On the Cover of a Magazine...

My hand and half my face will be in the background of the cover of The Advocate issue that comes out May 9th. Woot.

Wheaton is pretty. I gave someone a headache. I've got a 14 hour bus ride ahead of me tomorrow, including yet another planning meeting, so I'm gonna bounce.

Also Home of Best Buy!

Wow, that was a cool conversation! Unfortunately we're not going to make it to the Mall of America, but I've seen a lot of malls on this trip so I'm probably good.

Night before last a small group of us went to The Gay 90's. Note that this is the first time I've actually made it "out" on this trip, so be assured that I don't spend my time frolicking. It was a pretty cool club, with seven dance floors and the most diverse clientele (racially, orientationaly, and agealy) I've ever seen. Plus, the drinks were cheap and the company top notch.

Yesterday Robin had a migraine and I decided to stay home to make sure she had someone to close the curtains and whatnot. After notifying all the proper authorities (we usually have 2-4 people home sick or planning or just needing a day off) we went straight back to sleep and didn't wake up til nearly 2 pm. We needed it, seriously. I realized I've been getting an average of 6 hours each night, and if you know me at all you know that is just not enough. Then we got to do laundry, which was lucky 'cause I was on my last pair of undies and had already gone without socks for three days.

From what I understand of the North Central stop it was kind of a dissapointment. Not very many students came out to the tables and when the sit in was staged the school refused to call the police, prefering to use their own security guards to rough us up. However that evening we had a pretty awesome rally in the park near campus (Rob and I got a ride over there in time) with speakers from GLAAD and HRC, several North Central Alums, the spoken word poet I talked about before (btw I think I have the words totally wrong but she's the awesomest person I've ever met), and the actor who played Captain Sulu on the original Star Trek series. Hott. We had a little mini dance and sing a long at the end, including an entirely off key rendition of "Om Shanti" (our unofficial theme song).

Today we were at Bethel University. They welcomed us on, which was nice. I spoke to three different classes, I would say between 150-200 people total. That's pretty cool. One was a group of seminary students wherein I was asked a question about the Anglican Communion, and another was an open forum where someone asked about heterosexism. It was really cool to have a deep intellectual discussion rather than just focus on the same three topics. The last class of the day was a small social work seminar, and Rob and I spent nearly three hours chatting with them about everything from our families to our spiritual journeys to ethics of counseling. It was a really good way to end the day. Also, best cafeteria ever and a gorgeous campus with a lake and everything. Good times.

Also, one of the seminary students asked if I was in the discernment process and when I said I wasn't officially, she said she wanted me to know she saw me as a pastor, or possibly a professor, but probably in the ministry. This is about the third time I've heard this on the Ride. I suppose the mountain does inch ever closer...

Bedtime! Tomorrow we are off to Chicago and then Wheaton, the Harvard of the Evangelical world and home of hundreds of "ex-gays". Exciting.

The G5 Rox!

Minnesoooota

I didn't write last night. We were in Omaha. There's nothing in Omaha. I can note with some interest that the weird collage in the La Quinta there is the same as the weird collage in the La Quinta in El Paso, so there's that.

We didn't get there in time for me to go to the Easter Vigil service, but this morning we got up early so we could stop in Des Moines Iowa for churchiness. Some folks went to the MCC, some went to the Lutheran church, and I dragged Robin to Roman Catholic mass at the catherdral. The church was beautiful, the priest was not so great, but there were lots of babies and I got to hear the classic hymns, so good deal. By the way, as far as I can tell there's not much interesting on the road from western Colorado to Minnesota, except for a very exciting truck stop with a movie theater and Keno games.

I'm actually writing this from a very comfy couch in Jake Reitan's house. His family fed us well and has filled the bus with Easter candy. Woot. We're currently having a meeting about that's happening at North Central University tomorrow. We'll be holding presentations in the park in the center of campus and possibly having a sit-in.

We just listened to the coolest thing ever. This young spoken word poet chica wrote a piece in tribute to us and some dude put it to music so now we have a kind of song. The chorus is "Fight for me Ride for me Candle in the night for me" or something like that. It's amazing. We were all crying and whatnot. I believe we're all getting CD's and I will share it. Also, I will be getting a CD of pictures of me. Most of these pics will be me hiding from the camera, but that's not the point.

Alright, I am off. Tschuess.

Barrel Rolls and Latex Gloves

I forgot to mention something about our stop at CCU. Real, though slightly paraphrased quote, from the president of the school:
"Our policy is a lifestyle issue. Just as we don't allow parrots in the dorms, we don't allow open homosexuals."

???!!!

So today we were at the Air Force Academy. That is an ugly school, let me tell you. It looks like a giant airport. It was a good day. About 10 people got arrested early on for asking someone to sign a giant check for $364 million on behalf of the American tax payer (that's how much has been spent on kicking people out since 'don't ask, don't tell' was made law) and making speeches and things. I stood with tape on my mouth as I said, until there were so many cadets who wanted to speak to us that it just didn't make sense any more. I met a lot of really cool people today, almost all of whom I would describe as allies. Many of them specifically asked "what can I do?", which was awesome. I've gotta say a lot of the boys in the service seem very hung up about the shower and rooming situation. They just assume that gay men would have to have seperate showers. I pointed out that they no doubt currently shower with gay men, they just don't know it. They responded that it would be different if they did know, because they'd have to think about it. This was seriously their biggest objection. Strange.

Actually one of the coolest parts of today was that we cleaned the bus. When we got back from our community dinner about 6 of us decided the time had come to make a stand and attacked the BGB from front to back. We must have pulled 8 full bags of trash off it, and we swept and swiffered and cleaned the windows and everything. I felt called to clean the bathroom, which was possibly the ickiest thing I've ever done. We turned up the music and actually had a really good time, I think in part because the task required an entirely different set of skills than the ones we've been using for the past 5 weeks. Also, we danced, and you know dancing makes everything better.

Tonight the big drama is how and when to stop off for Easter church on Sunday morning. Sheesh. My hope is to get to Omaha (our stop for tomorrow night) early enough to get to the cathedral for the Great Vigil complete with baptism and confirmation, and get some people to come with me so they can get a look at what sort of liturgy I've grown up with, and maybe why I think guitars and projection screens in a gymnasium are a weird way to worship. We'll see how that goes.

A note for those of you who have connections in the NYC area: if you know of anyone who might want to join us at our final action at West Point, have them contact me or Monica (through the website). It's going to be a big deal and we're busing people out from the City and having a fundraiser the night before and stuff. Gonna be bangin'.

Beeteedubs, congratulations on the new job Quinnbee! I'm so proud of you!!!

Rocky Mountain Hiiiiiigghhhh...

Colorado is gorgeous! Rob already said we can't live in Utah, which is fair, so I'm putting forth this fine state as a proposed location for our commune. I'm thinking outside of Boulder. Thoughts?

I spent the second day at BYU in bed with a fever, so I was not arrested or anything. I did manage to make it to dinner where I talked with some very brave students who had outed themselves in the press. I can't imagine what it would be like to be gay in that environment.

So today we were at Colorado Christian. I had some anxiety about going there, as you might imagine from the last post, but it turned out to be an awesome day. It's a really small school, something like 900 undergrads, so our presence pretty well permeated the place. My two buddies were both pretty cool: one of them was the athletic director and we had a long talk about what it would be like if my wife and I moved in next door to his family. I also met a lot of allies, both of the "I think it's a sin but we can get along" and the "I grew up with gay people and have no issues, great that you're here" variety. One of them is hoping to stage the Day of Silence on campus this year. We were able to give 9 different classroom presentations and had several hours of open house style free discussions. But it seems like at each school a few of us end up having just one weird conversation after another; Robin had a hard day trying to explain transgenderism and how it was not at all related to pedophilia, and then how lesbians have sex when God intended sex to be about one person "giving" and one person "taking". Also, we sang a song called "Your Blood" again (we'd heard it at Azusa), which just sort of creeps me out.

Btw, I'm on Biola's little schoolwide news program. You can watch me here: http://www.mcom.biola.edu/ev/archives/2006-04-05.html I've got those talking points down, my friends.

It's occured to me that we Riders have developed an entire vocabulary and shorthand that no one else in the world will ever understand. For example, "sweet cane" as both an adjective and a person, "Pam time" as a verb, "agressive bottom" as a major overshare, "I met a young man at Wheaton" implying an entire personality and speaking style, the significance of the song "You're Better than Chocolate", not to mention all of our nicknames ("Busty", "Pastor Carl", "Papa Smurf", "Friggin Higgins", "Token Straight Girl") and super powers (intergalactic bongo drums, the ex ex gay wand, the glare of the sexually frustrated and, of course, the magic boobies). Some things I just can't explain to y'all.

If you haven't looked at the ER website in a while, check out the page for our newest member, Ryder. You can even sponsor him!

Tomorrow it's off to the Air Force Academy. I will be standing in the Honor Court with duct tape over my mouth, representing 1,000 of the 10,000 servicepeople that have been discharged since the institution of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Woot.

Gold Plates and the Such

Okay, so I have guilt. Blog guilt. It's been more than a week. I could have died in the desert and y'all wouldn't have known. I've decided to just tell you what's happened since we got to Utah and catch up on LA the next time I'm on the bus, 'cause if I don't keep going I'm never going to make it. I wrote about Azusa on the Equality Ride site, though not very well, so you can read about it there. Also, for Emily and other La Serna folks, I actually went to Biola. Not as scary as I expected. Apparently T is an adjunct professor there now. Interesting.

So Utah. Beautiful country. God's country even. But sheesh are there a lot of Mormons here. Everyone is very nice and polite (well, mostly), but I have never in my life gotten quite such a big "you're not from around here, are you?" vibe. We spent time on Saturday and Sunday learning about the LDS faith from their publications and several brave young gay Mormons who were kind enough to answer our questions. Sunday afternoon we went to church for a family service sponsored by a couple different local parishes including the UCC and the Unitarians, followed by the requisite potluck supper. Nice folks.

We spent all day today on BYU's campus. I admit, I was a bit nervous. But luckily the first couple of people I talked to were very friendly and really interested to talk to us. That group wanted to know a lot about "gay culture" (What's with the short hair? Do you want kids and how are you going to obtain them? Are you really that promiscuous?) and were very attentive. Also discussed libertarian politics. Later discussions were less friendly and comfortable. One student said to me "There are no gay Mormons, and if there are, they're missing the whole point". I've definitely had to overcome any shyness I may have had and grow even more bold in expressing myself and my opinions. At one point I was standing in Brigham Square with about 9 people standing around me asking how I could possibly think of spending my life with a woman. Crazy. Then there were the three extremely immature guys who wanted to know if I'd ever consider sleeping with any of them and which girls I thought were hot. Oh, a couple of people, including Jake's parents, were arrested for attempting to give a speech. Mama and Papa Reitan are fabulous, by the way, always manage to make me cry.

Luckily it was at about that point that I had to walk over to a local park for our rally. We sang some songs and had I think a half dozen people speak, all of whom were current or former members of the LDS church and also LGBT. It was very cold and I was feeling antisocial so I didn't hear all the speeches but there was a lot of clapping. We did have some counter demonstrators, most of whom were quiet but a couple people honked their horns to disrupt us and began yelling "Soulforce go home" and something about how we were intolerant of their religion. Also, one of our speakers was clearly not coached beforehand and spoke about how he was queer by choice and planned to stand up for Mormons' right to practice polygamy and such. Overall though I think it went well. We had many community supporters, including some gay couples. What lesbians are doing in Provo I don't know, they must like the scenery.

THEN (are you getting the idea that we have some long days?) I went with four other people to a student Family Home Evening. I was a bit nervous to go, especially since we'd been told we might be totally welcomed. But I'm really glad I went, as we were able to have some more casual and open discussions about what it really means to be a gay person of faith and how the LDS treats its LGBT members. Totally awesome. Quote of the evening: "Jello isn't in our doctrine. Please don't judge us by our cuisine." I never thought I'd say I had a good time at BYU, but I definitely did. And I finally got my very own "Choose The Right" ring, which I've been wanting for years.

Tomorrow we are back on campus (or at least in the area) doing our procession of lilies in memory of LDS people who have committed suicide and then dialogue again in the evening. After that we are on to Colorado Christian, which we're expecting to be one of our more challenging schools. We are each being assigned a chaperone, and that group has been praying for us (not in a positive way) and meeting with members of Exodus and reparative therapy groups in preparation for our visit. Faaaaaabulous.

Alright, sleep time. Happy late birthday Diana!

Been Through the Desert on a Horse with No Name

I have spent at least 24 of the last 48 hours on the big gay bus. I'm currently in a hotel in Williams, Arizona, grabbing literally 5 hours of sleep before we proceed on to the Grand Canyon and then Los Angeles. We're gonna make it folks. Notable things about today: spending 2 hours at the New Mexico border while we obtained some weird tax document, watching "Rent" and singing out loud with a bunch of folks who can't carry a tune any better than I can, "Moms and Pop Pyro Shop" in the middle of nowhere, trying to convince Jake to let me color his hair with highlighters, gorgeous sunset, ummm.... I took a nap... anyway, between the bus breakdown this morning and the delay at the border, it's been a longass day and I need to sleep. Looking forward to being homeish, and actually getting to my stop at Azusa.

Meeting Rob's parents pretty much went fine. Meh. People suck.

Sleep.