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For those who don’t know what Prop 8 refers to, I’ll direct you to the Wikipedia article. Basically, it was a proposition in California to explicitly eliminate gay marriages in that state, and annul marriages that had already been processed. The proposition passed by a margin of 52% to 48%. In particular, the Mormon church funded much of the ‘Yes on Prop 8’ campaign, and as a result of this proposition passing, many gay people have been demonstrating and protesting against the Mormon church. I’ve been invited to quite a few of these protests. However, I don’t think any of that is really going to be that effective. Over 6 million people voted for the proposition, and that is who we should be targeting. What we really need to do is grab the hearts and minds of straight people, and the only way to do that is by becoming a visible minority, instead of being the invisible minority we have been for far too long. On the Wikipedia article, there’s a nice map of which way each county voted on the proposition: as is typical for liberal movements, the urban centres were for gay rights, and the rural areas were against them. The urban centres are converted already, so all those protests, etc. are preaching to the choir. It’s easy to be gay on Broadway. It’s up to those, like me, who grew up in small towns to be openly gay, by wearing something obvious, a rainbow coloured bracelet, for example, year round. By being openly gay when you go back home for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or whenever, you then become an ambassador for the gay community, and not just during Pride. It’s not going to be easy, but I personally am going to be wearing a rainbow coloured necklace made by my friend Marcus. I’ll be wearing it when I go to my church in my home town, wearing it around my family at Christmas. If enough people did that, I’m pretty sure it would tip the scales.
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For those not in the loop: a year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (Type 1) after a manic high and a sudden crash that left me in the hospital for about ten days over the Christmas holidays and off work for around five months.
After another high and crash -- though not nearly as bad as last time and much more bouncing has been involved -- I've been off work on another disability leave for around 4 weeks now. My time sense is really skewed so I don't really know exactly what happened when: there was so much going on at the same time; between my car getting stolen and returned, a bad review at Microsoft (but luckily not as bad as it could have been), a short-lived relationship with a great guy I met at CAMP, along with getting a bit overwhelmed at CAMP itself, a lot happened to me in September to trigger me past my red-line. I had hoped to be off work for only 2 weeks, but it was not meant to be; I'm now on *four* medications again, and I *hate* being on medication, but this is what it's currently taking to keep me stable. I'm also currently looking into alternative methods to get healthy so I can get back to work as soon as possible. In particular, meditation, exercise, and simply keeping busy seem to be working quite well.
I'm glad I'm finally able to focus enough to get an entry out. In the past few weeks, I've generally been responding to new e-mail via the phone. I've started reading The Hobbit again to chill. I'm still not totally comfortable in groups, so if you don't see me at parties for the next little while, please don't be surprised. I've also been paying very little attention to current events -- I'm stressed out enough as it is.
The one thing I do consistently have though is the piano. I've been able to play it pretty much every day throughout this time. It helps soothe me and balance me. In fact, I did something I've always wanted to do: play the piano for strangers. I discovered Thursday night that there was a grand piano at the Tully's downtown where a friend of mine works, and I played for about an hour there Friday afternoon, getting over my initial nervousness and unfamiliarity with the feel of the piano there. I got quite a few compliments and even some tips. (There weren't many people there, as I'd hoped: I'm not sure I could have kept focused during the morning business rush; sometimes the sound of the coffee machines was quite distracting.) I totally miss playing for church back in high school and university, and it was quite a step playing for strangers. However, playing again late yesterday morning was not as enjoyable: I was tired and not at my best form and did not get much attention at all (which is what I really desire and need to play well). I appreciate the life of a starting musician much more now. In a word, it's hard, and I don't think it's something I'm up for, especially since I don't play well with others. ;-)
After giving it much thought, I decided to make my third and final donation to Obama this morning. The Obama campaign is making its final decisions as to which states to target monetarily, so the next couple of days are crucial for online donations, if you happen to support him.
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