This post might be anything...
Tired and melancholy today, not really sure what direction I'll end up going with this post. So much to mention or discuss, so little time or focus at the moment. I suspect it's going to be a grab-bag.
Last night I had insomnia until this morning. I think I finally got to sleep around 7am. I suspect the lack of sleep is probably a lot of why I'm feeling relatively emotionally fragile; being underslept does an awful lot to give me roughly the emotional maturity of a temper tantruming three-year-old. Also, I am so damned tired of itching. I wish I knew what was setting it off, because hives and eczema climbing up my arms and intermittently popping up all over the rest of me is really damned irritating (no pun intended). Also, the vision changes with the trileptal have been getting pretty non-trivial; it feels almost like my eye focusing ability is partially paralyzed; it's like sudden onset presbyopia. It's been especially bad in my right eye; the other day when I did a quick check, I couldn't focus completely at _any_ distance. *sigh* Oh, just fucking grand. I'm scheduled to see both my GP and the Chronic Pain Rehab Program coordinator tomorrow. Life got annoying thanks to med effects, and I called my doc to ask her to do a quick vag smear for me so we know whether the two doses of diflucan in the past few weeks have really sorted things back out. This appt was _supposed_ to be about fibro followup, and I've got a lot of stuff I really need to discuss with her along those lines. Just got a call back from her office. They can fit in the pelvic, but at the expense of _everything_ else. Her schedule's too tight tomorrow, so now I have to schedule another appt, maude knows how long a delay that's going to be. I've still got my fingers crossed that we can multitask enough during the pelvic for me to catch her up on some of the biggest issues, at least. At the moment I'm feeling thoroughly frustrated.
Some linketies related to life here at the moment:
A friend of mine, Mitch Andelmo, died early Monday morning, late Sunday night, however you want to look at it. A story had come out earlier that evening, I had been reading about it, about a car driving through a barricade and straight into the crowd at a street festival. -- This death has hit my local community hard; I didn't know him, but many people I care about are deeply grieving at the moment.
CKG Benefit for IDKE XIV (The International Drag King Community Extravaganza) -- I do believe this means that IDKE is happening in Cleveland this year!!!! I adore Drag King performances with a passion, and IDKE is especially meaningful since it was one of the first dates for me and Katy and Tori lo those many years ago.
Baltimore Gay Life -- speaking of Katy, so proud of her! Those awesome folks on the cover are folks Katy hired and works with. Go her, go them!
And the interview! (the one about The Den)
Also in happy news, Katy's on her way through town this coming weekend, so I'll get at least a bit of time to catch up and see her in person. Hoorah!
Cleveland/Tremont: Pro-Choice Pub Crawl
Join NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio for a night of activism and drinking. We'll be visiting bars in Tremont, passing out stickers and pins, and hanging out with the pro-choice community. Email intern1@naralohio.org for more information. Full schedule of bars coming soon.
I'll be at work, but figured I'd pass along the word.
Facebook: Sex Educators Network -- Awesomeness! My housemate Holly, who's a sex educator, pointed me toward it.
Rachelle Gallant reads her poetry. 11/13/08 -- Our totally-full-of-awesome new member of the neighborhood! She's just opened an art and photography gallery on Lorain about 1/2 block from us. She's focusing on neighborhood artists, and we had two really great conversations on Saturday (more on that in a minute). There's no website yet that I've been able to find, But I got multiple copies of her business card, and this is the info from that:
Gallery of Poetic Photography
Rachelle Gallant: Urban Word Charmer
4128 Lorain Ave
Cleveland OH 44113
216-212-7043
rggallerypp@aol.com
I'm really excited about her shop, and hoping she'll make it as a permanent fixture in the neighborhood, so I'm doing my best to spread the word. Saturday, as we were leaving Nick's from a late breakfast with Kidlet (who was wearing his superhero cape), she flagged us down to tell us that several of the artists working with her now could take a picture of him and cartoonize it into his favorite superhero. We explained we were doing the broke-fun thing this week, but were definitely interested in pursuing it more. We ended up coming back to the gallery (just a few doors down from Nick's) and checking it out. When she had trouble getting her credit card app to run for us to purchase a Superman drawing for Kidlet, she just let us take it with us, with a promise to stop back by with the $10 later in the day after we stopped by the thrift store and the MAC machine. The thrift store was so much fun; Unique is huge and full of goodies. This time it turned out to be stuffed animals (dragons, a walrus, a few turtles, a big red frog with huggy arms, a carnival-style stuffed snake, etc), and a copy of Hungry Hungry Hippos, which I suspected Kidlet would love, since it involves lots of banging and noise. Also some more books, and a few other random items.
When I stopped back by the gallery sans Kidlet and Chad to drop that $10 off, Rachelle and I got caught up chatting for another 45 minutes or so, sharing stories of poetry that'd changed our life, concepts about reclamation of identity terms and the complexities thereof, the local activist community and our involvement with Occupy, and concepts of social obligation and moral choices in interacting with children (she dug that we're currently using Xena as a pathway to talk to Kidlet about ethics and violence). She is so totally "my people" and I'm really looking forward to developing the friendship further. Also, her poem about the AIDS quilt made me cry, and I really want to buy one of the framed pieces she has that are combinations of her photography and poetry -- it's a photo of a young black man in an argument with his mother, and two white cops in the middle of the scene, with her poem Collide below.
Oh, she's family, so if you're in the Cleveland area and particularly trying to support our local LGBT businesses, I'm passing the word.
Also, last night had a bit of excitement; I was on the back porch listening to music pretty loud, so I didn't hear it at first, and thought Tarma was just barking about Chad and Holly coming back from a walk, but there was a couple fighting on the street, and Chad and Holly were concerned it might go violent. I tossed on clothing, grabbed my cell and went out front with them. It had moved down the street, but was still very concerning, and it didn't look like the guy was really giving the woman an option about leaving the confrontation. I sent Chad back in for my shoes (lack of shoes in a situation that might become violent is a severe handicap), dialed 911, and headed their way. I never did end up having to directly interact with them, never even got close enough that I needed to stop and put on my shoes; someone coming their way with clear intent seemed to help with de-escalation, and I just quietly narrated to 911 what was going on, and once they split up and headed in separate directions down Lorain, I let them know it didn't look like it would be necessary to send a car. Chad and Holly were a bit behind me, but caught up as I was turning around to come home. Things like that do occasionally happen in the late night on Lorain, and we try to keep an eye on it and get involved as necessary. My personal tips on dealing with such situations, if you choose to get involved in a more immediate and direct way than just calling the cops: don't bring weapons, don't go into it intending to "take down as asshole" or any bullshit like that. Your job isn't to take anyone on, ideally. It's to be obvious eyes on the situation, to be obvious about notifying the cops if necessary, to perhaps offer a safe space or escort for one of the parties if you're willing to go to that point. Above all, it is to REMAIN CALM so you're not adding more fuel to the fire. Projecting calm and confidence, as much as you find yourself able, is helpful as well. If at all possible, bring backup to keep an eye on you -- it's not necessarily helpful for a group to all show up at once, but Chad and Holly being a bit back and quite literally watching my back gave me more freedom to focus on coping with what would be necessary, rather than worrying about my own safety. And if you have a kid or someone else with you who might be at greater danger or less capable of taking care of themselves in the situation, DON'T GO THERE. Call the cops from a distance, and get that other person with you to a better and safer place. Sometimes all it takes to help someone get out of a confrontation is just to make it obvious that people around are taking note of the situation, not looking the other way.
In news of the Good, Grafton gets home this Saturday! It looks like he's got the job out in Kansas City, so he'll only be here for about three weeks before he heads back out there for another three months, but it will be wonderful to have him back for a while; I've missed him immensely.
Also, this weekend with Kidlet was really just extra-wonderful, too. I'm really treasuring the friendship we're building, and that he seems to actively enjoy my company. I have a lot of fun making plans for his visits, although we almost never get through everything on the possibilities list (we now have ingredients and supplies for all sorts of bubble fun, but didn't even have time to get to that this weekend, for example). Chad's recently made his gradual move up to our place official, so we've been explaining to Kidlet that our house is also his house. He's definitely developing confidence in what spaces and stuff are particularly "his", which is cool. He's gotten the full tour of the property, including all the spaces he's not normally allowed to go (attics, basements, etc), so that he doesn't feel like a perpetual visitor. We've been talking to him about "house rules", and that we treat people and animals with respect, always. FWIW, on "this is your home" -- that means forever; that's always what it means when a partner's or friend's child is in my life. From now 'til I die, regardless of anything with interactions with their parents, I endeavor to make sure they know that they always have a safe place with me if they need it. Kidlet's still processing that this is truly his house too now, even if he's only here relatively infrequently. He did check a number of times for reassurance on the point over the weekend, and it was lovely to be able to give that to him, and emphasize how he has two whole homes in his life (with Momma and Poppa, and with me and Chad and our housemates).
Chad and I were both really exhausted this weekend, so there was a bit of trade-off for grown-up naptimes. That helped a lot; I got about a 5-hour nap on Saturday while Chad took Kidlet to the community pool and playground around the corner from our place. Then Chad got a nap while I got Kidlet settled for bed and tucked him in beside Chad. We also did a good bit of walking around the neighborhood, some Olympics-watching, and our usual forms of play and wrestling. He's also been making progress by leaps and bounds in following household rules, retaining lessons about interactions with people and animals, etc. I'm really proud of him. Oh, and Kidlet was entranced by the children's literature segment of the Opening Ceremonies. He now seems to firmly believe that the tool of choice for fending off monsters is an umbrella. As a long-time fan of Mary Poppins, I wholeheartedly approve. His superhero fascination was really fun in the context of men's gymnastics; we talked up how lots of superheroes do gymnastics, and how this was something he could learn (he already does excellent somersaults). And he's a small kid now; if he remains so I want to make sure to send him messages that there are unique and awesome things that small bodies can do. I also found the drumming segment from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and have that bookmarked to share with him next time I see him. I think he'll love it!
I've also been thinking about what exactly changed in regards to singing for me. It feels very much like the mental process going on for me is quite similar to the healthy point I was able to reach much longer ago about body image. It's not that I suddenly think I'm a great singer, is that I've suddenly got a much more realistic sense of where my singing ability is, what could be improved with practice, where my strengths and weaknesses are. And I'm not particularly self-conscious about not being perfect. That's the big change. It's why I compare it to body image stuff: it's not that I think my body is "perfect", it's that I love it and all its particular strengths, and I can accept the weaknesses without it being a source of embarrassment or shame. What I'm currently discovering about myself is that I can sing acceptable well, even a capella, if I know the music _really, really_ well, I stay in the right range, and it's not overly complicated. It's easy for me to take melodic wrong paths and get lost if I don't, and I think an over-focus on that tendency is part of why I was so self-conscious. Also, the more self-conscious I got over the years, the more likely I was to sing in a whisper if I did so at all, and that's the fastest way to convince myself I really can't sing, since it's damned hard to sing well while trying not to be heard. Also, like a lot of "gifted" kids, I never got a lot of experience practicing at doing things that didn't come to me naturally and easily, and I am more uncomfortable than many folks in wandering into those kinds of territories because it is a new and uncomfortable thing for me, and I have few coping skills for times when I'm not just easily the best at something. Being seen to try and still fail at something has always been one of those nightmare points for me, and it's a very bad mental habit to be in. It restricts my life, and I don't approve. Being ruled by a fear of embarrassment is not what I want for my life, and it's not what I want to model for others in my life. I'm very pleased that I finally seem to be growing up enough to at least partially get over that. I think Kidlet helped so much with that because I was singing with him, and therefore not feeling the least bit judged, and more focused on sharing the music with him than whether I was embarrassing myself, so I wasn't listening to myself hypercritically. It allowed me to come to the realizations I needed. I've now actually made a few recordings on my phone to share, just to share because I finally find myself capable of doing so. I'm unfortunately still working on getting my damned near-death phone to send them to me so I can post them, though. So strange how the fear is almost entirely gone; I'm more excited to share that I suddenly _can_ share than I am at all nervous about being judged for my singing. Such a huge change. Huge.
Oh, random thing that's partially related: Chad and I have been talking about taking some sort of dance class together. We know less than nothing about dance styles. Any suggestions for something fun and hopefully generally up-tempo but not too hard on the body? I know several friends really love Contra dancing, and I've looked at that a bit on youtube to get a sense of it, but I'm not sure if there's a local group. Bonus if it's a form that's known to be especially welcoming to LGBT folks.
Gay Marriage Plank Will Be In Democratic Party Platform At Convention -- Wow. Just... wow. I'm only 37. I've only been involved in LGBT activism for 20 years at this point, but the changes and progress I've seen and experienced in just that time -- it really blows me away some days.
Last night I had insomnia until this morning. I think I finally got to sleep around 7am. I suspect the lack of sleep is probably a lot of why I'm feeling relatively emotionally fragile; being underslept does an awful lot to give me roughly the emotional maturity of a temper tantruming three-year-old. Also, I am so damned tired of itching. I wish I knew what was setting it off, because hives and eczema climbing up my arms and intermittently popping up all over the rest of me is really damned irritating (no pun intended). Also, the vision changes with the trileptal have been getting pretty non-trivial; it feels almost like my eye focusing ability is partially paralyzed; it's like sudden onset presbyopia. It's been especially bad in my right eye; the other day when I did a quick check, I couldn't focus completely at _any_ distance. *sigh* Oh, just fucking grand. I'm scheduled to see both my GP and the Chronic Pain Rehab Program coordinator tomorrow. Life got annoying thanks to med effects, and I called my doc to ask her to do a quick vag smear for me so we know whether the two doses of diflucan in the past few weeks have really sorted things back out. This appt was _supposed_ to be about fibro followup, and I've got a lot of stuff I really need to discuss with her along those lines. Just got a call back from her office. They can fit in the pelvic, but at the expense of _everything_ else. Her schedule's too tight tomorrow, so now I have to schedule another appt, maude knows how long a delay that's going to be. I've still got my fingers crossed that we can multitask enough during the pelvic for me to catch her up on some of the biggest issues, at least. At the moment I'm feeling thoroughly frustrated.
Some linketies related to life here at the moment:
A friend of mine, Mitch Andelmo, died early Monday morning, late Sunday night, however you want to look at it. A story had come out earlier that evening, I had been reading about it, about a car driving through a barricade and straight into the crowd at a street festival. -- This death has hit my local community hard; I didn't know him, but many people I care about are deeply grieving at the moment.
CKG Benefit for IDKE XIV (The International Drag King Community Extravaganza) -- I do believe this means that IDKE is happening in Cleveland this year!!!! I adore Drag King performances with a passion, and IDKE is especially meaningful since it was one of the first dates for me and Katy and Tori lo those many years ago.
Baltimore Gay Life -- speaking of Katy, so proud of her! Those awesome folks on the cover are folks Katy hired and works with. Go her, go them!
And the interview! (the one about The Den)
Also in happy news, Katy's on her way through town this coming weekend, so I'll get at least a bit of time to catch up and see her in person. Hoorah!
Cleveland/Tremont: Pro-Choice Pub Crawl
Join NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio for a night of activism and drinking. We'll be visiting bars in Tremont, passing out stickers and pins, and hanging out with the pro-choice community. Email intern1@naralohio.org for more information. Full schedule of bars coming soon.
I'll be at work, but figured I'd pass along the word.
Facebook: Sex Educators Network -- Awesomeness! My housemate Holly, who's a sex educator, pointed me toward it.
Rachelle Gallant reads her poetry. 11/13/08 -- Our totally-full-of-awesome new member of the neighborhood! She's just opened an art and photography gallery on Lorain about 1/2 block from us. She's focusing on neighborhood artists, and we had two really great conversations on Saturday (more on that in a minute). There's no website yet that I've been able to find, But I got multiple copies of her business card, and this is the info from that:
Gallery of Poetic Photography
Rachelle Gallant: Urban Word Charmer
4128 Lorain Ave
Cleveland OH 44113
216-212-7043
rggallerypp@aol.com
I'm really excited about her shop, and hoping she'll make it as a permanent fixture in the neighborhood, so I'm doing my best to spread the word. Saturday, as we were leaving Nick's from a late breakfast with Kidlet (who was wearing his superhero cape), she flagged us down to tell us that several of the artists working with her now could take a picture of him and cartoonize it into his favorite superhero. We explained we were doing the broke-fun thing this week, but were definitely interested in pursuing it more. We ended up coming back to the gallery (just a few doors down from Nick's) and checking it out. When she had trouble getting her credit card app to run for us to purchase a Superman drawing for Kidlet, she just let us take it with us, with a promise to stop back by with the $10 later in the day after we stopped by the thrift store and the MAC machine. The thrift store was so much fun; Unique is huge and full of goodies. This time it turned out to be stuffed animals (dragons, a walrus, a few turtles, a big red frog with huggy arms, a carnival-style stuffed snake, etc), and a copy of Hungry Hungry Hippos, which I suspected Kidlet would love, since it involves lots of banging and noise. Also some more books, and a few other random items.
When I stopped back by the gallery sans Kidlet and Chad to drop that $10 off, Rachelle and I got caught up chatting for another 45 minutes or so, sharing stories of poetry that'd changed our life, concepts about reclamation of identity terms and the complexities thereof, the local activist community and our involvement with Occupy, and concepts of social obligation and moral choices in interacting with children (she dug that we're currently using Xena as a pathway to talk to Kidlet about ethics and violence). She is so totally "my people" and I'm really looking forward to developing the friendship further. Also, her poem about the AIDS quilt made me cry, and I really want to buy one of the framed pieces she has that are combinations of her photography and poetry -- it's a photo of a young black man in an argument with his mother, and two white cops in the middle of the scene, with her poem Collide below.
Oh, she's family, so if you're in the Cleveland area and particularly trying to support our local LGBT businesses, I'm passing the word.
Also, last night had a bit of excitement; I was on the back porch listening to music pretty loud, so I didn't hear it at first, and thought Tarma was just barking about Chad and Holly coming back from a walk, but there was a couple fighting on the street, and Chad and Holly were concerned it might go violent. I tossed on clothing, grabbed my cell and went out front with them. It had moved down the street, but was still very concerning, and it didn't look like the guy was really giving the woman an option about leaving the confrontation. I sent Chad back in for my shoes (lack of shoes in a situation that might become violent is a severe handicap), dialed 911, and headed their way. I never did end up having to directly interact with them, never even got close enough that I needed to stop and put on my shoes; someone coming their way with clear intent seemed to help with de-escalation, and I just quietly narrated to 911 what was going on, and once they split up and headed in separate directions down Lorain, I let them know it didn't look like it would be necessary to send a car. Chad and Holly were a bit behind me, but caught up as I was turning around to come home. Things like that do occasionally happen in the late night on Lorain, and we try to keep an eye on it and get involved as necessary. My personal tips on dealing with such situations, if you choose to get involved in a more immediate and direct way than just calling the cops: don't bring weapons, don't go into it intending to "take down as asshole" or any bullshit like that. Your job isn't to take anyone on, ideally. It's to be obvious eyes on the situation, to be obvious about notifying the cops if necessary, to perhaps offer a safe space or escort for one of the parties if you're willing to go to that point. Above all, it is to REMAIN CALM so you're not adding more fuel to the fire. Projecting calm and confidence, as much as you find yourself able, is helpful as well. If at all possible, bring backup to keep an eye on you -- it's not necessarily helpful for a group to all show up at once, but Chad and Holly being a bit back and quite literally watching my back gave me more freedom to focus on coping with what would be necessary, rather than worrying about my own safety. And if you have a kid or someone else with you who might be at greater danger or less capable of taking care of themselves in the situation, DON'T GO THERE. Call the cops from a distance, and get that other person with you to a better and safer place. Sometimes all it takes to help someone get out of a confrontation is just to make it obvious that people around are taking note of the situation, not looking the other way.
In news of the Good, Grafton gets home this Saturday! It looks like he's got the job out in Kansas City, so he'll only be here for about three weeks before he heads back out there for another three months, but it will be wonderful to have him back for a while; I've missed him immensely.
Also, this weekend with Kidlet was really just extra-wonderful, too. I'm really treasuring the friendship we're building, and that he seems to actively enjoy my company. I have a lot of fun making plans for his visits, although we almost never get through everything on the possibilities list (we now have ingredients and supplies for all sorts of bubble fun, but didn't even have time to get to that this weekend, for example). Chad's recently made his gradual move up to our place official, so we've been explaining to Kidlet that our house is also his house. He's definitely developing confidence in what spaces and stuff are particularly "his", which is cool. He's gotten the full tour of the property, including all the spaces he's not normally allowed to go (attics, basements, etc), so that he doesn't feel like a perpetual visitor. We've been talking to him about "house rules", and that we treat people and animals with respect, always. FWIW, on "this is your home" -- that means forever; that's always what it means when a partner's or friend's child is in my life. From now 'til I die, regardless of anything with interactions with their parents, I endeavor to make sure they know that they always have a safe place with me if they need it. Kidlet's still processing that this is truly his house too now, even if he's only here relatively infrequently. He did check a number of times for reassurance on the point over the weekend, and it was lovely to be able to give that to him, and emphasize how he has two whole homes in his life (with Momma and Poppa, and with me and Chad and our housemates).
Chad and I were both really exhausted this weekend, so there was a bit of trade-off for grown-up naptimes. That helped a lot; I got about a 5-hour nap on Saturday while Chad took Kidlet to the community pool and playground around the corner from our place. Then Chad got a nap while I got Kidlet settled for bed and tucked him in beside Chad. We also did a good bit of walking around the neighborhood, some Olympics-watching, and our usual forms of play and wrestling. He's also been making progress by leaps and bounds in following household rules, retaining lessons about interactions with people and animals, etc. I'm really proud of him. Oh, and Kidlet was entranced by the children's literature segment of the Opening Ceremonies. He now seems to firmly believe that the tool of choice for fending off monsters is an umbrella. As a long-time fan of Mary Poppins, I wholeheartedly approve. His superhero fascination was really fun in the context of men's gymnastics; we talked up how lots of superheroes do gymnastics, and how this was something he could learn (he already does excellent somersaults). And he's a small kid now; if he remains so I want to make sure to send him messages that there are unique and awesome things that small bodies can do. I also found the drumming segment from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and have that bookmarked to share with him next time I see him. I think he'll love it!
I've also been thinking about what exactly changed in regards to singing for me. It feels very much like the mental process going on for me is quite similar to the healthy point I was able to reach much longer ago about body image. It's not that I suddenly think I'm a great singer, is that I've suddenly got a much more realistic sense of where my singing ability is, what could be improved with practice, where my strengths and weaknesses are. And I'm not particularly self-conscious about not being perfect. That's the big change. It's why I compare it to body image stuff: it's not that I think my body is "perfect", it's that I love it and all its particular strengths, and I can accept the weaknesses without it being a source of embarrassment or shame. What I'm currently discovering about myself is that I can sing acceptable well, even a capella, if I know the music _really, really_ well, I stay in the right range, and it's not overly complicated. It's easy for me to take melodic wrong paths and get lost if I don't, and I think an over-focus on that tendency is part of why I was so self-conscious. Also, the more self-conscious I got over the years, the more likely I was to sing in a whisper if I did so at all, and that's the fastest way to convince myself I really can't sing, since it's damned hard to sing well while trying not to be heard. Also, like a lot of "gifted" kids, I never got a lot of experience practicing at doing things that didn't come to me naturally and easily, and I am more uncomfortable than many folks in wandering into those kinds of territories because it is a new and uncomfortable thing for me, and I have few coping skills for times when I'm not just easily the best at something. Being seen to try and still fail at something has always been one of those nightmare points for me, and it's a very bad mental habit to be in. It restricts my life, and I don't approve. Being ruled by a fear of embarrassment is not what I want for my life, and it's not what I want to model for others in my life. I'm very pleased that I finally seem to be growing up enough to at least partially get over that. I think Kidlet helped so much with that because I was singing with him, and therefore not feeling the least bit judged, and more focused on sharing the music with him than whether I was embarrassing myself, so I wasn't listening to myself hypercritically. It allowed me to come to the realizations I needed. I've now actually made a few recordings on my phone to share, just to share because I finally find myself capable of doing so. I'm unfortunately still working on getting my damned near-death phone to send them to me so I can post them, though. So strange how the fear is almost entirely gone; I'm more excited to share that I suddenly _can_ share than I am at all nervous about being judged for my singing. Such a huge change. Huge.
Oh, random thing that's partially related: Chad and I have been talking about taking some sort of dance class together. We know less than nothing about dance styles. Any suggestions for something fun and hopefully generally up-tempo but not too hard on the body? I know several friends really love Contra dancing, and I've looked at that a bit on youtube to get a sense of it, but I'm not sure if there's a local group. Bonus if it's a form that's known to be especially welcoming to LGBT folks.
Gay Marriage Plank Will Be In Democratic Party Platform At Convention -- Wow. Just... wow. I'm only 37. I've only been involved in LGBT activism for 20 years at this point, but the changes and progress I've seen and experienced in just that time -- it really blows me away some days.