Daddy, Papa and Me

If you remember, we went to the Family Pride Easter Egg Roll last year. Unfortunately, we couldn't go again this year (finances and timing). I have to tell you though, last year's easter egg roll was one of the highlights of our year (or longer). I've got to finish our scrapbook about it :). Emma sure had a blast and remembers it well still.

Family pride is doing it again this year. So if you have a chance, go... or give support. The more Americans see our families for what they are in reality, the more support we get. (can read a bit more from Pam's House Blend)

If you play in the dirt, you'll be happier and healthier. Really. Seriously. You'll be scientifically demonstratably happier. Recent research shows that mice exposed to a bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae actually have increased the levels of serotonin, a chemical produced by our body that increases mood. Not only that, it boosts the immune system response (due to the same serotonin level change apparently).

So it's spring break for Emma. Daddy was taking her to the beach this afternoon. We were trying to get her to hurry and get her clothes changed for the beach. After a few admonitions from us, she turned to me and asked with a smile to tell me it was a rhetorical question:

"does the beach close?"

Ok, point taken. We stopped pushing :). As I said before, we are in trouble :-D.

Civil Union bill passed the NH House by a vote of 65% to 35%. It now goes to the state senate.

Marriage equality opponents often oppose 'marriage' and support 'civil unions' because marriage has religious connotations and should be reserved for male/female unions. Even if they both granted exactly the same rights to couples (they don't, Civil Unions grant the same _state_ rights as marriage, but do not translate across state borders or to federal rights, even if the federal DOMA was repealed), they'd oppose marriage and accept civil unions, as evidenced by the vote in NH today and the comments by many Democratic and Republican politicians.

All you have to do to get support from these is to change the word. Apparently words mean a lot, because the media and many others can't even see reality of the difference, or lack thereof, between "Domestic Partnership" and "Civil Union."

Could be interesting, Family Pride is doing a blogathon at the White House Egg Roll this year. They'll be blogging from the line waiting to get tickets to the egg roll starting at 7pm tomorrow... and blogging it. We weren't able to wait in line for tickets last year, Family Pride volunteers did it for us (thank you!). As I said, last year's experience was great!. I'm going to join them in the comments for the first hour or so, you know to see what we missed waiting in a cold dark line all night ;-). So, check it out :)>.

When I met Guy I wanted a great dane, or two, for a pet, the males can weigh up to 200 pounds. Guy wasn't conducive to the thought. Then one day I saw a pack, yes a pack, of about a dozen "teacup" chihuahuas (actually, there is no such thing as 'teacup' officially, they are just very small chihuahuas). They each weighed less than 2 lbs. Even those dozen weighed only one TENTH that of a full grown male great dane. When/if we ever get a dog, it won't be either 200 or 2 pounds (probably closer to 20-30) for various reasons (health of the dog being a major one)... but did you know..

So, this is a book I think we're getting for Emma for her birthday (in 4 days!!): The Different Dragon. It's a welcome change. You see, my biggest complaint... well.. slight irritation anyway... about children's books that include our families is that they usually bop you over the head with it. I mean that's fine and dandy and everything. We own and read And Tango Makes Threeto Emma often... This is a book that tells the story of how Silo and Roy, two male penguins fell in love and 'adopted' an egg and raised a chick...

Seems to be big news. Pam discusses it and shows us the "Freeper" reaction (Free Republic is an ultra-conservative site). Andy at Towleroad announces it and explains what you get in the fairy tale wedding. Even a Kos frontpager mentions it and thinks it's weirdly as momentous as New Hampshire's new civil unions.

Micheal Jensen of AfterElton reported last month that Disney didn't allow same-sex couples to have their weddings at Disney World. That created a bit of criticism (well, a lot) and Disney changed their policy (hurrah for blogs and media!). As they said...

Pure metablogging, but I noticed this is the second day of the year where I posted something on that day (April 6) every year since 2002. This day 5 years ago I was writing about how grateful I was to everyone for their support (we just had a failed adoption). Little did I know that a short 4 days later we'd have news of a little girl born just the day before who could be our daughter...

Last year was an eventful Easter to say the least. We went to the Easter egg roll at the White House and on Easter day we spent time with my family, went to the National Cathedral for services, etc.

This year we'll be going to my mother's house for dinner and easter egg decorating, spending the morning looking for eggs at our house after getting our basket, attending services, possibly a show and having a family Easter supper (we'll take Passover seder and Easter traditions and meld them into a 'renewal' celebration... more later possibly one how and why we do that).

Today is Emma's birthday!! She's 5 years old!

Today we are going to have a small family-only party, her party for all her friends (that she has jointly with 'the boys') is this weekend..

Sorry, today is such a busy day (and I'm having a problem with the blog... not everything seems to show up, am I the only one?)

First, just for fun, go to http://maps.google.com and get directions for New York City to London. Look at step 23 :D.

Then go to http://moon.google.com and zoom all the way in. What do you see? :D

What is this?

So, Disney has a new movie out "Meet the Robinsons."

We considered taking Emma, but we usually hold off on movies for Emma because a) we want to make sure they are 'good' for children and our values (even some children movies aren't of course) and b) Emma gets easily scared at movies and will want to leave, so we need to learn more about it and she needs to _want_ to see it before we do.

This one seems to have an adoption theme... and man oh man has it elicited COMPLETELY opposite reactions from adoptive parents and the "adoption community"....

A recent AP article suggests that interracial marriages, and the children that come from them, has surged across the United States. While the population of the United States has increased by 50% since 1970 (from 200 to 300 million), the number of black-white marriages since 1970 has increased by 650% (from 65k to 422k). If you factor in all races, interracial married couples made up 2% of all couples in 1970. Today they make up over 7%, a more than 3-fold increase. That doesn't tell the whole story about transracial and interracial families. The number of transracial adoptions has soared in the last few decades also.

What does this have to do with Cinderella?

CBS fired Imus today because of his sexist, racists remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Of course this is just the latest in a long history of racist, anti-catholic, anti-semitic, sexist remarks from that show. Some on the right like Michelle Malkin have suggested this is hypocritical since black recording artists (rap and hip-hop) do it all the time, but...

The Colorado State Senate just passed a law allowing same-sex couples to adopt. The state House already passed it. Governor Ritter (D) has said he will sign the bill.

A short scientific treatise on the 5 second rule.

And all this time we've been calling the 10 second rule. You know, the rule that if food drops you have 5 (or 10) seconds to pick it up before it's unsafe to eat.

This is why we live in California and not Georgia.

A judge in Georgia removed a child from the home of his prospective adoptive mother because the mother was lesbian. (hat tip: Peter's Cross Station)

Here's the story in a nutshell:

Brad Wilcox of the Family Scholars Blog writes disapprovingly of a Psychology Today story that suggests GLBT couples have more stable relationships than heterosexual couples for various reasons.

I have read the story and am not fully convinced either, could be, maybe not. Jury is still out. But in opposing this premise, Mr. Wilcox uses a study that actually weakens many of the arguments used by scholars at "Family Scholars Blog" (a blog** that opposes marriage equality). One that should have set off a few irony meters.

My heart and prayers go out to the students and families at Virginia Tech.

I have no real connection to The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University except that I visited the campus once for grad school interviews. Great school, students and beautiful area.

Such a tragedy.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about parents who admit they bribe their kids into good behavior.

Yes, we've done it. And we were discussing this the other day. We try to let the 'consequences' follow. Bad or incorrect behavior leads to a natural consequence based on the behavior and good behavior leads to a natural consequence (reward).

Last year Guy, I and Emma helped a very small tidbit on the Soulforce equality ride. They went again this year. The idea of the equality ride (and Soulforce) is to peacefully, in the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, confront religious institutions with the facts of how their actions that are causing GLBT individuals to suffer.

These riders have done an excellent job. And maybe, just maybe, it's is starting to have an effect. The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that Brigham Young University is changing it's honor code.

For the fourth year in a row Emma celebrated her birthday with her friends O and M. I call it a season because between our private home celebration, school celebration and party a week or so always elapses... it goes on and on :D. Anyway, here are two photos. more about it later (and Meet the Robinsons which we saw).... this is Emma in her birthday dress, about the only time she'll wear one.

Dobson and other religious political right leaders from the Family Research Council, Concerned Women of America and others support the Republican candidates over Democratic ones. One of the big reasons is marriage "values" and gay marriage. Doonesbury hit the nail on the head about this on Sunday (click the graphic or the link to see the full comic).

You know the drill. Your child thinks you are old because they didn't have cars when you were a kid (ok... well, maybe cars...). I've caught myself telling Emma things like that a few times lately. When I was a kid they didn't have X. I remember listening to my grandfather about his memories when _radios_ came into being and his first time building one as a kid. I hope our grandchildren will be as interested in hearing about that first time I got on the "world wide web."

But in that vein, I'm going to write down 5 things that they didn't have when I was 5, but they have now... and when I first remember them. What are your 5? or 1?

Family Pride blog has an interesting article up about numbers in gay families, fostering and adoptions. Here's a couple, click the link to see a lot more:

27% of gay and lesbian couples have children under 18 in the home. I think both the percentage and the numbers are undercounted, and later data backs me up :).

52% of gay men and 41% of lesbians (of those who don't have children) are considering raising a family, and that works out about 2 million gay and lesbian potential parents added to the million or so there already are. Btw, one reason the percentage is lower for lesbians than for gay men could be because more lesbians already have children (33% or so) than gay men (22% or so), so more lesbians who wanted children already have them.

Today on Family Scholar's "blog" (one of those "blogs" that isn't really a blog**), Elizabeth Marquardt talks briefly about her feelings about the tragedy in Blacksburg. Of course, like so many others everywhere, right and left and in the middle, she can't resist making a political point about the tragedy as she quotes from an email she got from a reader:

Birth, 04/02

This is just cool. This Australian man has spent 13 days in a submersible. His oxygen comes from algae he pees on and his electricity from bicyling. When I was a kid, 4th-6th grade I think, I used to draw pictures of what the world would be like when I was 50 (not there yet, but gaining). Most of them imagined extensive underwater cities (which is interesting considering my post the other day about the things that DID change). I wish I had some of those drawings from back then. We don't have any underwater cities yet, but maybe this man has created a "proof of concept."

Mombians is having their 2nd annual "Blogging for LGBT families" day (sponsored by FamilyPride).

I missed it last year :(. But I won't this year. What is it?

I mean that literally. We live on a corner. Life is interesting on that corner.

This morning I was driving Guy to jury duty and Emma to school (just part of our normal gay agenda :). I was parked in front of house, Guy and Emma were in the car and I was waiting for the car stopped to my side to move (we live on a street that leads to the highway, the traffic backs up at the light to our house). All the other cars in front of him had moved forward but he hadn't and was blocking my way. Before I hit the horn, I looked over to the driver. He was in the middle of what looked like an epileptic seizure...

Meat loaf.. with very little meat and lots of whole grains and vegetables. Good way to sneak in the good stuff :). We had "the boys" over the other night and I made a modified version of the "Cheap. Fast. Good!"meat loaf recipe. They ate it up heartedly and every bite they took was filled with carrots, onions, bell peppers, oats whole wheat. We adults liked it too. Recipe after we have our little talk.

Bees colonies. They are collapsing worldwide.

Ok, so I was being mischevious. I went to this "poll" on the American Family Association web site. It asks the question:

If a corporation supports the homosexual agenda, would you: * 1) Be more likely to do business with that company 2) Be less likely to do business with that company 3) It would not affect my buying decision

Emma with her friend Nathan at a recent Soccer game. They are way too cute (and Nathan's papa amazing with a camera). Though our soccer experience started off a bit rough, it got better (cute movie there) and this year Emma is really enjoying herself. I think I'm poised to win a bet. During the last Football (soccer :) World Cup, I was living in Germany. I predicted to a friend, who was disparaging American Soccer, that the U.S. would hit the top four in a World Cup by 2020. My reasons?

Yeah, I've got one. Dang right I do :).

It's one of those things you see the anti-gay religious right fear-monger write about all the time (warning: hate-group site). In fact, this scary, to-be-feared, spooky, menacing "homosexual agenda" they say we have can be summed up thusly: "to destroy civilization." Nevermind that LGBT individuals come from a broad diversity of backgrounds, political views and religious faiths, apparently we have a secret, all-encompassing "agenda" we've all signed up to and it's to destroy civilization. I've seen several satirical takes on this...

New Hampshire senate passed the Civil Union bill (state House already had). The governor said he'd sign it.

They will now join Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut and California in offering full marriage rights _within_ their respective states (but not full marriage right in total). They are one step away from Massachusetts!

Someone asked me about civil unions today... I'll answer later today how I feel about them. On the equality front:

the diversion is in the "continue reading"

A reader asked my opinion of civil unions and pushing for those first before 'marriage.' Another commenter, Rhea, suggested civil unions are second class. There are several reasons I agree with Rhea and the strongly prefer _Marriage_ over Civil Unions or Domestic Partnerships. Yet... for my opinion about pushing for CU first, see the end of this post.

New York governor, as promised, introduced a bill that would give marriage equality to LGBT couples today. The governor conceded that the chance of passage is low, but crazier things have happened :). Last year NY's highest court rejected marriage equality. The chances might be low, but there is a chance...

The only two candidates for the Republican nomination who I have even an inkling of considering would be McCain and Giuliani, both supposedly socially liberal and fiscally conservative (I consider myself a social liberal and fiscal moderate :). McCain lost my interest a long time ago as he started clearly pandering to the religious right on a lot of issues and not only supported the Iraq war, but also supports Bush's every bad decision concerning the war. Giuliani on the other hand...

Yeah, about those bees.

Reports now suggest that over 50% of bee hives in the U.S. are gone, over 70% in some of the areas first affected. A researcher here in San Francisco _might_ have found what is killing them, (here is another article on the subject) but it isn't positive this is the cause yet and there is no easy remedy.

We do know that it isn't cell phones (I didn't think it was)...

He died Saturday night. He died of a heart attack. He was 55.

He was one of the two youngest sons (he has a twin brother) of my beloved grandparents.

Don't read further if memorials aren't something you wish to read.