Hospital nurses in Miami personally apologized to Janice Langbehn, a Washington state lesbian who said a Jackson social worker wouldn't allow her to be with her dying partner in 2007.

"We certainly are sorry for the pain and suffering she felt," said Martha Baker, a registered nurse and president of SEIU local 1991, the union representing about 5,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals at Jackson.

"I apologize," said registered nurse Norberto Molina, chairman of the union's gay Lavender Caucus. "I can't imagine what you went through."

The apologies came at a town hall-style meeting Thursday night at Unity on the Bay church in which Langbehn returned to Miami as a speaker. Baker, Molina and two other Jackson nurses, Jim Nicholson and Diane Poirier, along with 60 other people, attended the meeting.

Langbehn, whose lawsuit against Jackson was dismissed in September by a federal court in Miami, graciously welcomed the nurses' personal gesture. But she still wants the hospital to apologize formally.

"The management has to do it," Langbehn said.

She tearfully told the audience of her final moments with longtime partner Lisa Pond, who suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on Feb. 18, 2007, shortly before they were to sail with their three children on a Caribbean cruise for gay families.

At Jackson, Langbehn said, a social worker would not let her visit Pond because Florida is "an anti-gay state." Pond, 39, died the next day.

Langbehn, with the help of Lambda Legal, sued the hospital. The case, which received publicity around the country, was dismissed without a decision whether Jackson discriminated against Langbehn because she is gay. The court determined Jackson had no legal obligation to allow anyone to visit a patient.

"It's my duty to speak out, that this should never happen to another family of ours," said Langbehn, seated next to her attorney, Beth Littrell of Lambda Legal in Atlanta, Stratton Pollitzer of Equality Florida and Miami attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, who specializes in nontraditional-family issues. C.J. Ortuno, executive director of SAVE Dade, moderated.

From the beginning, Jackson has said Langbehn was not discriminated against and defended social worker Garnett Frederick, who denied making the offensive comment.

"We have always believed and known that the staff at Jackson treats everyone equally, and that their main concern is the well-being of the patients in their care," Jackson spokeswoman Jennifer Piedra said in a news release after the case was dismissed in September.

It was announced earlier today that the House Education and Labor Commitee is postponing the markup/review on ENDA which was scheduled for a vote on Wednesday at 10am.

The Commitee Chairman, Rep George Miller, said that there are ammendments that still have to be reviewed and that is why the bill is being postponed... according to the Bilerico article. It's true that the bill has gone unchanged for the most part since its original debut a few years back, but now we're playing politics.

Rep Miller needs to be told to stop messing with our equality! Pushing this back to December-February is pushing it back into the mid-term elections of next year, a time when support for LGBT legislation is going to be hard to come by. Thus, successfully killing ENDA.

If you have something to say to The Honorable George Miller, email him here.

George Miller

If Nevada LGBT's want to know how D-3 Dina Titus would allow this bill to be postponed, email her here. (She doesn't cosponsor the bill anyway, so you may want to ask her about that  while you're at it.)

Dina Titus

One thing that has become apparent to me in the weeks after the National Equality March is that the Transgender community is very misunderstood and seldomly appreciated as a part of our LGBT community.

Why don't we demand their equality and freedoms as well? We seek to civil rights for the Gay and Lesbian community, but you never hear about our Trans brothers and sisters anywhere! I met some amazing Transgender men and women at the NEM, and I've been able to keep in touch with quite a few of them, but one thing that has been expressed to me is that they're willing to fight alongside us!

Even though the LGB's have both intentionally and unintentionally brushed our Trans siblings to the side, they still continue to march on the same streets as we march on, they still continue to send the same emails to their electeds that we send to our electeds, and they share the same fear of discrimination and violence that we face both in the workplace and in our daily lives. The "T" in LGBTQ... etc, is a vital part of our umbrella of equality, and they're suffering the same injustices that we are, if not more.

We should all make a united effort to be inclusive within the LGBT community (use however many letters you want, I don't mind)! While ensuring that every color of our rainbow gets the opportunity to fight for their equality just as much as the equality of their brothers and sisters!

Thank you BILERICO.COM and Austen Crowder for the wake up call!

God bless America.

The LGBTQQIA community has struggled for equality for decades, but it isn't until recently that our community has begun to gain some solid ground.

2009 has seen recognition from Congress like never before, with legislation aimed directly at granting us our equality;

HR 1283 - Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009 - Introduced in March
HR 3017 - Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 - Introduced in June
HR 3567 - Respect for Marriage Act of 2009 - introduced in September
HR 3827 - Every Child Deserves a Family Act - Introduced in October

We can't depend on our congressional representatives to come to their senses on their own, we have to make it known that we demand these bills pass through the House and Senate. This isn't to say that we haven't seen a great amount of support from the House and Senate already!

One thing that this generation has to remember is the blood, sweat, and tears that previous generations have put into the fight for equality. As we move forward, it's important that we value their efforts because without the pioneers of the 60's and beyond, we wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

This President has already removed the traveling restrictions against HIV positive people, and has made statements that show support for our equality.

Standing together and stannding strong is the only way that our generation will make our previous generations proud, the time for unity and action is now.

Bless God and Bless the Gays