As a car just drove on by...

By the time you've watched the video below, you will know what my title refers to.

Tonight I celebrate the one month countdown until I fly to Toronto to legally wed my partner (NOT our wedding, the wedding is for spring 2012). I also bring back a bad memory. For a while I was following the story of the severe beating of Jack Price in New York back in 2009 just out of curiosity as to what the verdict would be. Today, the verdict got handed down.

Daniel Rodriguez will serve 12 years in prison for beating a man he didn't even know SO badly, that he suffered a broken jaw, collapsed lungs, broken ribs, lost half of his hearing, and lost his peripheral vision. The police report also says that had the EMT's arrived 5-10 minutes later, he mostly likely would have been dead from blood hemorrhaging.



Daniel Aleman, the second Bad Daniel, was sentenced to 8 years for his role in the beating.

Tonight, my blog is a message to them:

Daniels, this world is filled with people who you might not understand... or like... or appreciate... or accept. And I am sure that if you tried to beat up everyone you disliked, you would get the death penalty over a dozen years behind bars. I will admit, there are certainly people in this world that I despise, and yes at times would LOVE to beat up in the street. But I don't. Because as modernistic as my views may be, I still hold the ancient creed: Thou shall not attack until thou hast been attacked.

NEVER, for one minute, of one second, of one day, did this innocent man, who's life is forever worsened, affect your life. He was going about his business, on his own, and just hoping to get from A to B and enjoy the day.

Many people, in fact MOST in my life, don't know this, but I was once in this situation. Junior year of college, coming out of the Pegasus Club in Pittsburgh, where we were approached by a gang and the friend I was with was beaten Unconscious. Had the police not been down the block, who knows where I'd be today?

Now my biggest criticism of gay marriage has always been... "how does MY personal life affect YOURS?" i.e. how does what I do on a daily basis... affect YOUR... so called daily basis? It's not enough that we get treated like slaves in the 1800's without you resorting to the beating.

So, Daniel, and Daniel, i will leave it at this. my HOPE, my prayer, is that in 12 years, when you are released from prison, you will walk out of those large steel doors, see the sun shining in your face, and see a world that changed while you were behind bars. You will walk out to a world that embraces every person and every family, and your true redemption will come the day you realized... you were just a decade behind the masses.

I didn't ASK for this....

I know it's been a while since I was here, and for that I'm sorry. A lot has happened in the last few months. I celebrated my engagement to my wonderful partner and with my very accepting family, had a great holiday, and am now back and planning the next few months ahead, which include everything from a Canadian marriage and California road trip to figuring out why the dogs need SOOO many shots just to move to England.

But, nothing has changed that this blog can write about. In fact, we got worse.

Sure, some can argue.. "oh James, DADT got repealed, and prop 8 might be finally overturned too." But for me, that's the icing on a cake that was never put in the oven.

Today, the RNC elected Reince Priebus (were all the normal names taken?) as new chair of the RNC. Here was his very loving take on gay marriage:



And then, Obama, Mr. YES WE CAN!.... (not to diss him TOO much because he is still doing a decent, if not great job), states that he is 'struggling with the idea of gay marriage."

So fine. You know what. It's fine. This is not the first time in history that one side has denied another side rights based on BELIEFS (since slavery), and in 2011 it's still holding true.

I've sort of stopped writing because to me, this blog has become somewhat pointless. I live in a Nazi-esque society that denies a portion of that same tax-paying, hard-working society the basic rights because "we don't think it's right." Well, I don't think polygamy is right but Utah is still a state. And I definitely don't think divorce is right but 58 percent of the population might disagree with me.

So fine, I was born gay, surrounded by divorced couples. But I have to flee my own country just to get married. And the people in office, who are defending the 'sanctity' of marriage, obviously haven't been to las vegas.

If 2012 is an apocalypse, I hope the next time around we start as equals. Adam and Eve, or Adam and Steve. My life never interfered with yours. And yet you did such a good job.... of interfering with mine.

And to end... I may not live to see equality in this world. I just hope, and pray, that my children NEVER experience what I did. I hope they live to see a world where prejudices are overturned, where religious beliefs don't hold political precedence, and where they can fall in love... and the world can say..... congratulations. We wish you the best.