Alternative Holiday

Conscious Consuming, a Boston-based non-profit devoted to the idea of less is more, is having their annual Alternative Gift Fair at Arlington Street Church on Saturday, December 2nd from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Called "Gift It Up," the fair is a way of helping out non-profits instead of buying crap at Walmart for our friends and family members.

I recently spoke with CC spokeswoman, Susan Donohoe who told me:

"There was a great statistic from the editor of ADBUSTERS who said that since 1950, American consumption has increased 300 percent. And the American savings rate is now is negative territory which affects us financially, culturally and spiritually." Donohoe said that the infamous "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day of the year that shadows Thanksgiving is also "Buy Nothing Day" for people who are more conscious in there consuming habits.

"This is a way to give back to the community and give gifts that really matter," Donohoe said.

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In a very serious way, Gift It Up is just another example of the beginning stirrings in this country for something more meaninful; something that supports generosity with others and a gentleness with the Earth's resources.

There will be at least fourteen non-profits available at Gift It Up, including Nework/La Red, All Paws Rescue, MassBike and Prison Book Program. Seven Dollars, for instance, would supply a dictionary to a person in prison, Ten Dollars could provide consumers with recipe cards teaching them about the nutritional benefits of locally grown food, etc., etc.

If your friends and family members are anything like mine, they would be disappointed if this was the only gift they received. So I plan on supplementing these do-gooder gifts, with something just as green, but more utilitarian: rechargeable batteries.

And if still come up short I am going to get my loved ones each a gift certificate to the independent Trident Bookstore on Newbury Street.

Any other indie/alernative/green gift ideas out there?

A Transgender Conversation

On Sunday night I went to the Boston-area Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil, held at the Arlington Street Church and the Public Gardens. It was mostly a young, knowledgeable crowd and the tenor of the night was quite sober, as we remembered all the known transgender murder victims around the world.

On Monday I bumped into an acquaintance in the South End (a gay man) who said some pretty nasty things about the trans community (i.e. "they're dragging us down," "they should get their own movement," "a man wants to cut off his junk so he can then be straight, I want nothing to do with them!") He even compared the trans community to NAMBLA (!) for wanting to attach to "our" civil rights struggle.

To hear such hostility was pretty awful.

In retort, I reminded him that there is a wide spectrum of gender identity as well as there is for sexual orientation and that the two are in fact discrete, but that when others discriminate they attack similar fundamentals ... like our personal freedom, liberty, privacy and freedom of expression.

Granted, it takes time for many gay individuals to understand how hard it is to live with the gender that you were assigned ... just as it is hard for straight people to understand same-sex love. But to hear such open hostility only sets us all back. I only wish I had a better line of defense at the time.

What do you think?

It Girl, Friday, November 17: Andrea Zuckerman

Since election season is over, I've taken comfort in the shameless pop culture part of my blog. That's why this week's It Girl is Andrea Zuckerman. She's a serious young woman trapped in a hot show that marked the '90s.

My boyfriend and I rented all of Season One of Beverly Hills 90210, which just came out on DVD. We have about 12 more episodes to watch before it's due back on Saturday! I chose Andrea (pronounced "On-Dreeya") because she is a great reporter and superb editor in chief for the "West Beverly Blaze" and is sadly underrated as a character. Andrea had some great one-liners and a surprising sense of humor. She is also, however, the conscience to Brandon's dark side (especially in the high school years).

Thank God the dems won the House and Senate and that Deval is kicking Mitt out of the corner office. Now we can concentrate on more important things!

It Girl, Friday, November 10: Sal DiMasi

Salvatore DiMasi, progressive Speaker of the Mass. House, is primarily responsible for the recess of Thursday's Con-Con. The anti-gay ballot measure was put off until January 2, 2007, the last day of the legislative session, effectively killing the ballot measure. Per TakeMassAction, DiMasi is being inundated with nasty anti-gay phonecalls. Give him a call of support for protecting your constiutional right to marry the one you love! Sal's office number is 617-722-2500.

For more info on Thursday's backstory, read In Newsweekly.

" ... To make you feel proud"

We did it!

Deval Patrick had a decisive victory and the Dems took back the U.S. house. We're still waiting on the Montana and Virginia Senate races, but it looks like Tester and Webb, respectively, are going to pull on through ... giving the Democrats control of the Senate.

Did anyone pick up on Deval's theme song ("What have you done today to make you feel proud?") is the same gay-techno number for the last scene of the last episode of QUEER AS FOLK? An upbeat coincidence for sure.

On Pastor Ted: The Collision of Sex, Religion and Deception

To review: Pastor Ted Haggard of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO was accused of having a three year sexual tryst with a Denver-based male prostitute, Mike Jones. One year into the relationship Haggard started buying crystal methamphetamine and snorting it to enhance these secret liasions. Haggard, a married man and the father of five kids, has since stepped down as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was dismissed from the church as its active pastor.

Upon hearing the news, my inner partisan Democrat laughed maniacally at the hypocrisy of it all. As many readers know, Haggard had a close relationship with Bush and was responsible for organizing support for all those traditional marriage ammendments on sundry state ballots, including eight more states whose citizens will decide on Tuesday. In some ways, this issue is yet another boon in 2006 for progressives and Democrats. However, a spiritual advisor to President Clinton said that Haggard does enormous damage to the gay and lesbian community as well ... painting a picture that gay men, especially, are all meth-fused prostitutes waiting to home-wreck the marriages of respectable heterosexual men of the cloth.

Would people jump to such conclusions?

Or do people understand that the culprit is certainly not the GLBT community, but this idea of the suffocating closet? A dark secret life that betrays the impossible moral standards.

Do church-people realize that GLBT people really have the capacity for boring lives as well? It's true we tend to travel and go out dancing more because of extra income and fewer kids, but we also have to do middle-American things like washing the laundry and cleaning the bathroom. For instance, a typical night for me is ordering pizza and watching Golden Girls reruns with my boyfriend, my cat and my dog. And I love my quiet life.

I am, however, not opposed to prostitution (not necessarily for me, but for society). I see prostitution as a business transaction between two consenting adults. Haggard looking for "meth" is certainly a stupid idea, but we can't blame him for wanting to take risks.

There was part of me that did hurt when I saw his two kids in the backseat of the car in an off-the-cuff interview. In that video clip he alleged to having bought "meth" once, but decided instead to throw it away. Anyone could tell that the man was lying, but still it was the only moment where I felt a little sorry for him ... just a little.

David Kuo, who was #2 in charge of Bush's faith-based initiatives office, recently wrote a scathing book about faith-based power and political hypocrisy, called "Tempting Faith." He was recently on NPR, asking that evangelicals take a "fast from politics."

An even better proposition is if evangelicals started voting Democrat. If anything, they could vote to restore accountability and honesty in government ... and support the poor by helping to boost the minimum wage in this country. It could be a vote to end American bloodshed in Iraq, and a step towards protecting the natural resources of planet Earth.

Poor Aaron Maloy

As a reporter for In Newsweekly, I have the opportunity to cover some pretty peculiar people and stories, especially duing election season.

One such case is Aaron Maloy, the openly-gay (mind you) Republican candidate for State Rep. in Barnstable 4th.

First off, the race may be unprecedented. Two major party, openly gay candidates (the other being Democrat Sarah Peake) are running to represent a sea-hugging corridor that includes one of the gayest towns in all of America: Provincetown. Sarah Peake is endorsed by Freedom to Marry Coalition, MassEquality and is widely known as a staunch supporter of full equal marriage rights. With that said, it wasn't long before I gave Maloy the litmus test (ie his thoughts on gay marriage).

I.N.: Why are you against gay marriage?

A.M.: "Basically I see it as being a right to vote and I think it would be voted down; the issue would go back to the Supreme Court who voted it in. The vote would be like a poll and it would give them a voice. If people wanted to collect 170,000 signatures, we should let them vote."

On the question of campaign fundraising, Maloy implies on his blog that his opponent, Sarah Peake, is not being a true Cape Codder because she has collected so many contributions from beyond Barnstable County.

I.N.: Don't you think Peake is soliciting financial contributions from state citizens who want to protect their civil right to marriage?

A.M.: "Of course, it is, but that doesn't make it right ... the gay lobby shouldn't be deciding our elections and our issues. I consider it dirty money. If that isn't a quote gay agenda, I don't know what it is. I don't think her campaign should be financed by the gay lobby."

To his credit, Maloy did bring up other local issues that he is passionate about. And this is when he sounds more like a generous liberal than a self-loathing Republican.

A.M.: "Affordable housing is one, people can't afford to live here. Young people are leaving the cape in droves, they are being marginalized into poverty and homelessness. So I am concerned about public welfare and quality of life."

But then he has the gall to tell me that he is trying to bring people together since they have been so divided over the gay marriage issue. But his antidote is to introduce very progressive legislation, once elected, that will grant gay and lesbian couples all the rights and benefits of marriage, without calling it that. Basically he wants Massachusetts to turn back its own clock and become more like New Jersey.

A.M.: "I think gay marriage is an oxymoron. If I wanted to be married, I'd be straight, it's a heterosexual thing ... What's really dividing people is that people feel like their right to vote is being taken away."

Unfortunately, I was not able to contact Sarah Peake in time for press. From Maloy's feedback, however, I don't think it was necessary.