The Republic of T.

I knew it. So, last week I griped about the whole working-at-home-vs.-working-around-people thing. And during my travels in search of wireless internet access and the proximity of other people, I’d started to develop a sneaking suspicion that — with more and more people working from locations other than an office — some institutions that offer the lure of wifi also wield a stick to make sure the “road warriors” among us don’t adopt their space as a semi-permanent office space.

Maybe I’m being paranoid. I mean, there are the obvious, reasonable measures that most places take, like logging you off their wifi after you’ve been there a certain amount of time (that’s if it’s free wifi). I can understand wanting to open up a table for a new paying customer when I finished my latte/frappucino/chai tea a couple of hours ago. But I swear there are some more subtle strategies employed. Like the lack of electrical outlets. And electrical outlet is an invitation for someone like me to sit and stay a while, after all. And if there is an outlet available, more than half the time the seat or table nearest it is occupied by someone who’s not using the outlet.

That’s not a problem. After all, people can sit where they want. But I swear there have been times when I’ve seen people sit by the outlets all day. They’re there when I make my first pass, and they’re still there if I pass by a few hours later. I’d swear that the store owners are paying people to sit those outlets, but I know if doesn’t make much sense. But they are taking out the comfy chairs.

Technorati Tags: books, business, culture, current events, life, work, web

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One of the things I hadn’t taken into consideration upon launching the project to record anti-LGBT hate crimes on Wikipedia was that it would mean living with each of these stories as I research them and try to gather as many fact as possible. (Communicating them as dispassionately as possible was another challenge.) It means reading the details of the crimes over and over again, learning about the lives victims and perpetrators along the way, to the point where their lives collide, watching that collision over and over again, and then spending more time shifting through the wreckage.

That’s what it felt like as I put together the next two stories. Once again, it wasn’t until I finished both that I realized the connection between them. Arthur “J.R.” Warren and Paul Broussard were both killed on July 4th, ten years apart. Both were killed by multiple attackers; strangers in Broussard’s case, and acquaintances in Warren’s case. Both suffered brutal beatings — including being kicked with steel-toed boots — that ended their lives. Warren pleaded with his killers to take him home. Broussard raised one hand as lay bleeding on the sidewalk, as if pleading with his killers for help or mercy even as they rifled his pockets for souvenirs. Broussard’s killers drove away cheering and high-fiving each other as he lay dying. Warren’s killers were watching Independence Day fireworks with their families the same day that Warren’s body was found. Both deaths sparked protests and vigils.

In the debate over the current hate crimes bill, posted in full at Box Turtle Bulletin, maybe the opposition can answer some questions regarding stories like Warren’s and Broussard’s.

Technorati Tags: anti-gay violence, crime, current events, gay bashing, gay rights, hate crimes, politics, religion, wikipedia

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So the Senate vote on hate crimes has been put on hold after Senate Majority leader Harry Reid withdrew the defense authorization bill to which the hate crimes amendment was going to be added, after the Democrats failed to break a Republican filibuster over another amendment calling for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. That’s disappointing for a number of reasons, mainly because now the Dems will have to find another vehicle for the amendment, and I have my doubts they can find one that the president will be as pressured to sign as a defense authorization.

For further background, HRC’s Back Story blog links to a history of hate crimes legislation related to LGBT people, Box Turtle Bulletin posts the text of the bill and details religious right propaganda against it, Cross and Flame over at Street Prophets debunked that propaganda a while back, and yours truly tried to explain how hate crimes legislation gives state law enforcement more resources and empowers federal government to act when state officials can’t or won’t. Also, the House introduced a resolution mourning David Ritcheson’s death, which I mentioned earlier.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to proceed with a project I had in mind before I heard the news that there would be not vote on hate crimes this week and probably not until later this year. Earlier thisi week I posted a round-up of recent anti-gay hate crimes, similar to a longer hate crimes round-up I posted in May. After I published that earlier post in May, a commenter suggested that I make sure all the cases I covered in my post were also updated on Wikipedia. I’ve been pretty regular user of Wikipedia as a reference, but had never contributed more than a few edits to correct an error or two, until now.

My experience has always been that our stories are one of the most powerful asset we have in striving for justice. People understand stories about real people just like themselves. They can imagine those stories happening to them of to people they love. And even if they aren’t sure how they feel about homosexuality or same-sex marriage, when they hear stories of injustice and violence against us and our families, it offends their sense of morality. Whatever else they’re not sure of, they know “that’s not right.” And that’s the first step towards convincing them to help us do something about it.

So, if adding a few stories to Wikipedia can help, I’m wiling to make the effort, and to research and add other stories that people send me concerning hate crimes against LGBT people.

Technorati Tags: anti-gay violence, crime, current events, gay, gay bashing, gay rights, hate crimes, homophobia, politics, web, wikipedia

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I haven’t shared this bit of news on the blog yet, but in the past month I’ve made a transition that I’d been told was the next logical step in my career, but that I’d been resisting for almost a year. I’ve become an independent consultant. That is, I’m self-employed. Aside from farming out myself as a freelance writer, I’m primarily working as a “blogging & social media consultant”; a title I invented and started toying with around the same time.

One of the reasons I took the plunge is because Parker is getting closer to school-age, and eventually he’ll have a sibling who will also go to school. As I’ve been paying attention to the kinds of trouble some young people get themselves into, looking back on my own past, and wondering what kept me out of trouble. I think it made a huge difference that I never came home to an empty house. When I opened the door upon coming home from school, there was almost always someone there. In my case, my mom, who didn’t work outside the home. I’d been thinking about how to structure work so that I can be there most of the time when our kids get home from school. Well, I figured out how.

So far, so good. A number of interesting opportunities have already come my way (but not so many that I’m turning some away, yet) , and it helps that my former employer is one of my first clients and has been hugely helpful in sending other opportunities my way. Things look good and likely to get better. And I’ve enjoyed the independence of begin able to work at home or anywhere else that has wi-fi web access. But there’s just one drawback that’s been bugging me lately.

Technorati Tags: current events, life, work, technology, web

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I’m a little late on this, and Andy has pretty much covered it, but in case anyone hasn’t heard Bill Gates bailed out PlanetOut, to the tune of $26.2 million. That’s great, Bill. Honestly, I could kiss ya. Even if you’re not the richest man in the world anymore. (Besides, you’re better looking than that Carlos Slim Helu who’s got you beat by billions.) And, as for all those times I shouted “Whose d***k to I have to s***k to get my computer to work?!”, back when I used Windows? Let’s just forget about that, shall we? That is, unless you’re coming out of the closet as a … liberal.

Oh. Wait. Nevermind.

So pucker up, Bill At his rate, I might even forgive you for going neutral on gay rights, and just in time for the Washington state gay rights initiative to fail by one vote (since it passed a year later), and for hiring Ralph Reed, and even for contributing to Tom DeLay (or to the charity he used as a source of soft money political contributions). Ew. OK. Maybe not that last one. It kind leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

This is strange. I know I probably shouldn't complain about free wifi (well, sort of free, since I bought a muffin and a bottled water to justify occupying a chair for a while) but I'm sitting here in Caribou Coffee, catching up on my blog reading, and happened to click on a link to a TMZ post only to find that the site is blocked on this wifi network. Now, I know it's their network and everything, but c'mon Caribou. If this were a school or a public library, I could understand. But if I'm enough of a big boy to quaff a cup of coffee, I'm probably enough of a grown-up to decide what sites I should and shouldn't access. And if there's somebody who might be offended they should probably either (a) mind their own business or (b) grow up. 

Yeah, I should probably do a post-debate wrap up, but to be honest I’m still waking up and catching up on my blog/news reading this morning. And that effort is now being hampered by this timewaster from the new Simpsons movie site, which lets me create a “Springfieldian” version of myself.

Not a bad likeness, even if I do say so myself.

Technorati Tags: humor, movies, web

If you ever wonder what it looks like when the ugly American stays home, check out this website showing the Minutemen in action.

I have a confession to make. I love Google. I also fear Google. But I can’t leave Google. We’ve been together for so many years, and shared so much. It’s given me so much, but it can take even more away. Don’t get me wrong. Google’s been very good to me. But I’ve heard that there are some people in its past, before me, that it didn’t treat very well. And, to be honest, I’m not sure I like some of its friends. I’m know some of its friends don’t like me, and I hate to think of Google telling them everything it knows about me. And, I never know if it will turn on me or not. So I can’t walk out. Google has way too much on me. In a sense, you might say Google owns me. And what Google owns, Google can sell out.

It started out so well. When we met, Google was just a simple little search engine. Kind of plain, but willing to get just about anything for me, and all I had to do was ask. And it had a kind of charm about it, complete with a rags-to-riches success story. Yet, it stayed simple in spite of its success. On the surface anyway. Things aren’t so simple now.

Technorati Tags: current events, politics, privacy, government, puppy, technology, web

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How cool is this? I just made new word.

You can't watch porn in South Holland, Illinois, and you can't get YouTube in Iran. Was Dinesh on to something? Discuss. 

Well, apparently all the cool kids are doing it. So I might as well jump in too. Besides, it makes sense.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not imagining that everything will be hunky dory if the Dems take back the House and/or Senate. I’m not optimistic enough to think that a Democratic House would necessarily be a boon to gay issues. Mainly because Dems are already making a beeline for the middle of the road. That’s the strategy that’s been telegraphed for a while now, and I don’t expect any different if/when they take back either the House or Senate.

Like I’ve said before, if you run to the right to get elected, your going to have to stay to the right if you want to hold on to power. (And who, in Washington, doesn’t?) Same goes for the middle, except that you can’t move too far to the left or right if you want to stay in power. Given that, I don’t expect any great strides on gay issues if the Dems take back either house of Congress, at least nothing proactive. But at least they may be able stop some of the egregiously bad stuff, especially if they take control of the House since that’s where the most batshit crazy stuff comes from. At least if you ask me.

So, if being left alone is the best we can hope for in this political season, then Google-bombs away.

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Congrats to Family Pride on its new website! Very clean design, but there's more to it than meets the eye right away. Meanwhile it looks like I'm going to volunteer to help Rainbow Families DC improve its website.