Peter's Place

Over the past few months, I have carefully been considering the 2013 New York City mayoral race and examining the candidates who are seeking office. I reserved making a decision about whom I would support until I had invested enough time to examine and try to work with all of the candidates. Most importantly to me as an LGBTQ-rights activist, NYC Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn has stood out among the candidates as standing by the LGBTQ community, and I believe that she will continue to do so. Not many know about this but Quinn has laid out a plan for LGBTQ residents of NYC : Establish a Mayor’s Office of HIV/AIDS Policy Ensure That No Young Person in New York Has to Spend the Night on the Streets Build New York City’s First LGBT Senior Housing Community Make Sure City Agencies Effectively Serve all LGBT New Yorkers Redouble Efforts to Combat Hate Crimes and Promote Tolerance Quinn's plan and support for the LGBTQ community, laid out in more detail on her web site...

During my many inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations for Depression and suicide (both ideation and attempts) after my car accident, I was suffering from not only a loss of social status (adjusting to living on SSD income) but a loss of physical and mental capacities (Depression really  does a number on one's cognitive abilities). I've since overcome many of these feelings, and even some of the physical and mental debilitations (although not all of them, unfortunately). I've had to learn how to live with a "new me" if you will, and learn that I have new limitations, in addition to discovering what previous limitations I've always had. It wasn't the doctors who helped me with the profound sense of loss and feelings of inadequacy. They're just there for pharmacological stabilization--"let's get him stabilized on pharmaceuticals and shove him out the door" is the mantra of most psychiatrists these days. It certainly wasn't ...

I was having a discussion with an older gentleman in my friend's hair salon yesterday, while I getting my hair done ( the salon is owned by my friend, and as we barter for services I don't pay anything out of pocket). The essence of the conversation revolved around the political crisis that we're facing. We discussed some of the possible reasons that we've managed to sink into such a time of extreme crisis: the vast majority of people in this country (the USA) do not want to know what's going on in the world or in this nation, unless it's something they don't have to think about. In other words, they just want to kick back, pop open a brewskie, and be entertained. They do not  want to think about and/or deal with real-world issues—something they leave to the realm of their employment (should they be one of the 37% in this nation who are gainfully employed). I posti that a very large part of this mentality is due to the fact that we have no real news c...

A friend from a BBS suggested that I watch this video, which is taken from an episode of Sesame Street. They censored one word, and the entire meaning of the video has changed...if you can't figure out what the word is that they censored, let me know and I'll post it in the comments. But first,  watch the video  and be prepared to laugh!

Brain graphic Here are ten simple tips that will help keep your brain functioning well into your old age. 1) EAT ALMONDS Almond is believed to improve memory. If a combination of almond oil and milk is taken together before going to bed or after getting up at morning, it strengthens our memory power. Almond milk is prepared by crushing the almonds without the outer cover and adding water and sugar to it. 2) DRINK APPLE JUICE Research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice increases the production of the essential neuro transmitte race tylcholine in the brain, resulting in an increased memory power. 3) SLEEP WELL Research indicates that the long-term memory is consolidated during sleep by replaying the images of the experiences of the day. These repeated playbacks program the subconscious mind to store these images and other related information. 4) ENJOY SIMPLE PLEASURES Stress drains our brainpower. A stress-ridden mind consumes m...

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...