It indeed gets better

Bizarre and surreal are two of the more appropriate ways to describe Manchester Memorial High School’s Class of 2000’s 10th year reunion at Jillian’s in the Queen City on Saturday, Nov. 27. The evening, however, proved far more meaningful than simply catching up with old classmates.

To put it bluntly; high school sucked. “Yellow teeth,” “open ass” and even “faggot” were three of the more common taunts to which I was regularly subjected. My weight also provided additional fodder to those who took it upon themselves to torment me. High school proved an isolating, depressing and even hopeless experience. And June 7, 2000,--graduation day--was nothing short of a personal emancipation.

Fast forward more than a decade: I am a proud gay man, I live and work in New York City, I have lost more than 80 lbs., people know, (largely) appreciate and (even respect) my work and I have a wonderful boyfriend. I struggle with insecurities and a sense of inadequacy to this day, but I continue to turn the page on those who tormented me (and the hometown I maintain largely incubated them.)

The rash of LGBT teenager suicides over the last few months have provided an all too tragic reminder that bullying remains a serious problem in this country. I could have very well become one of those statistics, but life happily dictated otherwise. It indeed gets better. And last night’s reunion provided some welcome closure.



After graduation on June 7, 2000.



With an MMHS classmate at Jillian's on Nov. 27, 2010.

A Wednesday morning in Bushwick

On this Thanksgiving eve, here are four snapshots of Bushwick from earlier this morning.



From 322 Jefferson Street



Maria Hernandez Park



Playground in Maria Hernandez Park



Circo's on Knickerbocker Avenue

Another day, another headline for Sarah Palin, Inc.

My “does not care one iota about anything related to ‘Dancing with the Stars’” Facebook proclamation sparked four comments and nine likes, but what is this expression of e-love's broader takeaway?

As last week’s post on Willow Palin’s homophobic rant on Facebook categorically proved, anything remotely related to the former Alaska governor and her family sparks immediate reaction—and a lot of blog traffic. The buzz around whether Tea Party supporters have rigged “Dancing with the Stars” to make sure Bristol Palin wins continues, but mama grizzly herself made headlines yesterday when she told Sean Hannity she would not sit down for another interview with Katie Couric.

"I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism," said Sarah Palin, as reported by the Washington Post’s Rachel Weiner. "And I have a communications degree. I studied journalism -- who, what, where, when, and why of reporting. I will speak to reporters who still understand that cornerstone of our democracy, that expectation that the public has for truth to be reported. And then we get to decide our own opinion based on the facts reported to us. So a journalist, a reporter who is so biased and will, no doubt, spin and gin up whatever it is that I have to say to create controversy, I swear to you, I will not my waste my time with her. Or him."

Just another day—with an all too predictable headline and blog post—courtesy of the well-greased machine Sarah Palin, Inc., has become. Journalists, bloggers and anyone else who cares should obviously take note!

Homophobic Palin family values

Willow Palin apparently has a homophobia problem of her own.

The teenager called a critic of her mother’s new reality show a “faggot” in a Facebook exchange TMZ posted late on Tuesday, Nov. 16. Bristol Palin, who is a finalist on “Dancing with the Stars,” also chimed in.

“No you just run your mouth just so you’ll get a reaction,” wrote the teen activist. “You’re a typical shit talker. Talking shit cause you have nothing else going for you. Just like you pretended you didn’t know what Dancing with the Stars was.”

What does Mama Grizzly Palin herself have to say about her two cubs' antics? Perhaps the world will find out once she has finished promoting her new reality show, declared herself a presidential candidate, left Christine O'Donnell's coven and even proclaimed she can see Mars from the Eastern Aleutians. Just a thought...

An Indian summer grows in Brooklyn

This past weekend in New York City felt more May than mid-November.

I spent Saturday afternoon perusing the Middle Eastern food stores along Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn—Moroccan and Egyptian olives, bay leaves, dried apricots and cranberries and falafel for lunch were among the items in my shopping bag. And a wedding reception at the River Café, which is directly under the Brooklyn Bridge, provided some unexpected entertainment for those who were waiting for a Lower Manhattan-bound water taxi.

Here are some of snapshots from the beautiful day.



Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn's Pier 6.



From Brooklyn Bridge Park.



Brooklyn Bridge Park.



Revelers dance at the River Café under the Brooklyn Bridge.



Lower Manhattan from Fulton Landing.



Fulton Landing under the Brooklyn Bridge.



Under the Brooklyn Bridge.

RIP Jorge Steven

Today marks the first anniversary of the brutal murder of gay Puerto Rican teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado.

Juan José Martínez Matos stabbed López to death on Nov. 13, 2009, before he dumped the teenager’s decapitated, dismembered and partially burned body along a remote roadside near Cayey.

López’s mother, Myriam Mercado, told me in June “with a crime so atrocious, it is important people unite in their pain.” Her strength—and especially the unconditional love she continues to show for her son—remain an inspiration to everyone who has met her over the last year. It must be said, however, 12 LGBT Puerto Ricans have been murdered since López’s brutal death.

Recent events in New York City and around the country prove anti-LGBT hate crimes remain a serious problem. And on this grim anniversary, it remains imperative that everyone step up and say enough is enough.

LGBT Community Center hosts “don’t ask, don’t tell” panel

Optimism in journalism proved somewhat less than eternal this week, but the “don’t ask, don’t tell” panel at the LGBT Community Center in lower Manhattan last night provided some valuable insight into the issue.



Former White House advisor Richard Socarides moderated the panel, which featured Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, historian Nathaniel Frank and Winnie Stachelberg of the Center for American Progress. Gregory T. Angelo, chair of New York Log Cabin Republicans; Barbra Caspar Siperstein, co-chair of the National Stonewall Democrats PAC Board; and activist Jason Haas were among those in attendance.

A Wednesday afternoon in Herald Square

I'm back in Bushwick after lunch with David Mixner, but these breakdancers into whom I ran in the Herald Square subway station earlier this afternoon proves New York remains the best city in the world.

Gay N.H. bishop announces retirement

It was sad to read about gay New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson’s retirement announcement over the past weekend, but it goes without saying this truly remarkable man’s humility, grace, sense of justice, dignity and humor have touched more people--LGBT and otherwise--than anyone can possibly imagine.

The Episcopal Church consecrated Robinson at the University of New Hampshire in Nov. 2003. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church were among the hundreds of people who protested in Durham on that cool November morning. It was quite an eerie sight to see sharpshooters positioned on rooftops around the Whittemore Center--Robinson himself wore a bulletproof vest during the consecration because he had received credible death threats. In spite of the fanfare, rhetoric and outright homophobia that surrounded this watershed moment, however, the vast majority of New Hampshire Episcopalians seemed genuinely uninterested in Gene’s homosexuality.

“New Hampshire is always the place I remain, simply, ‘the bishop,’’’ and not “the gay bishop,’’ said Robinson, as the Boston Globe reported.

Thank you Gene.

Election Day in Bushwick

An expected package delivery kept me away from the polls until 3:30 p.m., but it took less than 10 minutes to vote at my polling place here in Bushwick once I arrived.

Here are some snapshots from the day.

Halloween 2010

Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year in New York. And below is a list of some of the characters I saw on the subway from Jefferson Street here in Bushwick to Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens, and at Studio Squared last night.

- A slutty ballerina covered in blood
- Fred Flintstone
- Death
- Miss Geisha Sashimi
- Wolverine and Storm from X-Men
- A dirty grandmother
- Bob Marley
- A football player with an actual jock strap
- Wonder Woman
- Divine
- Jackie O
- King Tut and Nefertiti
- A Chiquita banana
- Snooki and Pauly D from "Jersey Shore"
- A stoned astronaut (a true space cadet)
- So-called Revenge of the Nerds

Chilean miners were not among those into whom I ran last night, but the hundreds of children who trick-or-treated on Knickerbocker Avenue earlier this afternoon certainly learned Halloween can prove quite lucrative in the candy department. Here are a couple of pictures from Circo's at the corner of Knickerbocker Avenue and Hart Street around 1:30 p.m.

Ex-madam Kristin Davis courts Bushwick voters

New York State gubernatorial candidate Kristin Davis apparently finds it necessary to stump for votes in Bushwick!

I would have preferred to receive information about the Rent Is Too Damn High Party in the mail this afternoon, but the ex-madam certainly knows a thing or two about hustling for votes (and chutzpah!)

Union Leader declines to publish gay couple’s wedding announcement

This native Granite Stater finds the growing outrage over the Union Leader’s decision not to publish a gay couple's wedding announcement rather curious.

Mo Baxley, executive director of New Hampshire Freedom to Marry, correctly pointed out in a statement the newspaper’s “opposition to gays and lesbians being treated equally under the law is no secret to those of us that live in New Hampshire.” The Union Leader consistently opined against the state’s marriage equality law that took effect in January. And the newspaper once again highlighted this editorial position in defense of its decision not to publish Greg Gould and Aurelio Tine's wedding announcement.

“This newspaper has never published wedding or engagement announcements from homosexual couples," wrote the Union Leader in a statement. "It would be hypocritical of us to do so, given our belief that marriage is and needs to remain a social and civil structure between men and women."

While unfortunate, the newspaper has the right to publish (or in this case not publish) what it chooses. And while the outrage over the Union Leader’s decision not to publish Gould and Tine’s wedding announcement is certainly justified, anyone who thinks this rag will suddenly embrace LGBT people and their families is woefully naïve.

Obama: It gets better

President Obama is the latest high profile figure to speak out against anti-LGBT bullying.

In a video the White House posted to its YouTube channel late on Thursday, Oct. 21, the president sought to dispel “the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage—that it’s some inevitable part of growing up.”

“You are not alone,” he said, speaking directly to victims of anti-LGBT bullying. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t do anything to deserve being bullied. And there is a whole world waiting for you, filled with possibilities. There are people out there who love you and care about you just the way you are. And so, if you ever feel like because of bullying, because of what people are saying, that you’re getting down on yourself, you’ve got to make sure to reach out to people you trust. Whether it’s your parents, teachers, folks that you know care about you just the way you are. You’ve got to reach out to them, don’t feel like you’re in this by yourself.”



The timeline under which the administration released the video is certainly interesting. The Department of Justice continues to challenge U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillip’s ruling on the constitutionality of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers. And skeptics maintain the president’s video is a cynical attempt to deflect attention away from a growing public relations disaster over the issue.

Others can opine about whether the administration has or has not done enough to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But the fact the president spoke out against anti-LGBT bullying sends a powerful message that resonates far beyond the LGBT activist fishbowl.

Does Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller believe in a free press?

The Associated Press reported earlier today the security guard who handcuffed Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger at an event for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller could face assault charges.

The incident took place inside an Anchorage school on Sunday, Oct. 17, but this incident raises some very serious questions that go far beyond a candidate’s desire to control his message on the campaign trail. One of the United States' founding principles is a free press, but it appears Miller and his operatives disregarded this basic American ideal in Anchorage over the past weekend.

Leaf peeping and mid-term election politics

Politics were definitely in the crisp fall air in New Hampshire this past weekend (in case anyone needs a Brooklyn-based writer to remind them the mid-term elections are only 15 days away.) “Fire Pelosi” bumper stickers, signs touting former Manchester mayor and congressional candidate Frank Giunta as a “real conservative” and a barrage of negative campaign ads—a National Rifle Association-funded spot I heard on the radio while driving through Concord on Interstate 93 strongly suggested incumbent Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter would strip Americans of their constitutionally-guaranteed right to bear arms—were as common as the mums, pumpkins and corn stalks that adorned homes in suburban southern New Hampshire’s sub-divisions.

The Citizens United case is the obvious impetus behind this orgy of advertising, but the stunning foliage for which New Hampshire is world famous provided a very welcome respite from the partisan noise in this battleground state.





Maple tree in front of my parents' house in Manchester, N.H.



Pumpkins for sale at Mack's Apples in Londonderry, N.H.



Along Peaked Hill Road in Bristol, N.H.



Along Newfound Lake in Alexandria, N.H.



A passing shower produced this rainbow over Newfound Lake.



Newfound Lake from Wellington State Park in Alexandria, N.H.



Along Commerce Street in Hill, N.H.



U.S. Senate politics play themselves out in Hill, N.H.



A slice of the American electorate parked outside the Hill Village Store in Hill, N.H.

Paladino blasted at Pride Agenda's fall dinner

It should come as little surprise those who spoke at the Empire State Pride Agenda's annual fall dinner last night blasted Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. The Buffalo millionaire's own words remain his worst enemy, but Gov. David Paterson, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Pride Agenda executive director Ross Levi were among those who took the firebrand to task.

¡Vivan los mineros chilenos!

Paladino goes there with the gays

It was only a matter of time before Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino went there with the gays.

The controversy over comments he made to a group of Hasidic rabbis in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday, Oct. 10, continues to rage—everyone from New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to GOProud co-founder Chris Barron have soundly condemned them. The Tea Party-backed provocateur obviously seeks out any opportunity to drop verbal bombshells to further the ridiculous spectacle his campaign has become. It is important, however, to provide some context to this truly unfortunate story.

Andrés and I were among those fortunate enough to attend Andrew Hertzberg and Andy Rollman’s wedding in the lobby of the old Hecht’s Department Store in downtown Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Andrew’s 89-year-old father proudly gave his son away to his husband inside the former Hecht’s Department Store. And this simple act of love, which ironically took place hours before Paladino spoke to the Williamsburg rabbis, brought nearly everyone to tears.



Andrew’s father could obviously teach Paladino a thing or two.

LGBT Americans need more than a BFF

The Human Rights Campaign certainly knows how to throw an extravagant party for itself every October in Washington, D.C., but does this carefully choreographed gala actually accomplish anything?

Andres and I were genuinely thrilled to see Ricky Martin take the stage at the start of the nearly four-hour affair. He told those inside the Washington Convention Center he wants “to add my voice to yours” and he is “so happy to be part of this community.” The predictable flurry of text messages and tweets to my editor, colleagues and friends in New York City followed, but the emotional testimony the gay Puerto Rican heart throb provided truly proved far more powerful than simple words can describe.



Mo’Nique’s equally heart-felt and equally compelling speech as she introduced director Lee Daniels and Pink’s challenge to bullies to come find her if they “want to take their anger out on someone” provided additional highlights as the evening dragged on. Senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett’s comments on the rash of recent LGBT teenager suicides and the administration’s commitment to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian soldiers were certainly nice gestures. Once again, however, did they actually accomplish anything?

The last few weeks have certainly brought sadness, anger and outrage to those within the movement for LGBT rights and their many supporters. The seemingly endless headlines about teenagers taking their own lives because they faced endless torment over their sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression; yet more reported hate crimes in New York City; and partisan politics that derailed debate on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, among other things, have certainly taken their toll. And while it is entirely appropriate for people to enjoy themselves at an HRC dinner, it takes far more than endless backslapping, choreographed moments designed to put someone’s idea of the community’s best face forward and a California teenager’s “Joe (Solmonese) is possibly even a BFF” proclamation to show the country LGBT Americans deserve more than a simple seat at the table.