"This Made Me Smile..."

"Hilarious!"

"In The News Today..."

I have to admit, I'd love to see a poster like this here in Detroit... Don't misunderstand though, I find the premise of what they're advertising somewhat unsavory, but at this point, we need all the exposure we can get to help our hetero brethren understand that GLBT people are just like them... some of us are into casual relationships based only on sex and attraction.

Click here to read a really good article on Gawker that speaks to the uproar this billboard campaign created.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 817"

"To End In Love... Begin In Love"

 

 

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"In The News Today..."

Nation's 10-Year-Old Boys: 'If You See Someone Raping Us, Please Call The Police'
'Doesn't Matter Who, Doesn't Matter Where," Children Say

While there is absolutely nothing funny about rape and childhood sexual abuse... The Onion does a good job of illustrating what's so heinously wrong with the way people think today when confronted with this situation.  Click here to read a really thought provoking satirical send up of the recent child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State.

"The Imitation of Life..."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 816"

"These Are The Things To Share... Life, The World and Love"

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth Tonight..."

"Never Be Afraid Of Who You Are..."

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 815"

"Love Brings Happiness To Your Life..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

"The course of true love is sometimes unsteady
and sometimes love lives in a fearfully jealous heart...

But love is worth all the sacrifices it takes to keep love alive."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 814"

"Home Life And Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"It's About Love..."

Love is in the air all over the world... Austrailians are debating marriage equality

"A life lived in fear is a life half-lived..."

"The Truth About Love..."

"Love me without fear
Trust me without questioning
Need me without demanding
Want me without restrictions
Accept me without change
Desire me without inhibitions
For a love so free....
Will never fly away."

- Dick Sutphen

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 813"

"Embrace Life And Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

"One word frees us
Of all the weight and pain in life,
That word is Love"

- Socrates

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 812"

"Boldly Proclaim Love..."

 

 

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

"I have loved to the point of madness;
That which is called madness,
That which to me,
Is the only sensible way to love."

- F. Sagan

"Reflections On Married Life...Home For The Holiday"

Today is Thanksgiving, and for the first time in almost three years, I am home for the holiday.  Although, I did go into work for a couple of hours early this morning, when I came back home, the husband and I started preparing our Thanksgiving dinner.  Cooking together is fun and usually sparks interesting conversations for us.

We're having a very traditional meal, at least traditional in my family... We'll be having roasted turkey, sage cornbread dressing, mustard potato salad, green beans (no, not that strange casserole concoction that's so popular at this time of year), cranberry relish, yeast-raised dinner rolls, and desserts.  I started the desserts yesterday before going to work when I made my family's old-fashioned raisin pound cake.

The recipe for the pound cake is one that's been passed down through my mother's family for many generations and dates back to the slavery era when my ancestors on my mother's side were fortunate enough (all things being considered, having been slaves) to be "House Negros" and as such were the cooks and housekeepers of the master's home. 

As it always is, making the cake was both a happy and sad affair.  As I mixed and stirred and sifted, I was reminded of the many times over the years of my childhood and young adulthood that I helped my mother make this cake and listened to her tell the story of it's origins in our family... those were happy memories.  But I was also reminded that my mother's been gone to heaven for eight years now and I miss her presence more with each day that passes, though in truth, she is never far from me... a part of her lives in my heart.

In addition to the cake, yesterday, I made pie dough so that this morning, Eddie and I could also make a traditional pumpkin pie.  The joy of love and companionship was fully manifested as I stirred while he cracked the eggs... It might seem like a mundane thing, but it was powerful and meaningful to me, having waited a lifetime for someone to share the daily tasks of living with. The pie turned out great, it's very pretty and picture perfect.  I can hardly wait for dinner time and the desserts to see if it tastes as good as it looks.

Right now, Eddie is waiting on me to help him straighten up the house and set the table for dinner.  My older brother will be joining us for dinner and we're both looking forward to enjoying our first Thanksgiving dinner as a married couple.

*******

"A life lived in fear is a life half-lived..."

"The Things That Love Says..."

Love is like a friendship caught on fire.
In the beginning a flame, very pretty,
Often hot and fierce,
But still only light and flickering.
As love grows older,
Our hearts mature
And our love becomes as coals,
Deep-burning and unquenchable. 

 - Bruce Lee

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 811"

"It's Always The Right Time For Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Things That Love Says..."

"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." 

        - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 810"

"Love Lives On A Kiss In Time..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Things That Love Says..."

"Other men said they have seen angels,
But I have seen thee
And thou art enough."

- G. Moore

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 809"

 

"Love Is Sweet..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 808"

 

"Love Is Joy..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

"A life lived in fear is a life half-lived..."

"The Artist's Corner"

"Bedtime Story"

Acrylic on canvas

Steve Walker

"In The News Today..."

Capt. Stephen Hill, left, and his husband, Joshua Snyder

 

Gay Soldier Shares Reaction to GOP Debate Boos

By Lisa Leff
November 18, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Army Capt. Stephen Hill says he wasn't trying to score political points when he asked the Republican presidential candidates if they would reinstate the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

He wasn't worried that his debate question, posed via a YouTube video recorded in Iraq, would generate boos or reveal his sexual orientation to millions of people, including his superiors and fellow troops.

All Hill was thinking about in September was his husband of four-and-a-half months, Joshua Snyder, in Columbus, Ohio.

Now that "don't ask, don't tell" has been lifted, he needed to know if the military would take the next step and recognize his marriage, or if a new president would try to force soldiers like him back into the closet.

"I was looking forward to the future and hoping everybody would realize we are soldiers first, always," said Hill, 41, an Army reservist who returned last week from his yearlong deployment. "I was hoping 'don't ask, don't tell' would be a distant memory for everybody."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hill reflected publicly for the first time on his reasons for submitting the pre-recorded question for the Sept. 22 debate, as well as his reaction to the heckles heard around the world; the answer that former Sen. Rick Santorum gave to thunderous applause; and the outrage expressed on his behalf by, among others, his commander in chief.

With Snyder on the telephone, Hill watched the debate live from Iraq at 4 a.m. And this is what he asked: "In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was because I'm a gay soldier and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"

Santorum replied that he would reinstitute the ban on open service by gay troops because "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military."

"What we are doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. That's tragic," he continued. "Leave it alone. Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual."

Hill says the fact that he just outed himself on national television had barely registered when he absorbed the boos and Santorum's answer followed by applause.

"When the actual booing occurred, my gut dropped out, because my first inclination was, did I just do something wrong?" he said. "The answer, obviously, wasn't very supportive of gay people, and there was a lot of fear of how the Army would take the question."

He did not have to wait long to find out. At breakfast later that morning, the segment was playing on the chow hall television. Hill immediately tracked down his commander, who told him she had no problem with what he'd done but that she would need to run it up the chain of command. She later relayed the response.

"She said, 'What the military's most concerned with is that you are OK, because it's a lot of pressure on you and we want to make sure if there is anything we can do to help,'" he recalled.

President Barack Obama, about a week later, chided the Republican contenders for staying silent when several people booed an American soldier. Santorum said he had not heard the booing but condemned the audience members who did it.

What Hill remembers most was that a presidential candidate defined his marriage and military service in terms of sex. He holds that up against the times he hid Snyder's photograph because Army buddies were coming over to play video games, introduced his husband as his roommate or brother, and the legal vows they exchanged at the grave of Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, who was discharged in 1975 after becoming the first gay service member to challenge the U.S. military's ban on gay troops.

Snyder and Hill last month joined other same-sex military couples in suing the government for the same benefits as straight military couples, which the Pentagon denies them on grounds that federal law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"This is not about sex," Hill said. "A special privilege is not hiding pictures in my house or God forbid, taking mortar fire again and not knowing if Josh will be recognized. I'm fighting every day to protect everyone's rights as human beings, and it seems counterintuitive for me to be fighting for those rights and not have them."

*******

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Poet's Corner..."

"A Dream"

By Edgar Allan Poe

In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?

"The Artist's Corner"

"Fatherhood"

Acrylic

Sven de Rennes

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 807"

 

"Love And Play Brings Joy To Life..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

Love is a compromise...

"A Life Lived In Fear Is A Life Half-lived..."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 806"

 

"Love Is Often Spoken In A Gentle Caress..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

From the film, "Bent"

This scene is about love even in the midst of horror, when two people are in love they come together as one flesh in the act of making love, because they give of their bodies for each others pleasure to bring joy and intimacy into one act of giving of ones self to the other. an unselfish act with one goal, to be one with your beloved....this they did with words that brought life and sexual release, words that were impowered by love and desire, and they were one flesh in mind, soul and body.....

- Brian Patrick

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 805"

 

"When The Day Begins With Love..."

 

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"The Truth About Love..."

This is the power of love.

No matter how misplaced, love is the strongest force in life... and in death.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 804"

 

"Love Makes You Happy..."

 

 

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 803"

 

"There's No Wrong Time To Say, I Love You..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"A Love Song..."

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 802"

 

"The Meaning Of Life Is Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 801"

"The Joy Of Love Is Found In A Kiss..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"In The News Today..."

North Carolina Native and Professional Soccer Player, David Testo

"I’m gay, I’m gay. I did not choose. It’s just part of who I am. And it has nothing to do with the talent of a soccer player. You can be both an excellent soccer player and being gay," Testo said this week. "I really regret not having said publicly earlier. I fought with it all my life, my whole career. Living the life of a professional athlete and being gay is incredibly difficult ... It saps all your energy to you, in addition to having to perform, having to play."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 800"

 

"The Greatest Victory Of Life Is Finding True Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"A Thought To Ponder..."

"To have known and lost true love is to be continually haunted by the most tragic words of our language..."

"What if?"

"We are the sum of our inescapable tragedies."

(After H.G. Wells)

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"A Life Lived In Fear Is A Life Half-lived..."

Tonight, is the full moon... In the recent years of my life the full moon has symbolized love and the bonds of time, but for some reason, it's an ominous sign of the times tonight, just as it has been at various times of trouble and turmoil in the past... I'm looking forward to it's passing tonight with the hope that life's current fevered pitch might return to a more pleasant tide of life again.

"Fear Eats the Soul"



"Same Gender Loving People - No. 799"

 

"Happiness Comes From Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"In The News Today..."

“These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage?  I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of...They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’ — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”

- Clint Eastwood

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 798"

 

"Love Is Made Of Dreams..."

 

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"A Love Song..."

"Secret"

Seal

You must know me, I'm one of your secrets
You must know me, I'm one of your secrets
I belong to you
I belong to you
And you belong to me.

You must know me, I'm one of your secrets oooh whooa ooh
From what I see, you're trying to hard to keep it oh yes you are

Well I belong to you
I belong to you
I belong to you
And you belong to me.

Look at me, I'm your heart's keeper.
Met for 3:21 AM, she will be here, oh yes she will

And I belong to you

Yes I belong to you
I belong to you
And you belong to me.

Look at me, I'm one of your secrets.
From what I see, you're trying hard to keep it.
Oh yeah

But I belong to you
I belong to you
anekatips
I belong to you
And you belong to me
You belong to me
You belong to me

 

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 797"

"The View From Love Is Endless..."

 

 

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 796"

 

"It's Simple... It's Just Love"

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 795"

 

"It's Just Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 794"

"The Comfort of Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"And The Truth Shall Set You Free..."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 793"

 

"Love Makes You Happy..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"A Thought To Ponder..."

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 792"

"The Joy Of Life Is Sharing The World And Love..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 791"

 

"Love Is Always Enough..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 790"

 

"Love And Passion..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.