A Gay Officer At War

*Portraits of gay men and lesbians in the armed services, faces hidden, were taken by Jeff Sheng for his book, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

I can’t really put into words the inspiration displayed by this anonymous, gay armed services veteran keeping an online journal. Ultimately, it’s stories like these that put my cushy life into perspective and shed light on the privelage it is to “make art” or “complain.” Here is the description, and some quotes below it. Read RD’s journal entries here.

RD is the pseudonym of a 10-year armed services veteran recently returned from Afghanistan.  A psychologist and long-serving veteran, this officer had to deal with both the traumas of the troops in front of him, and the psychic wound of his own situation: the risk that if he spoke frankly about his life to any colleague, he could find himself ejected from the war and the army. 

“Moral laws do not force people to lie or pretend to be something they are not (a kind of lie itself). Even worse this law creates barriers between people and mandates a certain level of isolation and loneliness. It will drive me from the military. It is the main reason I am leaving the service when I return from Afghanistan. Despite a severe shortage of psychologists and two wars the military will lose me.”

“…the religious fundamentalists in Afghanistan are strikingly similar to religious fundamentalists in America – who are also trying to force their literal interpretation of Holy Scripture onto everyone else through laws. While I served in Afghanistan the American “cultural war” exploded with California’s Proposition 8 and the pending discharge of an 18-year decorated combat pilot under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

“One soldier stated the only way Command would ever realize how overstretched his men are would be if he started killing people. He then stated he was so angry he would kill his Commander and no one could stop him.”

Young Creature

Blogging. FUCK YES. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s classist to say but I can’t live without internet at home (and actually after I did my 2008 taxes, I can totally brag about the stuff I do have, cuz it ain’t much folks). Duh, a lot of the new feminist, queer, and immigration movements are happening because we are all online all the time. I can’t tell you how many wonderful, active people I have met online and through this blog. Even in my same city, it would be difficult to mobilize our unrestful without the many facebook pages, email lists and web zines. And that is how we land at Young Creature, a new Chicago-based blog that focuses on “exposing and supporting queer musicians, artists, filmmakers, writers, troublemakers, and earth shakers.” So far, these art-school peeps are heavy into covering our community’s people that make somethings out of nothings. Their latest post is about (former Tracy + Plastics) Wynne Greeenwood‘s new performance project “Sister Taking Nap” showing in Seattle. Using sculpture, video and music, this piece features a collaboration with Gina Young of Team Gina. Click here for an interview with Greenwood about how she started working with video, how the Plastics freaked her out and using this new project to further her explorations about power and space. Thanks Young Creature!

If you never got to see Tracy + Plastics, below is a video that shows what you missed. Summary: it was a truly genius video/music project involving Wynne Greenwood playing Tracy and her two band mates, Nikki and Cola. Using performance as a meta-concert, she portrayed band politics and interpersonal relationships as an avenue to tackle feminism and queer issues all the while being funny as shit.

Be Yr Own Queero

Since December 2008, Wilmington NC and the world at your fingertips are queerer than ever, thanks to Be Yr Own Queero. This sparkly group of young writers is ambitiously tackling the world with their out and about it queerness, championing all out-artists, writers, communities, musicians and happenings. They’ve got a queer music podcast, social networking pages galore, and making an effort to be as all-inclusive as possible (as in, L-G-B-T). If I was growing up in Wilmington, you better believe this would be the only thing keeping me from jumping ship! Hell, Be Yr Own Queero is making me step up my game as we speak. BYOQ is looking for contributors, so if you are itching to get your blog on, contact them at info@beyrownqueero.com

DJ Is Not A Jukebox

I was over at PLD’s sister blog, Wicked Phobica and found the above text exchange. I was laughing for quite a while, mostly because I hate Lady Ga Ga’s music, and this would be my worst nightmare. Wicked Phobica is an mp3 blog that is also “an ongoing audio-visual playlist aimed at retracing the origins and culture of dance music while connecting the dots between eras.” Read: fierceness, fashion, art, vogue. Would love it if they posted more, but I’ll take the quality.

Anyhow, please remember that if you insist on making requests from a DJ, bless their hard-working hearts, money talks. Last time some guy paid me $10 to play Journey and he got it quick…then when it was a (hot) remix and not the original, he wanted his money back. Ugh. Unless you are at a wedding, you must be nice to your DJ!

TransGriot: Why Her Community Doesn’t Like “Queer”

One of my part time jobs is at a really cool, progressive public radio station, vocalo.org. We are constantly trying to have dialogue and present both sides of issues, and one that comes up a lot is over the word “queer.” Us younger peeps use it, my boss says his friends hate it. I always respond with “well those people probably like the word ‘lover’,” and then only the younger people laugh. Anyhow, I was looking over the nominees for the Weblog Awards (ahem, 2009!!) and found TransGriot, “News, opinions, commentary, history and a little creative writing from an African-American transwoman about the world around her.” She had this post specifically about the word “queer” and why she doesn’t like it. I always insist that you should call people whatever they want to be called, but I do disagree with TransGriot on one point: her dictionary argument. Since when do we need a dictionary to use words? I make up words all the time, remember last week’s list spectaculanza?  I don’t think we all need to use the same words to describe ourselves, but we do need to speak the same language. Loving this dialogue, head over to TransGriot and give her some love.  If you have a particular thing about what you want to be referred as, make sure you let others know!