Peter's Place

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On Saturday, July 14, 2012, a fundraiser was held to assist with efforts to raise the nearly $5,000 in funds needed to pay for various NYC permits required to stage  Bronx   Pride  2012 , an LGBT  pride  festival, celebration, and rally that will be held on  Saturday, July 21, 2012  at  Crotona Park  in The  Bronx  from  noon until 6 pm . Donations to help pay the NYC permit fees are being accepted on the Eventbrite page created for the  pride  event at  http://bronxpride2012.eventbrite.com/ . Additionally, orders for official  Bronx   Pride  2012 T-shirts, with personalization options, are being taken. All orders will be available for pick up at  Bronx   Pride  on Saturday. Due to the financial straits everyone is in, we will only be producing T-shirts for people who order them in advance, through Eventbrite. More importantly, attendees at the fun...

Grant me the strength to accept fucktards I cannot change! Am I wrong in this? Have I done anything wrong? What have I done to deserve this sort of treatment? Srsly! Here's the skinny, Jimmy! Wednesday Night: Unfortunately i have to deal with this kumkwat of a fucktard as he's sort of a client and I do work for him (yes it's a "him"), but he's also supposed to be my friend, as well. So last night, I made a suggestion to him. It was only a suggestion , and he blew his top off. Here's the actual chat (mind you, I'd been waiting all day to speak with him about some stuff; we were even supposed to have a teleconference meeting but he blew me off b/c something else came up (which is understandable, except he didn't bother to tell me about it so I was sitting around waiting for him to call): me: how r u?   XXXXX: stressed. 2:23 AM  me:  can i so anythung? 2:28 AM    me: do anything* 2:29 AM    XXXXX: No. I have a confernce call wi...

In the early 1990s, I advocated pursuing the fight for full marriage equality, in the Hawaii case. Most of the leadership in the LGBTQ community (with the notable exception of Evan Wolfson) nay-sayed the idea, saying that it was too much, too soon. Having studied the civil rights struggles of two notable minority groups in this nation (namely, women and Blacks), it's clear that the minority remained oppressed for centuries because they were appeased with the step-by-step breadcrumbs thrown at them by those in power, those who kept them in second-class citizenship status. I argued that, to break this cycle, we must not accept these small steps, these small breadcrumbs and scraps of rights thrown from the table. We must not have to fight 20 years just to achieve one equal right and another 30 years to achieve another. Instead, we must ask for it all, the whole kit and kaboodle, upfront. Only then will we be able to achieve the equality to which we are legally entitled. Twenty ...

I just e-mailed the following letter to Pastor Hamlin, at pastor@greenbeltucc.org, with a cc: to the Miss Greenbelt Pageant organizers, at natasha@missgreenbelt.com, christine@missgreenbelt.com (they list no other contact information on their web site, at  http://www.missgreenbelt.com/  ) * * * Dear Pastor Hamlin: I write to you because you are listed as a supporter of the Miss Greenbelt Pageants . As a church and religious organization with clear pro-marriage equality stances , I would like to know why you are supporting this clearly anti-LGBT organization and one of its start spokespersons, Little Miss Greenbelt, Sarah Crank. A few days ago, 14-year old Little Miss Greenbelt, Sarah Crank, who is home-schooled by her very anti-LGBTQ Concerned Women for America lobbyist mother,  told the Maryland state legislature , and I quote, " It would be the best birthday present ever if you would vote no on gay marriage ." and " People have the choice to be gay, but...

It is with a sense of tearful melancholic irony that I look back upon the past few decades of my life and examine what was in a futile attempt to determine what will come to be. Two decades ago from today, I was breezing through the first year of my studies at university, even while carrying a work load of 24 or 26 credits per semester. In fact, I already had become a sophomore, credit-wise, even though it was my first year of "higher learning." My problem was that I found little difference in the teaching methods between my secondary school teachers and the professors at my university of higher learning. The fault was not with the professors' profferings but rather the unparalleled acerbic academics of my secondary school teachers—something which, quite unfortunately in today's banal society, one finds less often than the chances by which one can be struck by lightning. Exactly ten years ago today, I should have died ; I did not do so. Instead, I have found ren...

There's a story that's been going around lately, and it's pretty true, that a bunch of Muslim women were recently arrested at the Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York (which is owned by the Westchester County Government --the only amusement park in the nation so owned by a governmental entity ), for causing a disturbance and protesting the park's refusal to allow them entrance on the park's many rides while wearing their headgear. Being a life-long resident of Westchester County and friends with folks who've worked at Playland over the years, I have an issue with this entire story. It's being made out that the Muslim women were singled out, and that's just not the case. Here's the fact of the matter: Anyone wearing any sort of headgear, including scarves, is not permitted on any ride at Playland, for safety reasons: If the women were allowed onto the rides and one of them were choked to death because their scarf (their headgear) ...

Last week, I took a trip down to Memphis, Tennessee, right in the heart of what we northerners might call the "Bible Belt." Why would I, an out gay man, take such a trip? Well, for starters, I wasn't alone. Over 90 individuals representing 26 different states in the USA, as well as the District of Columbia, ventured to Memphis for a life-changing journey in order to undergo training in nonviolent civil disobedience so that would would be enabled and empowered to take direct action and raise both the stakes and the spectrum of the fight for equality for all but especially of us LGBTQ folk. The trip and training were sponsored by GetEQUAL , a queer-rights activist group. To be completely honest, I went on the trip for some pretty selfish reasons: I wanted to get away for a few days; I hadn't gone on any sort of trip other than for family matters in nearly a decade; I wanted to see the National Civil Rights Museum and determine how much import they'd given to Bay...

Yesterday, I had my first real experience on the journey into old age, and it wasn't fun. I've not been feeling well for a while now; at the beginning of the month I was having "stomach issues" and I've just generally been feeling pretty run down. Around 7pm yesterday evening, I began experiencing a great amount of pain in my chest, which made it difficult for me to breathe. I wasn't doing anything physical, and hadn't done anything physical in a while. In fact, I was sitting on my bed, as usual, on my laptop computer. I called a few friends to see if I they had any idea of what might be happening, and was able only to get hold of one. She suggested that I go to the emergency room ("ER") right away, as chest pains might be related to the heart. At first, I postponed such action as it didn't feel like my heart, per se. But as the minutes ticked by, the pain became worse, and it became increasingly difficult to breathe. The pain spread ...

I received this in an e-mail, and have verified the information contained herein via Snopes.com . Look at this lady - Let us never forget! The world hasn't just become wicked...it' s always been wicked. The prize doesn't always go to the most deserving. Irena Sendler There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena obtained permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. However, she had an 'ulterior motive'. She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews (being German). Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried, and she carried a burlap sack (for larger kids) in the back of her truck. She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids'/infants' noises. Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants in the...

{EAV_BLOG_VER:50d9bce121877b1b} [EDIT 4 June 2011: Please ignore the first line of this post; I'm having to do some technical stuff with which you need not be concerned...] I just faxed the following letter to the management company of the apartment building I've been living in for almost six months now: I write to advise you of an incident that just occurred at my apartment door. Approximately 15 minutes ago at around 2:45 a.m., a woman began banging on my door almost to the point of knocking it down. She complained that I was making too much noise. For the first time since I moved into my apartment XX at XXX, a friend came over to help me unpack. As you are aware, I previously have been unable to unpack because the movers stacked everything from my previous apartment to the point where I was physically unable to move anything, due to my physical handicaps. The woman complained that she’s sick and tired of me sliding things around back and forth and moving things aro...

I just created a petition at  Change.org  to have NYS Senate Bill No. S5416 removed for consideration. Here's the text of the petition. OVERVIEW  New York State Senators Golden  and  Libous  vulgarized the dignity of their offices by introducing hate-based legislation filled with lies and defended their actions to the press by insisting their constituents "don't really give a rat's ass" about social issues. By signing this petition, you will tell Senators Golden and Libous that you firmly insist on their respecting the dignity and purport of their offices, and insist they respect all New Yorkers and treat them with dignity.   New York State Senators Martin Golden and Tom Libous introduced a "Defense of Marriage" bill in the NYS Senate that would prohibit New York State from recognizing same-sex marriages performed out of state. Currently, pursuant to an Executive Order issued by then-governor Patterson, New York State recognizes all legally perf...

The New York Times published an article yesterday (20 May 2011) entitled For Gay Employees, an Equalizer . The article reports on the recent trend by a growing number of businesses across all sectors of "grossing up." Essentially, these businesses are reimbursing gay & lesbian employees for the extra tax they must if they add their partner (or their domestic partner's child(ren)) to their health insurance plan. So, why are some employers creating this special privilege for their gay & lesbian employees--a right their straight employees aren't entitled to? Quite simply, it's because their straight employees aren't penalized with this extra tax burden when they add their spouse to their health insurance coverage. Federal law doesn't deem such health care benefits imputed income and, therefore, does not tax it. There are a few things to consider: First, not every employer offers health benefits to the partners of their gay & lesbian employ...