Blogging the DNC – Pt. 2

10:45pm – Wow. That was one hell of a video introduction, & one hell of a reception, Clinton just got. & She wasted no time at all expressing her support for Obama.

No way, Nohow, No McCain.

10:53PM – She’s in fine form, coming off as both confident but humble. *sigh* Wish we’d seen more of that during the campaign. & Why oh why didn’t she ever give that talk about gender she should have given? Atlantic Monthly reported that she considered it, but never made up her mind to do it. She should have. We needed that talk as much as we needed Obama’s on race.

11:03PM – Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her give this good a speech. With a shout out to Seneca Falls: “My mother was born before women were given the right to vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America.” Nice. & Then rousing Harriet Tubman’s “Keep going.”

Godspeed, Hillary Clinton. Well fucking done.

Votes for Women!

Eighty-eight years ago today women were given the right to vote in the U.S. Here’s a cool timeline of all of the events that lead up to it, which is vital to understand in the context of fighting for other rights. It took about 70 years from the first Seneca Falls convention to the ratification of the law.

& Tonight, Hillary Clinton will be speaking at the DNC convention. I’m waiting to hear what she’s got to say now that it’s all said & done (but I do hope she’s writing a book about the experience, too).

There is nothing, but nothing, that pisses me off more than women who don’t vote. So get registered, if you’re not.

Blogging the DNC – Why Not?

Normally Betty & I would be talking loudly at each other over the DNC reporting, and since she’s not here, you all get to suffer my opinions, instead.

First: cool to see Luke Russert reporting, but even more cool, the happy smiles on Brokaw’s and Olbermann’s faces after he did.

Then: Nancy Pelosi’s speech was about as boring as dirt. She’s still right, though, that John McCain is wrong.

On the idea that Clinton supporters are voting for McCain… please stay home. Um, HELLO? He’s not pro choice, he’s not for equal pay for equal work, and he has voted against legislation that would make contraception more available, including the Gag Rule.

(more as the night goes on)

Ted Kennedy, filled with optimism and laughter, was like a salve. His comment on the war – and how our soldiers should not be sent into mistakes that aren’t worthy of their courage – was a concise articulation of the how sad so many of us have been these past years while we’re fighting the wrong war entirely.

10PMish – Buchanan is such an asswipe. Just in general.

10:30PM – Michelle Obama’s video retrospective, and now her older brother introducing her.

12:32AM – & Wow was she great. I was right there with all the other women who were crying listening to her, as Matthews & Olbermann pointed out. It killed me that they had to ask a woman why the tears. It’s one of us up there: a smart woman, a woman accused of being angry. The sexism directed at Clinton had its ramifications for all of us – even for those of us who don’t particularly like her.

Now go register to vote if you aren’t.

Invert(e): the Blog

I’ve been invited to participate in a new blog, Invert(e). It’s the blog of Suspect Thoughts press. Apparently those of us who like parentheticals stick together.

Do check it out.

Too Weak for Color

My niece tells me that my sister just bought a guy’s bike because all of the women’s bikes came in lavender, light yellow, or pink. Maybe mint green.

So what is it about women that we can’t handle real colors? So many times I see women’s fashion in one window, and even like some stuff, but I want the same clothes in the men’s colors in the window right next door. Why do our colors have to be watered down?

Book Review: Queer Catholicism

It’s been a year of Catholics, hasn’t it? From the sad news about Ted Kennedy’s health, to the deaths of Tim Russert & George Carlin. So the editors of Queer + Catholic might have unusually good timing, even if none of the Catholics who died this year were queer.

I’m a contributor to this book – I’ll say that upfront to say that I’m biased – but I honestly didn’t know what to expect from it. I feared I would be one of very few to have anything positive to say. But the more of this book I read – and I’ve read almost all of it already – is that I was very, very wrong. The editors have chosen some of the most tender eulogies to their childhood Catholicism, some complicated appreciations of having been both queer and catholic, and honestly, some straight-up love letters to the mysteries that are the Catholic Church.

It is hard not to especially love hearing the way gay men talk about being Catholic: about the first time they noticed the obscenity and eroticism of the way Christ was portrayed, or the many martyred saints, the homoeroticism of all boys’ schools. The love and shame and pride are served up in such equal measure, but always with that kind of gentle, sad-eyed quality that gay men do so well.

How gender-y this book is struck me as well. My own piece is very much about gender, of course: I wanted to be a priest but found I had a vagina, horror of horrors. The other lovely female perverts and poets in this collection are uncanny in the way they talk about bodies, about blood, about sex.

Because Catholics are, as a lot, obsessed with sex. I had an older, experienced crossdresser once tell me that it’s always the Catholic girls who are wild rides. & I believe him.

What is in this book isn’t just sex though; we all, as Catholics, become a bit Jesuitical in seeing always both sides of the same coin. So that sex becomes suffering, and redemption; sex becomes shame, but also pride; sex becomes beauty, and divinity, and transcendence.

So there is something about declaring myself a Catholic that seems exactly right to me in the way the Church’s mysteries always enfolded a little more than you bargained for, and to me, that’s downright vulvic. Mother Church, indeed.

If you’re Catholic, or interested in religion, or in art, or homoeroticism, or spirituality – or any or all of the above – do get the book. These are some of the best, most personal, marrow-full essays I’ve read in a long, long time.

Kate Goes Ga-Ga

Kate Bornstein has gone ga-ga over WALL-E, as have tons of people. But only Kate Bornstein can talk about a robot movie and move seamlessly into a discussion of gender fluidity and butch/femme roles:

Marlene Dietrich in a tuxedo can make all our hearts flutter. So can Justin Bond in a gown or a tux… or both! Gender ambiguity—when it’s safely positioned onstage or up on a movie screen—is and always has been sexy to damn near all of us, no matter what our gender might be. All of our desires are being tickled. So how’s that happening? What is it that’s signaling sexual attraction to an audience with such a wide range of gender identities and sexual desires? I think the answer is that WALL•E is butch, and EVE is femme, two genders defined by the expression of strong, respectful, sexual desire.

She kills me.

Dark Odyssey Summer Camp 2008

Just to clarify, since a few people have asked: we will indeed be at Dark Odyssey’s Summer Camp this year, which happens from September 10th – 15th. It’s probably our favorite event of the year. I’ll be doing two of my regular workshops at DO: Trans Sex & Identity, and Uneven Libidos.

If I haven’t made clear what we love about this event, let me say: it’s inclusive. Beyond inclusive. The mix of sexualities – queer, straight, BDSM, kinky, leather, swinger, pagan, etc. – is mind-blowing. It’s sex positive in a way that nothing else I’ve experienced is.

It is very trans friendly, but you’ll only want to bring heels that you wear when you’re on your back, not to walk in – most of the camp is grass. There’s a pool, there’s lounge chairs, & there’s plenty of trees to be tied to, if that’s your sort of thing.

(You can check out a bunch of other posts I’ve done about DO over the years we’ve been going to get more of an idea.)

Too Much Drama

Not only are a ton of queens on Project Runway, but the benefits will be donated to Broadway Cares, in true queen style.

Sweetie looks fucking fantastic. But all of the NY queens we know are fabulous: Hedda Lettuce, Miss Understood, Acid Betty, Sherry Vine. (I hope I didn’t miss anyone!)

Thanks, ladies.