Yeti Menace

For those of you who are not already in the know, Yeti Menace is a homo blog. The Yeti Collective is group of fags who just happen to inhabit the blogosphere to promulgate our very own brand of The Gay Agenda, mainly because being gay is inseparable from our world view. (At least it is for Yeti Jim… I’ll let the other Yetis chime on on that thought.) I’m here to tell you: We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Used To It.

In this spirit, this post is the launch of a new series I am calling Yeti Rant! One of the reasons I started blogging is because I really do have far to much to say. I have an opinion about just about everything, solicited or unsolicited. I’m a political-economics junkie and I grew up this way. I’m a ranter and I get emotional and passionate about my politics. I yell at the radio in the morning from the shower as I listen to NPR and I hear something that needs to be commented on. I’m a critic and I love to analyze things be they policy or media. I have my own policy ideas and debate them with my partner and friends all the time.

I am also accused of being too serious, which is something that I am working on… I’m trying to lighten it up a bit on the war-path and here on the page, but since I grew up as a hippie radical peacenik activist, the seriousness isn’t really something that I can separate from: it’s my productive anger. And it’s this productive anger that has finally found its outlet here on the Yeti Rant. Rawr!

Ok, whew, now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to business.

Obama for President!
November has arrived and there are only just a few days before the election. I’m feeling largely good about the national presidential and congressional races and way that Obama has run his campaign and how the Democrats have comported themselves. Obama has spoken eloquently and is constantly on-point and on the offensive, inspiring millions of Americans and raising crowds of tens of thousands in battleground states. Rhetorically, Obama is blowing McCain out of the water and the Republican campaign is losing the battle of message in the election. The McPalin campaign is desperate and it shows in how they have advanced a red-meat strategy that caters directly to their right-wing base using horrible and divisive rhetoric and ideology: blatant racism, McCarthyite attacks, the spectre and irrational fear of Socialism and Communism and questioning the patriotism of every American who disagrees with or criticizes their twisted vision of this world. The difference between these candidates is significant and I hope America will stand with me to choose Obama as the candidate that has the better vision of the world and the one who will help us build our “better history.”

Vote No on Prop 8!
While I am feeling more confident about the Presidential campaign, what really has me biting my nails is the race against Prop 8 here in California. Prop 8 is an initiative constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. It would outlaw our newly minted legal right to marry, won this year in a hard-fought legal battle that ended when the CA Supreme Court ruled the state’s marriage law unconstitutional based on a strongly worded opinion of equal protection. So far this year, both sides in this absurd debacle of a political initiative have spent together in excess of $40 million on the campaign. This is the defining moment in gay civil rights in my lifetime. Losing on Tuesday will mean 10 more years of working our asses off to change the state constitution. Winning will mean that gay marriage is here to stay and will become the accepted norm for the rest of history. I really believe that this is it.

I have many, many friends who have gotten married over the last couple weeks. I think they are doing this to be a part of history, regardless of what happens on November 4th. I completely understand what they are doing. In 2004, when Gavin Newsom allowed gay marriages to be performed in San Francisco, John and I made an appointment to get married and flew there with our Moms to be a part of it all. But four days before our appointment, the Supreme Court ruled that the mayor of San Francisco, who is also the county executive, didn’t have the power to change the force of written law and nullified all the gay marriages that had been performed. Soon after, we elected to become domestic partners, ironically, mostly because that was the only guaranteed way for us to share health benefits. The day the Supreme Court ruling was announced, John was in class and I texted him and asked him to marry me (yes, two gay tech geeks). He said YES, but we both decided that we were going to wait until after the election and this damned Prop 8 was defeated once and for all. On Tuesday, John will be electioneering all day for the No on Prop 8 campaign at a polling station at UCLA.

The polls are tracking closer and closer with the opponents of Prop 8 only slightly leading. Yesterday’s Field Poll was 49% opposed, 45% favoring… too close for comfort! One encouraging thing has happened this week, though. After virtual silence from the National Democrats on Prop 8, a new “No on Prop 8″ robo-call featuring Bill Clinton has started up here and is reaching millions of California households. A new ad is now running that features Obama, Sen. Feinstein and Gov. Schwarzenegger, reminding voters that Obama has called Prop 8 “divisive and discriminatory.” This is the kind of attention that we need to bring the people to the polls to make the right decision and vote against Prop 8.

Please cast your votes on November 4th for Barack Obama for President and No on Prop 8. I will personally thank you for stepping up and protecting this homo’s right to get married to the man he loves.