A North West View

So I recently read this article on The Huffington Post Hightline called  Together Alone: The Epidemic Of Gay Loneliness  this article is one that I would highly recommend reading.  It is an article that touched me in a significant way.  The article fouces on why even thought the gay community has come a long way in gaining equal rights, it still suffers from high rates of suicide, depression, anxiety and substance abuse.  The article points out that "are between 2 to 10 times more likely then straight people to take their own life. Where twice as likely to have a major depressive episode" And this pattern holds up in countries that where even early adopter to things like gay marriage.  While there virtually no study on the subject in the US in Canada it has been found that more gay men a year die from suicide them they do for HIV/AIDs if those finding are to hold true in the US suicide could be the next major epidemic with in the gay community taking count...

I know that I am late to the game on When We Rise on ABC, but I have just finished watching it on demand.  I would say if you have not watched it, it is a must watch.  The series is very well put together, and it gets you wrapped up in it from the very start, and you will want to binge watch the whole series in one sitting, This the cinematography in this series is first rate, and the use of music helps to increase the emotional impact of this series, I have to admit that I teared up multiple times through out the series, as you get so deeply engrossed in what is going on that emotionally you wined up placing yourself into what is going on.  While I wish that they had put in a few more things in the gay rights movement it really dose a very thorough job of showing the fight for equality.  More after the jump.

So You Tube has created a hash tag to help celebrate pride month (especially in the wake of Orlando), I thought that I would do a blog post in the spirit of the prompt as I have not had time to make a video, and I am not sure when or if I will.  However I still want to show my pride, not just as a gay man but as a person in general, as I think that all of myself sort of melds together.

It is very clear the perpetrator of the terrorist attack on Orlando, probably had multiple levels of twisted reasoning behind the attack.  Fueled by a dangerous allegiance to ISIS.  It is clear the utmost goal of the attack though is to instill fear in those that have been attack, to place fear in the hearts of the American public (and others around the world) that you are not safe anywhere. Part of the goal of this fear is to get us to turn on our fellow Americans, most specifically those in the Muslim community. Even though like every community of faith, it is made up almost entirely by people of peace who would not do a thing to harm another human, let alone take their life.  However their goal is to turn Americans against fellow Americans, to make us alienate, and segregate the Muslim community in our country. For the very reason that an alienated community is one that is much easier to radicalize then one that is an integrated part of the community, one that is tr...

Yet another tragedy at the hands of a deranged gunman has struck the country. This time, the violence broke out at a gay club in Orlando, FL, USA. Like previous shootings this year, an American citizen armed with an assault rifle opened fire on unsuspecting victims for the sole purpose of heartless slaughter, which is why he chose an assault weapon—designed for that exact purpose. I firmly believe regardless of reasons a person commits such a crime in part, is that their death grants a narcissistic wish--they want to become famous. They want their name to become a house hold name, that everyone and their grandmother says as they talk about the tragedy that they have rained down on the lives of innocent people.  As such, I refuse to use the name or picture of the person that has committed this heinous act of violence. 

So I have posted a new story on my new spin off blog  A North West View Stories .  I really enjoyed writing the story.  It is published on my new blog, and is definitely a story for the 18 and over crowed (like the warning on the blog says) so it.  Here is the link  Thoroughly Used By Security  Until next time dear readers.

So a shit storm of controversy has hit the nation, in the form of a simple kiss between Micheal Sam, and his boyfriend when Micheal was drafted to play for the Rams, making him the first openly gay NFL player, something that was not really expected to happen!  So it got a bunch of peoples undies in a bunch, with cries of what about the poor children that had to see that on TV! To those complaining that they don't care that he is gay but why did it have to be flaunted and shoved down their throats.

I have been having a lot of issues lately, I have always had feelings like I wish that I could go back into the closet. Of course that is something that I can't do short of packing up my whole life and moving somewhere else where nobody knows me, and that is not in the cards at all. I still find my self wishing that I could do that, that if I had a chance to do it all over again that I would not have come out in the first place.  I know that, that sounds stupid and horrible, and makes me sound like bad person and that it probably makes some of you hate me and think that I am a very bad person, and you have every right to feel that way about me, and even to express those feelings towards me.

I would like to start off by saying that I know with every fiber of my being that God is a part of my life and that he has never left my side and that he never will, of that I have no doubt. I however wonder though what I have done to diserve to be made to be be gay, and that no amount of praying has or ever will change that.  Leaving me to admit deffet and giving up on that change.  A song played over the radio at work the other day, that reminded me of the time in my life when I finaly had to admit failure on my part on being able to change that part of me.  To have to admit that I was not good enough to change that part of me.  That no matter how much I tired and I prayed that I was just not good enogh to be able to change that.  I often wounder what I did and what I have done to doserve to be made gay. Then there is being made to be bipolar, what did I do to deserve this? To diserve to have a surious mental ilness that requires me to take medication for th...

So today I would like to talk about something that might make some people uncomfortable  and is not something that I find the most comfortable topic in the world myself ether, and that topic quite frankly is sex, and sexuality. Yeah that topic that is only supposed to be talked about behind closed doors in whispered voices, not in a forum that is public, even if it is one that to a certain extent is anonymous at the same time. (even though nothing in life even the web is one hundred percent anonymous) However I feel that there is enough anonymity in this particular forum to talk about such a thing and how it pertains to life and especially to myself personally, in an open and honest manor. So with out further adieu I will get started right after the jump.

So this weeks post is going to be shorter then normal because the power supply on my computer gave out, and I am writing this on my tablet. This week I would like to write my review on An Unconventional Courthship, by Scotty Cade. Read more after the jump.

So it is time once again for another Sunday book review, and keeping with the romance novel kick (after all every one has to have their guilty pleasures in life, this being one of the better ones that someone can have) that I have been/was on for the time that I dropped off the face of the blogging world, today I will be reviewing Color Of Grace by A.M. Arthur. Who on a side note is an author that I am quite enamored with. I have come to quite enjoy her writing style and the complexity of her story lines as well as her characters. She leaves me looking forward to reading her next book. Once again A.M. Arthur creates a engrossing read,

I know that it has been a long time since I have posted any thing, in part because I have pretty much dropped off the radar and have not even really been keeping up with any of the things that I have a passion for, sort of reading books.  Which is why I would like to try to make Sunday book reviews something of a semi regular thing, and I sincerely hope that it is something that you my readers enjoy.  On that note today I would like to review on of those books, Cost Of Repairs, By A.M. Arthur. I have been on a Romance novel kick as of late and Cost Of Repairs, is a romance, which also happens to be a gay romance.

With the nail biting election in the rear view mirror, with Obama winning the election handily once all the swing state cards feel into place, it is hard to believe that Obama's reelection is the cherry on the top of an amazing dessert.  It was a night that brought us the defeated of a proposed constructional ban of same sex marriage in Minnesota  with the public voting in favor of gay marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington, marking the first time in history that marriage equality has won at the ballot box.  Along with the the election of allies in congress and the senate, as well as in state government through out the country, and the first openly gay Senator Tammy Baldwin a Democratic from Wisconsin.  This is promises to be a watershed moment in history.

With only a week left until ballots mail out in Washington state, Protect Marriage Washington has started airing their first ad in what is doubtless to be a series of ads to run threw the election on Nov 6.  as the Seattle times says about this time in the election cycle  "for a ballot measure that isn't up on the air now is missing a big opportunity. Ballots mail out next week"  and it  appears  that even though they are late to the race compared to the  Approve   campaign  that has had ads running for months between Washington United for marriage and an ad run by Seattle Pride during the summer  Olympics   they seem to be  coming  out of the gate swinging using some of the same old  tactics  that have proven so  effective  in the past in scaring the public into voting their way.   although  this time they seem to have  thrown  in another tool to their  approach ...

There is something missing in the adds for marriage equality in Washington State (and in the 3 other state facing marriage equality measures this year) and that is the total lack of gay people in the ads, instead like in Washington they seem to have every one and their uncle from pro equality republican positions to clergy and family talking about why marriage equality matters, how gay people want the same things out of marriage as every one else in society and why they are deserving of the right to marry. Yet there are no gay people making the case, which even thought the ads that are being put out are good and do carry the message well and pull at the heartstrings of the views (like the video after the jump) it would seem to me, and meany others that to have gay people make the case would be a good way of going about it.  As we are the ones that this decisions ultimately affects why aren't we the ones ...

Missing by Drake Braxton This book grabbed me from the very beginning and never let go.  It starts right out in the mist of the action as Blain realizes that his Husband of 15 years Manny has gone missing at Blain's 20th class reunion. So starts the search of the hotel for his husband, first asking some of the reunion attendees, then checking her room, in the hopes that he had become bored with the reunion and returned to the room to rest, things grow expediently more frantic after Blain discovers Manny's cell phone discarded in a potted plant.

Maybe I am weak, maybe I just can't do whatever it is that is the best for me, and damn the outcome!  Maybe that is what I need to do not to live not only in an awkward limbo with myself,  but also wanting something that i very well may never get. However it also seems to be the very thing that I can't do when it comes to my dad. Even though he had a "talk" with me after I posted this youtube video about feeling shoved back in the closet,

One of the newest groups to throw their support behind marriage equality in Washington state and take an official stance that Ref 74 should be a proved is the Seattle Chamber Of Commerce which represents 2,200 company's, it joins the ranks of company's like Microsoft and Starbucks, as well as many faith groups and Labor groups like my union UFCW 21, in voicing their support for the right of all citizens of Washington to be able to marry.   Of course being the chamber of commerce their reason boils down to the economics of it, in that it creates a simpler system of providing benefits to employees who have same sex partners, as well as helping to make it easier to attract and keep talent, especially when competing with other states (and countries) that have marriage equality. In addition to gaining another voice for equality Washington...

Well on Tuesday the backers of Initiative 1192 other wise know as I 1192 conceded that they did not and would not have enough signatures by the deadline of July 6th to make it onto the November ballot.  The backer of the  241,000     which would have changed state law to once again read that marriage is between one man and one women.  The backer of the measure S tephen Pidgeon, who is also a candidate for the state attorney generals office, (How unseemly) blamed the inability to collect enough signatures on the backers of Ref 74, and went so far as to say that the backers of Ref 74 chorused signature gathers to sabotage his Initiative campaign!  What this means though is that there is only one fight to be fought now on the November ballot and that is Ref 74.  Of-course like everything in this fight this is both good new and also some bad news at the sa...