I am so excited to be the Keynote Speakers Co-ordinator for the Make Poverty History: STAND 2009 event at my University! MPH is such a great cause! The more people STANDing up and speaking out the greater effect on governments and citizens we can have to raise awareness of poverty and make it history.
It is absolutely horrible that over one billion people are living on under one dollar a day, over one million Canadian children live in poverty, and every three seconds a child dies from extreme poverty. I feel obliged to do what I can to make the world a better place for everyone, its not actually that hard, it just takes time and effort.
First, I must confess my intense love for Amnesty International–-I am a monthly donor and do fund raising for them! Amnesty is a great organization (OBVIOUSLY!) which fights for human rights for those of you who need the 411. However, in the last two Pride celebrations in my city, and probably for longer, Amnesty has not had any presence. This is just insufficient, so I'm trying to do something about it!
I have spoken with Amnesty International Canada, the organizers of the Pride festivities in my city, and the awesome folks where I work about getting something going. Being its pretty much just me planning and organizing this with the assistance of some awesome volunteers, I want to keep it kind of small, unless Amnesty has some great ideas and resources available. An Amnesty tent with all sorts of information including petitions, ways to donate, how to get involved, why Amnesty rocks, and of course some folks signing up people to be monthly donors is in the works. It would be absolutely amazing to have some picket style signs for in the parade too, but starting small is good.
In Canada we are very fortunate to have many equal legal rights, but there is still so far to go. Gay men cannot donate blood or organs and the age of consent is 18 for anal sex but 16 for vaginal sex for instance. Same sex couples can't safely and happily show romantic affection for each other in public without the risk of personal injury, both physically and emotionally. The rights we have achieved so far are definitely noteworthy and internationally recognized; but, there is still so far to go!
On the note of rights, I am really impressed with the work the Human Rights Campaign and other organizations are doing and have done in the fight for marriage equality in the US. Prop 8 was unfortunately passed, but it is evident that the fight is far from over. Kudos to all you dedicated individuals who are banding together to make a difference.
If you live in my city and would like to volunteer/help or have any ideas, suggestions, and/or experiences to share with organizing Amnesty events at Pride or otherwise, please contact me (link on the upper right) and share, it would be greatly appreciated!
And on a final note, whenever I think of GLBTQ rights in the US I can't help but think of Margaret Cho. She is just amazing, seriously. I love her. I would marry her. I would... yes, I would. Another person who is always brought to mind is Harvey Milk. You must go see Milk, its such an awesome movie about an awesome man!
Sometimes it takes something to inspire change, sometimes that's an awesome new job and sometimes it can be Jake Gyllenhaal. Really, though, I just couldn't find a suitable image for this post, but Jake is pretty cute, so he works just fine.
I gave my notice at Starbucks the other day, I've been working there for almost a year. Making fabulous drinks just doesn't quite fit in with my interests in human rights. If anything its the opposite, there are families in third world countries working way too hard to nurture those beans which Starbucks makes a fortune from and pays very little for. Solution: work more doing fund raising for those awesome organizations I mentioned in another post and make a hell of a lot more money. I will miss the fabulous people I work with there though, it was because of them that it was actually hard to quit!
Another change I'm making is being sure I do what's good for me. So this means I won't be around people who are too immature––not just in the annoying sense, but in life too. Sometimes its good to have fun, but its also good to take your job/career and friendships seriously. Friends, if they are true friends, are not expendable.
Finally, with having one less job I will have more me time. I'm ready to start dating again, I think... I guess. How I'm going to go about this dating, I'm not sure. Maybe I will just go to gay bar's and try to find the love of my life, NOT. I fucking hate how the gay community, especially in my city, is reduced to clubs for its primary social interactions and dating/fucking prospects. Its horrible. I don't want some guy's number who is obscenely drunk and trying to make out with my neck at the urinal at 3am, that's just not a good first impression. And clubs just aren't good spaces to actually meet someone, there are too much drugs, alcohol, stupidity, and falseness. Here's for hoping the ONE comes along sometime in the not so distant future.
Right now I'm sitting in a Starbucks on my 22nd birthday fretting over a midterm I have tomorrow. However, I need to write this post, I just need to get this off my chest.
Growing up I was never comfortable around people, really because I knew I was different and thought it was a horrible thing and no one should find out, ever. This went on until I was 19 and moved to a larger city where I finally got some space for myself (I may have touched on this before, sorry if I have). But really, all holidays prior to my coming out were dreaded. Its so hard to describe the feelings of growing up in a heteronormative society where everything you do is dictated through its discourses, especially when you know you are outside the norm.
This is the first year that I have planned to do anything significant for my birthday. To my relief, my family will not be around. I love them to bits, no matter the troubles I encounter with them regarding my sexuality; however, this time is for me to actually celebrate something for once, to be me for once, to actually see what its like to MAYBE feel not as restricted. So, the party I planned and invited almost everyone to actually means a lot to me, it is THE FIRST time I will have a birthday where I will be happy and actually party. I mean, I went out last year and stuff on my birthday, but it wasn't the same, I was still adjusting to my new found "freedom".
I don't think my friends actually know how much this means to me. If anyone mentions this at the birthday party I will be insanely awkward, so don't if you're reading this, lol. I really really hope its a fun time and that I don't let myself down somehow.
Happy Birthday to me... Happy Birthday to me... okay, enough of that. My 22nd birthday is coming up in a couple days and really I just want to go out with some friends and have fun. So the plans have been finalized: dinner at a nice chic restaurant, then go over to an awesome gay club where I'm VIP to get obscenely intoxicated :).
For the most part, I don't want presents, just donations to the local GLBTQ centre. Although, my family all went in and bought me an AWESOME camera, a Canon Digital Rebel XS! ITS AMAZING AND I LOVE IT! Aside from gifts from family members and possibly "romantic" or "sexual" partners (whatever you call the person you fuck on a regular basis) or other extremely significant others, I really don't see the need in gift giving for holidays and birthdays. I mean, its a great thought and all but really, and this sounds shallow, I'm a picky bitch. My apartment is so small that I really don't want things around that I won't be using. That being said, those who know me extremely well will know what I want and need, so that's why its different.
Now, to the sex part of this post. My internship as a multicultural sexual health educator is going extremely well and I'm enjoying it. I get to assist in planning and doing sexual health workshops. Its great experience and a good cause. Most of my focus is on HIV/AIDS, STD's, STI's, and cancers which may affect reproductive/sexual health. They want me to get a more permanent position with the organization, one of the more hopeful ones sounds like a summer program. The summer program would obviously pertain to sexual health, but not specifically within specific ethnic communities. It all depends on funding though being it is a non-profit organization. I'M BEING OPTOMISTIC!
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