I’m a sexual health educator tasked with educating youth about the potential risks and consequences of engaging in unprotected sex and arming them with the tools that they need to protect themselves should they ever have sex. Working in the state of Nevada, a state leading the nation in unplanned teen pregnancy rates and rates of contraction for STIs/STDs, I believe this work to be important.

The conservative pro-life movement has come out of the woodwork swinging, attempting to dismantle every single medical provision that would work to protect women or give them any semblance of power or control. Congress is currently debating a bill that would reinforce an already existing law allowing medical professionals to legally refuse to give a woman an abortion, even if the operation would save her life. The great and wonderful state of Pennsylvania, touting that it’s the “State of Independence” , looks like it will pass their ironically titled “Women’s Right to Know Act” mandating that woman are shown an ultrasound of their developing fetus to scare, shame and guilt them into reconsidering the option to end their pregnancy. Finally, in the forward-minded state of Mississippi, a “Personhood Amendment” is being introduced to the state’s constitution. This “Personhood Amendment” would ban all abortions, regardless of the situation (rape, incest, etc) but would go above and beyond by banning the morning after pill (used to prevent pregnancy), many forms of hormonal contraception, and some IUDs (inter-uterine devices). To top it all off, the amendment would ban in vitro fertilization. There is even a school in Canada that is granting middle-school aged children extra credit for engaging in anti-choice protesting. The war on reproductive rights is escalating to new and moronic heights.

I have a question for the pro-life moment. I recognize, though don’t agree with, your beliefs that a bundle of cells could and should have the same rights and protections – if not more – than the woman carrying said cells to term and then subsequently taking care of said child for the rest of her life. So if life is so important, so much so that Mississippi is currently defining a “person” to include a fertilized egg, where is the nationwide mandate for prenatal vitamins and preventative care for all pregnant women? Would we then arrest pregnant women who are drinking, smoking, doing drugs or eating unhealthily for they could be putting their child at risk and potentially causing a whole host of life-altering complications for the child. Oh, that might be a little expensive and intrusive for the laissez-faire mentality of Republicans. We wouldn’t want to interfere in the lives of our citizenry; especially if that intrusion costs the government money for social services. Ok, what about the all those teen moms that you valiantly protected, by shaming them into a having a child that they cannot afford nor take care of; are we going to start paying mothers for having children to subsidize their expenses and make sure they can adequately care for their child’s life that we spent so much time and energy saving? No, they wouldn’t do that. Well, let’s at least give that child a world class education that is free of charge. I mean we protected this child’s life didn’t we? Let’s ensure that this child does something beneficial to our society, since we heroically swooped in to save the life of this child and mother. No the pro-life movement would never go for that. How dare education be an accessible right to all? In fact, isn’t the conservative base advocating for funding cuts to the public school system, eliminating teachers’ right to collective bargaining, denying them domestic partnerships or civil unions for them and their partners, and forcing schools to adopt an abstinence-only sexual education curriculum in order to receive much needed Federal funding for supplies?

It seems to me that the pro-life movement cares only up until the point where the child is delivered into world. Once they are sure that the plans of the creepy liberal baby-killers have been thwarted, they leave the mother and child alone, patting themselves on the back for a job well done. They do not care about the resources available to this child (ironic that it is the conservative base diminishing these precious resources), the environment where the child lives – whether that child is born into a house of drugs, alcohol and/or abuse – or what kind of future this child might have. It seems rather contradictory to me. For a political party that cringes at the idea of “big government” and its constant liberal interference into the lives of morally decent tax-paying Christian citizens of America, they seem to want to have complete control over a woman’s reproductive choice and deciding how one should lead their life. Oh that’s right; conservatives believe it is a religious mandate from God to interfere in political manners only if they are relevant to maintaining the core, family-centric values of America. Let’s regulate the gays, the promiscuous abortion-seeking women and those pesky illegal immigrants attempting to steal the jobs that no one wants. However, everyone else living their white, Christian, suburban lifestyle should be allowed to conduct their lives without the government stepping in – whether they have gay scandals, are addicted to prescription pills, or hire illegal workers that they do not pay.             

I hope that this massive spiritual and cultural awakening that I have heard is rumored to happen, will eliminate people’s general stupidity and moronic tendencies. Or …. A portal to an alternate dimension transports them to a land far far away from here could work as well.  

As a former Wisconsin resident and proud Badger alumni, it pains me that I am not there at the moment, but alas, I - along with the rest of the world - can only sit back and watch the situation unfold. For those of you who have not been paying attention to the news, Wisconsin is currently embroiled in a heated political battle over Republican Governor Scott Walker's blatant douchebaggery and his attempt to strip unions - and public sector workers - of their collective bargaining power. Wisconsin has been a pioneer in the pro-labor movement for the past century and Walker's bill to strip workers of their rights is both shocking and unpopular to say the least. Walker is resisting any form of compromise, citing that we are a broke state and therefore have to deal with the consequences for our brokeness - mind you the "tool" states this amidst rumors of him siphoning out money to his campaign contributors. Walker also has his National Guard on standby should the peaceful protesters and their "liberal lies and agenda" need to be subdued.  Here is a Huffington Post articleoutlining the timeline for the past 10 days of this protest - a protest that has drawn thousands from all over the state and region. Apparently, other states are looking to Walker's dumb attempt at totalitarianism to see how it pans out for them, before moving forward. Such was the case with the marriage equality battle that occurred only a few years ago. Hopefully, social equity and justice will prevail from this encounter, instead of conservative and Republican think-tanks scaring the citizens of Wisconsin into believing that eliminating the rights of workers is in their best interest.

So unfortunately I could not be in Wisconsin at the moment to support my fellow protesters - and I have been jonesing for a good protest. However, at our most recent improv show on Saturday I was able to give an impromptu rant about Wisconsin and the sheer idiocy of Scott Walker. Even though it is small, this is my contribution to the on-going protests occurring at the Capital.

So to all my Wisconsin friends and allies, I say thank you for standing up for the rights of the individual and not letting the tyranny of one dominate. As one of our right songs so epically states;

" U-rah-rah! Wisconsin!
Praise to thee we sing
Praise to thee our Alma Mater
U-rah-rah, Wisconsin!"

Check out the video below and make sure to visit The Utility Players website for more hilarious videos and photos.

In life, I am sometimes astounded by the sheer and utter stupidity of people. More often than not the stupidity comes from elected officials empowered to make decisions impacting our every day lives. However we elect those individuals - sometimes to multiple terms - so what does that say about us. Probably at the end of the day we're all a little stupid, a little crazy, and most importantly a little gay ... but I digress.

Most of you might have heard the news piece about Jared Lee Loughner - a fanatical, disenchanted citizen - and his rampage that resulted in the deaths of 6 individuals - including a 9 year old girl and federal Judge John Roll - and 18 seriously injured including Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giifford - who suffered a point blank head shot and is battling for her life at the moment. Here is the full article here. The focus of constant debate and conversation centers on how could this happen? What could have provoked someone to do this? The 2010 election was chalk full of nasty rhetoric, scathing accusations, and invariably each candidate would blame their opponent - and their party for that matter - for the complete and utter destruction of these United States. One political debate between Jack Conway and Rand Paul featured Conway accusing Paul of being a member of a secret society that tied a woman up, forced her to smoke pot, and then dunked her into a lake. However, some Americans once again refuse to wake the hell up. A CBS poll released today related that a majority of Americans - 57% compared to 32% - felt that the divisive rhetoric of the 2010 campaigns had nothing to do with the incidents that occurred on Saturday. Oh blow me; that is largest piece of crap I have ever had. There is no doubt, at least in my mind, that the rhetoric had a SIGNIFICANT impact.

For example, last year former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin proudly displayed a map of the United States with "cross hairs" on 20 Congressional Representatives - including Rep. Gabrielle Gifford. The tagline for the image is "we've diagnosed the problem, help us prescribe the solution". Now, many have contended that there is no relation between the map and Laughner's actions. I might not be a political think-tank or pundit, BUT DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS. A woman - who mind you could have been our current Vice President - feels that Democrats who disagree with Republicans are "the problem" and that we as Americans need to come up with a "solution". The disturbing language creates an "us vs. them" mentality reinforcing the archaic adage of "if you are not with you are against us". 

This problem is not solely reserved to the inadequet two party system of government in our country. Studies have demonstrated that when majority populations pass discriminatory measures against a minority population - such in the case of gay marriage - members of that majority feel empowered and justified in their hatred of this group. An individual feels that they can gay bash someone, call someone an ethnic slur, or sexully harass their employees because their government, family, country, church, etc has told them it is ok to think that way.  In this way the individual is absolved from any and all guilt because a "higher power" has affirmed their behavior or way of thinking.

Another prime example is when the Assistant District Attorney vehementally blasted a University of Michigan gay student on his blog citing that he was a Nazi with an extremist agenda and a terrorist to the University. How can it even be remotely acceptable for this elected public figure to verbally abuse and harass this student? The Assistant D.A. was so obsessed with this student that he stalked/videotapped the student from his house. We need to wake the fuck up and take ownership over the words, thoughts, actions, and intentions that we set out into the Universe instead of trying to find ways to scaepgoat other people and work to absolve ourselves for any guilt.

 True Story. Now given my eccentric nature, my love for bedazzled accessories, and appreciation for the male form, you would assume that I would have a general mistrust and hatred for all republicans and conservatives. I use to, when I began my political career as a budding LGBT activist. I use to believe that all Republicans where morally corrupt ignorant assholes hell bent on making MY LIFE more difficult. I took their rhetoric of a “war” plaguing America to heart and believed myself to be a foot soldier in some rainbow army.

Then I went to college and was exposed to the myriad of political perspectives and viewpoints. Suddenly I found liberal Republicans, conservative Democrats, Socialists, Independents, and apathetic voters. Suddenly the lines separating parties become blurred and indistinguishable in my eyes. Sometimes it felt as though the only difference between Republicans and Democrats was a party that was going to outright hate you to your face and a party that was going to give lip service and then secretly hate you behind your back. At the end of the day these party identifications, like most of the terms and labels we apply to groups, are imperfect and inadequate.

Suddenly, in my mind, the paradigm shifted just ever so slightly. It suddenly no longer became a debate between Republicans and Democrats but between stupid asses and non-stupid asses. At this point I don’t really care what party you align yourself with – even the Teabaggers of the world – as long as you’re not an ignorant Mofo.

I went to a Republican Party event here in Reno on Saturday. It was the opening of their “victory” office and it was a gathering of Republican voters in the area as well as all the potential candidates. It kind of felt like that scene in “Witches” where the old crones all gathered, revealed their gnarled and disfigured faces, and there was me hiding in the corner praying that they wouldn’t sniff me out and turn me into a mouse. There I was trying to do my job and I felt that I set off this alarm … “HOMO IN THE ROOM, THERE IS A HOMO IN THE ROOM, and PLEASE ALERT ALL STAFF”. People avoided me, organizers wouldn’t talk to me, and my gayness – along with my age – made me both a memorable entity and a forgettable face all at the same time. I began to chide myself stating how stupid I was. I find myself in the belly of the beast with my bedazzled sunglasses, my flaming hair, and my rainbow bracelet and thought to myself; did I even stand a chance?

The other slightly surprising thing was the amount of gays that I saw not only working for candidates but attending the event in general support. Lord Almighty, did they take one look at me and ran in the opposite direction. It’s as if they were afraid I was going to blow their cover … oooh perhaps they were undercover agents attempting to take the party down from the inside like some Alias bullshit. I understand that there are gay Republicans, which is fine, supposedly it’s a free country and therefore I affirm your right to choose. I understand that some people gravitate more toward the economic and fiscal policies of Republicans but seriously, be a Libertarian or something.

The “family values” angle is trite and done – family values has crumbled to a non-existent heap of BS on the floor. Candidates espouse the need to protect families, the institution of marriage, and children but they don’t actually believe that – or don’t believe it for everyone. You believe in family values as long as it applies to white, Christian, English-speaking, heterosexual, and employed – well only the father is employed because the mother should stay at home - families. We want the government to step in and defend heterosexuals’ right to the ancient and sanctified institution of marriage but feel that the government should not waste time and money on pesky social services that provide innumerable benefits to children and families. If they decide to increase social programming on a local, state, or federal level we feel that the government is “TOO BIG” and want it to back off. However they still want the government to come in as the right hand of God to punish gays, women, people of color, and other minorities because frankly they are just asking a little too much with their equal rights protests.  

To quote my good friend Ash, who said it perfectly, “same shit, different day”.