Observations 2.9 Updates

I'm trying something a little different here. Usually if I want to update a post I do just that and than change the post date if I want it to go out in the email. The problem with that is it messes with the original flow if there are more than one posts on a subject. I'm just going to try it this way for now.

In my 2.6 post about Miley Cyrus I mentioned how I was pleasantly surprised to find out Disney was such a gay friendly company. A friend reminded me of Gay Days which is a loosely organized event in which LGBT people and their families spend a day at Disney World. It began with a few thousand people on a single day in 1991 but now has grown to a week long event and over a 100,000 people. Disney in no way endorses the event but at the same time it does nothing to stop it.

In my 2.7 post I wrote about states that are currently considering gay marriage legislation. Yesterday (2.8) the Washington State House passed a bill legalizing gay marriage which had previously been passed by the state senate. The bill now goes to Govenor Chris Gregoire who is expected to sign it next week making Washington the 8^th state to legalize gay marriage.

I also have this video I have been wanting to share but events got in the way and I never got around to using it. During the debate before the Washington Senate vote on its marriage equality bill State Senator Ed Murray takes the floor and announces he will soon marry his partner Michael Shiosaki. He also told his colleagues before the vote "regardless of how you vote on this bill, an invitation will be in the mail" to their future wedding.

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Observations from the Window 2.6

I once wrote the chances of me posting anything about Miley Cyrus would be about as good as the temperature hitting 70° in the Village during the last days of November but it happened. Maybe I should just blame global warming because here I am about to do it a second time. Cyrus has had an equal sign tattooed on her ring finger, done a NOH8 photo shoot for Adam Bouska, and now written an essay for Glamour magazine  on why she got the tattoo. So maybe she had a good ghost writer, who knows, I still give her credit for attaching her name to it.

"I believe every American should be allowed the same rights and civil liberties. Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple. How is this different than having someone sit in the back of the bus because of their skin color? We all should be tolerant of one another and embrace our differences. My dad, who is a real man's man, lives on the farm and is as Southern and straight as they come. He loves my gay friends and even supports same-sex marriage. If my father can do it, anyone can. This is America, the nation of dreams. We're so proud of that. And yet certain people are excluded. It's just not right."

I love to follow links and doing just that after reading her essay I learned something rather surprising. Though she is no longer fully employed by the Disney company one would think they keep tabs on their one former star who is relatively well behaved. They must have known about this but had no comment at all. It seems Disney is actually a very queer friendly company and one of the first to allow full domestic benefits to all of its employees.

Even though most Disney characters seem gay I was still pleasantly surprised to learn that.

Observations from the Edge 11.30

One would think the chances of me posting anything about Miley Cyrus would be about as good as the temperature hitting 70° in the Village during the last days of November. Well that day seems to have arrived. "It's a Liberty Walk" is a song and video released by Cyrus in support of Occupy Wall Street. Some might say she did it to reclaim some of her time in the limelight but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt for multiple reasons. Cyrus herself appears nowhere in the video, something you could never say about Madonna, and the video contains scenes that in no way endear her to her former employers at Disney.

Just remember that nowhere here did I say I liked the song but you just have to support the admitted pot smoker and now occupier Miley Cyrus.

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