Spreadin’ the blog love

My fellow bloggers have truly been outdoing themselves lately.  So I thought I’d just give a shout out to some great stuff they’ve been writing lately.  Hey, Valentine’s Day is coming, right?  What better way to spread some blogger on blogger love then to …ahem…expose each other 😉

@caseorganic, aka Amber Case, wrote a great post with five dating tips for nerds.  Very useful!  Plus, she quotes me, so you know it must be really good info. 

@melissalion, aka um, well Melissa Lion, has tasked us with crawling up from the muck that is our paltry existence, raise ourselves up and try to be her!  Oh happy day!  If you think you’re up to the task, my pretties, take a shot at The Melissa Lion International* Superiority Smugacity Self-Improvement Challenge.  I’m making chai.  From Starbucks. 

The Recovering Straight Girl has some food for thought on the idea that being gay is a choice.  I must say, I agree…whether or not it’s a choice, I wouldn’t want to be any other way.

Seems my love affair with PDX is rubbing off on people.  @jarvitron aka zenboy wrote this blog post about how much he loves Portland, too.  We should have a PDX love-in or something.

As far as work-type blogs go, one of my favorites is Web Worker Daily.  Although they tend to cater to gig workers, there’s still lots of great info.  And now, I have a go-to article to send all my friends to when I find myself at a loss to explain the coolness of Twitter, complete with some of its drawbacks.

And not the least, @cecivirtue posted some AMAZING phone pix of the opening night party of Coraline.  They had the actual sets on display at the party!  Wow.  Cherry blossoms done with spray painted popcorn?  Very, very cool.  Makes me miss my old movie construction days, when I built breakaway doors, installed fake plastic Japanese roof tiles, and got to play with gas torches to distress wood beams.  Ahh, movie magic.

Spread the blog love, and take a peek at some of my favorite bloggers.  Or check my new blogroll over there on the right.  Yeah over there.  Under my recent flickr pictures.  Read their stuff, and comment often.  They and I will appreciate it!

Welcome to June

The following is excerpted from:

http://www.nwhp.org/events/gay-lesbian-pride/history-of-pride-month.html

Pride month is an opportunity to celebrate diversity as well as
support civil liberties and rights for all.

History of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

The origins of Gay and Lesbian Pride month can be traced back to a turbulent weekend in New York City in June of 1969. On the night of June 27th of that year, the usual crowd gathered at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. New York Beverage Control Board agents and NYC police officers raided the bar to enforce an alcohol control law that was seldom enforced anywhere else in the city.

Raids on gay establishments, however, were common at the time and were conducted regularly with little or no resistance, as fearful gay patrons were physically forced out of their gathering places, sometimes beaten, and often arrested with no just cause. In fact, this raid was the second such raid at the Stonewall Inn that week.

On the night of June 27th, lesbians and gay men spontaneously fought back against police harassment for the first time. The crowd inside and outside the bar erupted into violent resistance against the officers as they singled out patrons to load into waiting paddy wagons. More police reinforcements were called in as local gays and lesbians united in enraged confrontation.

Word spread quickly about the confrontation and large, outraged crowds gathered on ensuing nights to protest the mistreatment historically inflicted on the gay community. These protests came to be known as the Stonewall Rebellion, and the uprising was the catalyst for the modern political movement for gay and lesbian liberation – calling for gay pride and action to secure their basic civil rights.

The event since then has been commemorated by an annual parade held each year in New York City and Los Angeles on the last Sunday in June, a tradition starting with marches on June 28,1970 marking the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion.

The Stonewall Inn was declared a national historical landmark in March 2000, cited as the birthplace of the modern gay and lesbian civil rights movement.

Now, Gay and Lesbian Pride events and parades are planned annually in the month of June all over the country as well as internationally. Gay and Lesbian Pride Month celebrate diversity and civil liberties and rights for all.