COLAGE: Just For Us

COLAGE is looking for submission to their Fall 2009 issue of Just For Us:

Just For Us, the only publication in the world written entirely by children, youth, and adults with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer parents, is looking for submissions for our Fall 2009 issue.

The Fall 2009 issue of Just For Us focuses on the topic of faith and spirituality, and the role they play in the lives of COLAGErs of all beliefs, be it an organized religion, paganism, agnostism or atheism. Faith and spirituality are complex topics and impact governmental policies that affect LGBTQ families. They are for some COLAGErs a source of community and support while, for others, they are a cause of strife or challenge. For many, our beliefs and practices are used as vehicles for change and acceptance

We are looking for articles, poetry, interviews, art, and more from youth and adults who have (or had) one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender, and/or queer parent/s. Please e-mail Meredith@colage.org if you’re interested in writing a piece.

Join Us For Family Week 2009

I am writing to tell you about a great Family Vacation that I hope your family can join our family in attending: Family Equality Council’s 14th Annual Family Week.

Summer is here!!! Which means Family Week 2009 is just around the corner. This week was made just for families like ours, filled with events like Family Beach Picnic & Campfire, Movie Night & Pajama Party and Sign Making & Family Parade. See for yourself: check out the slideshow from last year.

If your family registers before July 15th and you tell them that our family referred you, we will both be entered into a raffle to receive a great Family Week gift package! So register now.

And make sure to fill out the section about who referred you!

Michael Jackson and the Ivory Madonna

By Brian Frank

It’s important to give our children a sense of history, but there’s some history that we shouldn’t try to discuss with them.  That’s probably the case with Michael Jackson.  We don’t watch the news when Darius is around (actually, we don’t watch television news at all anymore), so he hasn’t been exposed to any of the news about Jackson’s career and recent death.  And even if we tried to explain it to him, at his age he’d probably find it about as pertinent as – in his  words -  “that president guy that grown-ups are always talking about.”  While it’s essential for our children to have a knowledge about historical events such as the Declaration of Independence, World War II, and even September 11th, requiring them to attach any sort of cultural relevance to the pop icons of our own era is just plain narcissism.  To quote Bruce Sterling in his speech that launched The Viridian Design Movement (a highly influential document here at Green Dads): “We think that young people have suffered enough, and will probably suffer a great deal more for things that they never did. They should not be required to be trendy any more, the overhead there is just too cruel. Young people should be left to enjoy their pirated MP3 music and their baggy cast-off clothing, and everyone over 30 should get the hell off their backs.”

For most of us of parenting age, of course, Michael Jackson – whether you love him or hate him – is someone who has transformed from a mere performer into an icon which has become inextricably intertwined with our own cultural landscape.  One of the more amusing and whimsical manifestations of Michael Jackson iconography in recent years is the appearance of a thinly-disguised Michael Jackson character in a science fiction novel by Green Dads pal Don Sakers, Dance for the Ivory Madonna .

Ivory Madonna follows the whirlwind adventures of Miranda Maris, who has been a fashion designer, senator, fugitive, and accidental master of the world, through a near-future earth that is at once recognizable and radically transformed.  Among other themes, Sakers explores the collision between virtual and realtime culture, in part through an organization called the Nexus, a self-organizing online adhocracy that exists to enforce the directives of the United Nations.  Sakers’ concept of the Nexus was prescient of similar ideas such as The Second Superpower which have emerged in recent years and are gaining credence online. Jackson appears in Ivory Madonna as Washington Westwood Hohokus – or just “WWH” – a brilliant superstar pop artist who lives a hermitlike life of eccentricity that would be creepy if not for its sheer innocence.  Sakers’ paints a compassionate portrait of WWH that amusingly acknowledges his near-zany idiosyncrasies without ever once descending into caricature.  Ivory Madonna also features a breakaway Christian Confederacy in the southern US – another prescient touch by Sakers – as well as a gay-friendly U.S. armed forces with a military base memorializing the site of Matthew Shepard’s murder.  These elements, among many others, make Dance for the Ivory Madonna a fun and provocative read for anyone interested in where the future may be taking us.

40 Years Later

Photo by celesteh

An article by Frank Rich in the opinion section of yesterday’s New York Times discusses the 4oth Anniversary of the Stonewall riots, titled: 40 Years Later,  Still Second-Class Americans.

The younger gay men — and scattered women — who acted up at the Stonewall on those early summer nights in 1969 had little in common with their contemporaries in the front-page political movements of the time. They often lived on the streets, having been thrown out of their blue-collar homes by their families before they finished high school. They migrated to the Village because they’d heard it was one American neighborhood where it was safe to be who they were.

Read the rest of the article.

NYC Pride Parade 2009

Here are some photos from today’s Pride Parade in NYC. All were taken with my Iphone and I ran out of battery power long before the parade was done. We also left early when Darius said he was tired and wanted to lay down. Click on the pictures to see a bigger shot.

Playing In The Park

We are at Madison Square Park not far from our hotel where we found a small playground to play in. The park is on the parade route so we may just hangout here to watch the parade.

Breakfast On Broadway

It’s a beautiful morning and we’re on Broadway having breakfast at a place called Cafe Metro.

50 House Democrats Unconfirmed On ENDA

Photo by brainchildvn

There are 50 House Democrats unconfirmed on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, H.R. 3017 (ENDA). Click here to email, phone or fax these legislators and ask them to support ENDA. (via The Bilerico Project)

NYC Pride 2009: We Have Arrived

We arrived at Penn Station late this afternoon and since our hotel was about six blocks away we decided to walk. The hotel is a recently renovated Holiday Inn that was a good deal and it’s clean. The room however is really tiny, I suppose that’s to be expected in Manhattan.

Within minutes of arriving in our room we had an injury. D was bouncing around the room and slid of the bed only to jam his thigh right into the corner of the night stand. The scream was probably heard on all 25 floors of the hotel. I was sure someone was going to come and break in the door or something because obviously a child was being tortured here. Eventually, he calmed down and only has a small scratch to show for it. It really must have hurt like hell though when it happened.

A little while later we ventured out to go exploring and find a place to eat. The sun was shining and the temperature was comfortable. It’s interesting how Darius now wants to hold both our hands when walking down the street. When he was about 2-3 years old he went throught a period where having to hold a hand while walking was completely unacceptable.  It was as if he was saying, “I can do it myself, I don’t need you help.”  Now he’s well aware that he can do it himself but instead likes to be close to us.

We stopped at an all vegetarian South Indian restaurant.  Brian and I enjoyed the food immensely we don’t get good Indian food often, mainly because the kid only appreciates more conventional American food. He did enjoy the yogurt lassi we got him. We got a couple of combination platters with all kinds of great things to try that we never see in Albany.  While we were there it started to rain and rain heavily. We finished our meal and paid the bill but stayed at our table for a little while hoping the rain would slow down. Eventually it stopped almost as quickly as it had started. We had a nice walk back with a our little man between us holding hands and jumping over the puddles.

Pride Bound

We’re on the train headed for Pride in NYC. It’s a very relaxing and civilized ride compared to driving into the city. We met a nice family with an almost 5 year old boy who played with Darius for awhile.

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