Protest Against Prop 8, NYC

After I decided to attend the rally last night against the Mormon Church's involvement in the passing of Prop 8, I was questioned why. And to my surprise, even though I felt that Prop 8 was wrong, both civilly and morally, I couldn't readily give a reason why I was deliberately protesting the Mormon church; which boiled down to: I didn't know the facts.

So on the internet, I found out that the Mormon Church had something to do with Prop 8 passing. And given the fact they're a religious institution, I'm sure most others can verbalize in better terms why religious institutions have no right directing public policies.

But the main reason why I protested was because of their hypocrisy: they claim to "promote tolerance" but turn around and vote for intolerance; that's not right. If I a sign, it would read, "Where's the tolerance in Prop 8?"

The turnout was great. And to quote a fellow protester, "Damn, there are too many hot guys here, I can't concentrate!", after he messed up a chant. And now, some memorable chants of the evening:

"Gay, Straight, Black, White, Marriage is a civil right."
"Tax This Church!"
"What do we want? EQUALITY! When do we want it? NOW!"
"A people, UNITED, will never be, DEFEATED!"

Hehe! Okay, that last one wasn't really a chant, I just overheard someone say it, and I can't help but giggle every time I repeat it (because the last part should be 'divided', get it?! eh? eh?!)

Pride Month Remembered

As evident by my lack of posting, I've been pretty busy. With work, events, volunteering, I hardly had time to think. So here's a quick rundown of Pride Month 2008.

June 1, Japan Day
Standing in line for 20 minutes under the summer sun for free fried dumplings. They were pretty good.

Did I mention they were also free?

June 3-6, Birthday Week
My birthday celebration consisted of a four day feast! Each day I was treated to a wonderful meal, from Next Door Nobu, to Le Cirque, to Grand Central Oyster Bar, to my favorite Szechuan restaurant, Szechuan Gourmet in Flushing.

I probably gained in my belly as much as they lost in their wallets. Tee hee.

But seriously, I really loved each and every meal. The friends, the food. But mostly the food. I mean the friends. I mean the froods. Wha?

Which reminds me, I still haven't had an official birthday party yet, so watch out July!

Oh, and somewhere in there I decided it would be a good idea to go to The Web after a year plus hiatus. What a disappointment. Aside from the half-naked go-go boys, of course.

June 14, 18, Central Park Zoo and Ikea
In mid-June, I visited the Central Park Zoo with my sister for the first time ever! Can you believe they keep two polar bears in that zoo? And out in the open air on a hot and humid day! Don't they have some sort of sub-zero temperature room or something?

Afterwards, we stopped by an event put on by Adventures NYC in Central Park and saw some awesome trampolining.

Mid-June also saw the opening of Ikea Brooklyn. I saw it opening weekend. Take the Water Taxi, it's awesome, fast, and free. Yay!

June 22nd, Celebrating Pride; with Nakedness
For some reason, I decided to agree to my friend's crazy idea of celebrating Pride by having the most expensive lunch known to man - eating at Per Se. Ironic that this friend is still not out to his family? Hm. No judgment.

The brunch itself was flawless, from the food to the service. Thank goodness I took some pictures, because it will be a long time before I get over the shock of the cost and think about returning.

Later that day, I partook in a yearly ritual I like to call Folsom Street East. This year, I went with this man. His first time! I know! I was shocked, too! So shocked I had to take the ball-gag from my mouth so my jaw could drop. Kidding.

Nothing out of the ordinary; just some half-naked people in leather bondage performing fellatio on each other.

That night I continued on the theme of half-nakedness; I went to Broadway Bares 18! The show as good, not great. But the best part (aside from introducing my friend to some culture) was I got to see Step It Up and Dance reality TV stars Mochi and Jerry Mitchell! I even got to tip some dollars in Jerry's undies! Yay!

June 30, PRIDE
The day after a horrendous Pride Run race result, I soothed my wounded pride by marching in the Pride parade with HOP! It was my first time in the parade and aside from small hiccups (the flash tsunami at 2:30pm) it was a total success!

It even earned me a lone ticket to the Pier Dance. Going by myself confirmed the suspicion I had: it's just not nearly as much fun if you go by yourself. But I did see Wilson Cruz, so I suppose it wasn't a total loss.

That's it! And I'm spent! Whew!

Happy Pride!

Happy Pride everyone!

That's me walking in the Pride Parade with GMHC and Heritage of Pride. It was a great experience, spreading the spirit of Pride by making people scream at the top of their lungs. I hope you also had the chance to spread yourself in your own special way. Tee hee.

Happy Pride Month!

Wow. Is it June already?

Yep. And that means it's Pride month again! Happy Pride ya'll! Can't wait to see what kind of craziness happens this year!

This post was lovingly brought to you by an overworked, uncreative Jase. *sigh*

Happy Pride!

Recently, over dinner, a friend posed the question, "Being Pride month, what are you proud of?" My answer was, "Uhm.. I don't know. Staying at my current job for more than a year?" Not that I have a habit of switching jobs often, but that my behavior around my co-workers haven't landed me a couple of hundred sexual harassment lawsuits.

Anyway, after thinking about the question, it dawned on me that I wasn't especially proud of being gay - not that I'm not proud either. I just didn't separate myself into those attributes.

I guess I'm saying that I'm proud of myself; all 5'8" gay Asian of it. It doesn't need to be June either. Which isn't at least surprising considering how accepting New York City has become; all the gay bars, all the weekly gay parties, Chelsea, and Hell's Kitchen.

But I can understand how Pride month is still relevant, especially to demonstrate to everywhere else in the world that it's happening.

So if I was asked the same question, "What am I proud of?", I would answer, "I'm proud of belonging to this wonderful city, and how accepting it has grown to be. And not being fired yet."

Happy Pride ya'll!

Quick Note

I've started to wade my way through all my Italy vacation pictures. Click here to see what I've uploaded so far. More to come.

And more about the trip itself when I get the time.

Speaking of which, June is going to be a crazy busy month! My birthday right around the corner (hint) and so is Pride (with all the associated events).

And possibly a trip out to Fire Island, Provincetown, Rehoboth Beach, or Montreal; any of which would be my first visit. Teehee.