Tidbits

I haven't been around here much -- lots going on in my life, and it took me almost an entire week to write it out at my personal blog. Having done so was cathartic and helped me to sort through things pretty well. Hopefully I'll be around a little bit more now.

Well, a year ago today the news article hit the public -- the news article about our lawsuit against my employer. The process has gone laboriously slow, having taken 21 months already, with no real end in sight just yet. However, since it was filed, our employer did agree to domestic partner benefits under the terms of our new union contract. Separate and not equal, but it is a small step. It's costing me $9.60 per month "extra" to carry Lisa on my health insurance. It's costing my employer $112 per month extra. For two separate plans, it was costing us $153.35 per month more for Lisa's, and Lisa's employer the same.

I got a really nasty, caustic email from an "anonymous" writer, telling me that I was going to go to Hell, burn for eternity, yadda yadda yadda, for "embracing your deviant lifestyle and taking others with you."

Whatever.

No big surprise here. Virginia's House of Delegates passed an anti-gay-marriage bill, which will now be sent to the senate for approval before presented to voters.

Virginia law already defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Proponents say the constitutional amendment will make it clear that Virginia doesn't have to recognize gay marriages and same-sex civil commitments from other states.

Season three of The L Word started off pretty good Sunday. It was great to see some fun back in the show. Lisa and I nearly peed our pants at the end of the show when the cast was going through their inventory of euphamisms for the female genitalia. Bikini Biscuit, panty hamster, bearded oyster, camel's toe, Velcro triangle, vertical smile, and bald man in the boat were just some of them that got us going. At one point, Dana (who is now back with Lara) is saying that she's always had "polite" terms for hers, per her upbringing, but then Alice (who "happens" to be walking by) steps up and says "What about peeper? It's a wet peeper. It's a hot peeper." Dana grabs her purse and she and Lara quickly exit stage left, with Alice standing behind saying "peeper peeper peeper." If you've ever heard The Vagina Monologues, you've heard of some of them there, too.

It's such a shame that so many television stations have declined to air The Book of Daniel. While I didn't watch it myself (by choice), I was still annoyed to see that some of these stations bowed to pressure from extremist groups. One such group has also presented Washington state lawmakers with a "study" which purports to show that the passage of any gay rights bills could have negative effects on lawmakers at the polls. Legal extortion, I'd call it. Same with the AFA and other groups who call for boycotts against companies that support gay rights or anything gay related. How foolish would we look if we got a group together and called for a national boycott against any company that hires smokers?

Anyhoo...