Here's a YouTube I found of two 'mos lip syncing to my favorite Outkast interlude, "Kim & Cookie." Toeeeeeeeeee up!
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And PS she has such a chameleon-face! Which is why she will undoubtedly stay very famous for many years to come. She knows how to keep morphing, keeping people interested. The comparisons to Madonna are not far off the mark. Well, Madonna of yesteryear anyhow.
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A propósito del día internacional de la mujer.
Marzo 8 de 2010. En el mismo día me tocó ir a una mesa de debate sobre el día internacional de la mujer, escuchar hombres a favor de la interrupción legal del embarazo, comentar con mis compañeras activistas sobre cómo muchos hombres siguen/seguimos en la lógica de hablar de temas de mujeres en el mismo tono de voz que Ricardo Arjona (vaya mentada!) me tocó el chisme de que en una mesa de debate por la tarde a una de mis amigas le tocó escuchar el comentario de un muchacho que sólo tomó la palabra para decir "las viejas se siguen victimizando un chingo" para irse acto seguido de concluida su frase, y en el evento/kermesse/exposición colectiva de una escuela de arte me tocó ver a una mujer con un pin muy grandote del tamaño de un pañuelo de esos que van en la solapa y muy interesante además, que decía "yo no celebro muertes ni conmemoro guerras"
De entrada me gustaría dejar en claro que sí; la situación ya no es la misma y nadie puede negarlo, aunque las diferencias no sean ni contundentes, ni radicales, ni garanticen el acceso de todas las mujeres al pleno ejercicio de sus derechos; citaré a mi maestro Roberto Guadarrama quien me guió en el desobediente camino de la Educación para la Paz, quien me dijo que no hay cambios sino excepciones, y ojalá haya tantas excepciones que se generen cambios.
Instalarnos en la postura cómoda de decir que "México ya cambió, chavos" y pensar que ya no hay carencias para las mujeres (que van en su diversidad más allá de las que aparecen en lo que callamos las mujeres asesinas desesperadas por ser esposas) es sesgado, erróneo y muy reduccionista. Si bien muchas mujeres han podido acceder al ejercicio de varios derechos fundamentales a causa de su propia lucha y la herencia del movimiento feminista en el caso de las más jóvenes, falta mucho por hacer.
El sabor de boca que me dejó este 8 de Marzo fue el de la postura cómoda el del día de descuento en X restaurante para las mujeres, el de "saca a tu madre a comer a tal lado, dale el día libre", el de la eterna queja de que las mujeres siguen de quejumbres y no ponen a ver que la crisis en el país no agarra parejos a todos (este último argumento me parece que denota un tremendo desconocimiento sobre la situación del país). Tenemos instituciones que se dedican a las mujeres desde perspectivas paternalista y que sólo les enseñan a pintar cerámica y a "sobresalir" desde la visión de lo que las mujeres pueden hacer, nos seguimos centrando en la mujer, por ahí escuché que las mujeres quieren ser como los hombres y ahí está lo malo de esto, yo creo que ni los hombres queremos ya ser como los hombres que han hecho de esta sociedad una inequidad de proporciones impensables. A final de cuentas espero que este día nos haya dejado material para reflexionar que tipo de hombres y mujeres somos, que la podemos aportar desde nosotras y nosotros mismos a nuestro país a nuestras relaciones o a nuestro cachito de mundo. ah! y reconocer que hay muchas mujeres lesbianas y transexuales, no todas son las madres de familia de los comerciales de electrodomésticos
¿Día internacional? Seguro, ha de conmemorarse en el extranjero.
Under the proposed changes, a patient will sign a general medical consent which includes permission to test for HIV. If a physician decides to run an HIV test, they will have to get verbal consent before ordering the test and note it in the file. However, a patient is not allowed to verbally decline an HIV test. Patients who do not wish to be tested will be required to put that in writing.[...]
Mark Peterson, a spokesman for Michigan Positive Action Coalition (MI Poz), a group of HIV-positive people and their supporters in Michigan, said the legislation was not needed.
"I think the problem with this legislation is that it is an answer seeking a problem," he said, noting that hospitals and other medical groups in Southeast Michigan have been complying with the current law, which requires anyone ordering an HIV test to provide a patient with pre-and post-test counseling, as well as sign a specific document on the issue created by the Michigan Department of Community Health.
"It does concern me that we are eliminating that requirement," said Byrum.
The bills sponsor is Representative Roy Schmidt (a democrat from Grand Rapids), to whom I just wrote this note:
Representative Schmidt,I'm writing in regards to HB 4583, requesting that you withdraw it from consideration. As a sociologist who studies HIV/AIDS for a living, I can say that this law is unnecessary and will do more harm than good. HIV testing is a very sensitive practice that requires a great deal of trust between doctors and their patients. Consent for HIV testing is essential for that trust to be possible. As you are surely well aware, many new infections in Michigan are among African American men who have sex with men - a population that already holds a relatively high level of distrust for medical providers due to experiences of prejudice and mistreatment. Thus, this legislation will damage what is already a fragile relationship between these men and their providers, which would *lower* HIV testing rates due to men avoiding medical attention altogether.
If passed, this bill will have dire, unintended consequences. Please, I ask sincerely that you reconsider this unnecessary and wrongheaded legislation.
Regards,
Trevor Hoppe
University of Michigan
So polite of me! I'm even shocked.
]]>California, rich in resources, rich in human talent, rich in industries, and very rich in the rich, can afford a first rate education system. But our quagmired political system (minority rule), anti-tax political culture, upsidedown state budget priorities, and the configuring of higher education itself on the model of a business -- these have demoted public education to the status of a failing discount store.Indeed, there is more at stake here than the loss of a great system of education, than the madness of permitting oil wealth, real estate wealth, Silicon Valley wealth, banking wealth, Hollywood wealth, agribusiness wealth and prisons to grow ever larger while starving our schools. There is more at stake than the madness of cutting the fuel to the economic engine that generated so much innovation and capacity in California during the last century. It is also the case that there can be no democracy without an educated citizenry.
Without quality public education, we the people cannot know, handle, let alone check the powers that govern us. Without quality public education, there can be no substance to the promise of equality and freedom, no possibility of developing and realizing individual capacities, no possibility of children overcoming disadvantage, or of teens reaching for the stars, no possibility of being a people guiding their own destiny or of individuals choosing their own course. Above all, there is no possibility of being a self-governing people, a democracy:
As the world grows more complex and integrated, as the media grows ever more sophisticated and powerful in shaping events and ideas, what maintains democracy is not the technical instruction into which resource-starved schools are rapidly retreating. It is not the reduction of high school to 2 years, college to 3, not vocational training for the many, but the kind of education through which future citizens learn to understand and engage the complexities of this world.
Amen, sister!
The moral of the story: Providing resources for people to access quality higher education at low or no cost must be central to a class-conscious political agenda.
]]>(Via Andrew Sullivan).
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"Being fucked into an orgasm without touching yourself is something that bottom boys like me dream of - it's a fantasy because it's so downright difficult to achieve. It's only happened to me three times, and each time poppers made it possible. Here's why."
I had already been having sex for a decade before I tried poppers for the first time. They always seemed a bit seedy and scary to me - classified under the header "drugs" in my mind and thus were suspicious. But there I was, on all fours, when suddenly my partner put a bottle under my nose and instructed me to breathe in. "What the hell?" I thought. You only live once!
It is difficult to describe the kind of sensation that poppers provide. A bit of chemistry to start. Chemically speaking, most are members of the alkyl nitrate family and they are found in stores in liquid form. They may be labelled as "video head cleaner" or -- the more ridiculous and more common label -- "liquid incense." (Amyl nitrate -- the most famous of the family -- is also a medical treatment for cyanide poisoning!) To call them fragrant would be misleading. While they have a strong aroma, it is not the kind you want your linens smelling like when you wake up in a luxurious hotel. It's more noxious that alluring, a fact that scares many away.
Poppers have the direct effect of relaxing your body's smooth muscles (including the chocolate starfish!), which results in the dilation of your blood vessels and thus an increased heart rate. This is why you should never use them with Viagra or other ED medications - the result could be a dramatic drop in blood pressure and heart attack.
Okay, chemistry and medicine aside. Let's get to the good stuff. The first time anyone attempted to describe what they did for them, it was a friend with a few years of experience under his belt. He looked at me dramatically in the eye, and with a very serious tone told me this: "It's like you're going to die from a disease whose cure is lodged deep inside you. Your partner has to get it out." What a statement, indeed! I was a bit taken aback.
]]> I would describe the sensation in slightly different terms. First, ease of access: When you get fucked, poppers make taking dick a whole lot easier. Some boys don't need help with this issue -- but really, there's something amazing about adjusting to nine inches in nine seconds. My partners are often hung thick (not a coincidence), and I can rest assured that having a bottle of poppers nearby will enable me to take just about anything up my ass. That's why they're critical for many men who enjoy fisting. It relaxes what can otherwise be a rather cantankerous muscle."I'm put into something of a ritualistic trance, feeling my moans and his scruffy cheek as if they were brand new to me. You know how annoying it is to remember to pick up the dry cleaning when you're spread eagle in bed? That doesn't happen with poppers."
Second, and more important to me, is the heightened sense of pleasure they provide. I've been fucked hundreds, perhaps thousands of times (one loses count at some point). For some guys it's a special treat, for me it's the very lifeblood of my sexuality. If my asshole sealed up and fell off tomorrow, I'd be one devastated homosexual. But out of all those times spent horizontally (and occasionally vertically or some other angle of operation), I've only had exactly three hands-free orgasms. Being fucked into an orgasm without touching yourself is something that bottom boys like me dream of - it's a fantasy because it's so downright difficult to achieve. It's only happened to me three times, and each time poppers made it possible. Here's why.
I take a hit of poppers, and something truly magical happens. I lose track of myself, my thoughts, of time and space, and I can only think of one thing: Pleasure. I become a little fucking-pleasure machine, greedily lapping up whatever ounce of it I can find around me. My partners lips. My nipples. The feeling of his balls slapping against me. These things occur to me less as thoughts, and more as instinctual operatives. I'm put into something of a ritualistic trance, feeling my moans and his scruffy cheek as if they were brand new to me. You know how annoying it is to remember to pick up the dry cleaning when you're spread eagle in bed? That doesn't happen with poppers. You brain and libido join in harmony, forcing out the banal world outside the bedroom and zeroing you in on your body, your pleasure, and ultimately your fucking mind-blowing orgasm.
I'm not a top, so I can't attest to the kinds of things it might do for you topmen out there. I trust there are benefits for your kind as well. But for the bottoms out there who haven't partaken, I can only ask: Sex without poppers is wonderful, sure -- but why not make it better? ("Better" is a bit of an understatement, actually.) Don't be scared. Just take a deep breathe, relax, and inhale. You're in for a real treat. Trust me.
The Anonymous Gay Sex Column is just that - anonymous! Got something to say that you'd like published here? Submissions should be around 500 - 1000 words. They will be posted in the order received, with editing only for grammar. Send your submissions by e-mail to 
. Include a title and it wil be published here under an anonymous user account. Once published, the e-mail will be destroyed. Your identity will never be revealed!
Live from Acapulco! Well, not quite live - but we did film this past weekend on our beautiful balcony during our Spring Break vacation in Mexico. Me and Maxime have quite a great episode in store for you, complete with frank discussions on being a femme bottom, having sex without fear of HIV, cruising, vacationing with straight friends, and having straight friends in general. Fasten your seatbelts, girls, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!
Enjoy! And as always, e-mail us your questions!
]]>Most schools already have an optional question about race and ethnicity. Why not one that asks whether or not a student is gay?
I recently voiced my opinion on the subject to a friend, who apparently repeated it in the comments section. But I didn't discover this article via the friend who posted the comment; rather, a totally unrelated friend happened to read it and recognize me in the description.
When you live in Michigan, you start to forget what the sun feels like on your face. So for Spring Break each year, Maxime and I travel down to Mexico to meet our friends Nolberto (who blogs here!) and his partner Chema for a week of mischief and splendor. Aaron joined this year, and after a 14 hour journey (2 flights and one bus ride) we made it to Acapulco for some fabulousness.
Anyholler, obviously blogging will be a bit slow this week. But I'll be popping in to share a photo from time to time :)
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Got something to say about gay sex, but don't want your name attached? Every Wednesday starting next week, we'll be posting anonymous columns from gay/bi/queer men just like you! Anything goes: Best sex you ever had, tips and tricks you've learned along the way, and reflections on the trials and tribulations you've encountered in your sexual escapades are all welcome.
Submissions should be at least 500 words with a rough maximum around 1000 words. They will be posted in the order received, with editing only for grammar. Send your submissions by e-mail to . Include a title and I'll publish them here under an anonymous user account. Once published, the e-mail will be destroyed. Your identity will never be revealed!
Looking forward to reading and sharing your dirty thoughts!
xoxo
T
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