How Capitalism Will Kill Us All

I’m Back. Brace Yourself. I left Hivster some months ago, and my. What months they have been. Since my split with Hivster, I moved back from Eugene to Seattle. Occupy Wall Street– and all the controversies and educational It’s not just my hair that’s changed. opportunities that sprang up with it– happened, and I began working with Occupy Seattle in... Read More

Reflection, Resistance, and the Art of Giving Thanks

Have your pie and eat it too. Thanksgiving. Hrm. So in recent weeks I’ve gotten a lot of flack for my political musings. Though I didn’t write about the election here on Hivster, this November and the seemingly endless months that preceded it were a source of long, drawn-out consternation for me. As the country tried to decide between the devil we don’t know and... Read More

Happy Veteran’s Day

Broke? Stuck at home? Join the Army! See the world!  God, I was stupid at 18. A lackluster high schooler– I was one of those “He’s just so smart but never applies himself!!!” students– I ended my time in K-12 by taking a fabulous month-long trip to Europe and then sitting around my sister’s house wondering what I would do with my life. I didn’t... Read More

I Was Wrong About Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Getting Fired, Giving Some Interviews, Taking Action Before Occupy and all its myriad (and at times catastrophic) effects on my life, I was a one-trick pony of sorts. My focus in activism was a narrow one, born from personal experience and thrust onto the national stage. In 2004, after one tour in Iraq and staring another one in the face, I made a decision to come out of the closet.... Read More

Targeted

Acceptance? Tolerance? Assimilation? This is an unusual time to be LGBT or queer identified. The queer liberation movement, started as a vilified and victimized movement of people coming together to fight for their right to live and love, appears to have finally reached the mainstream in undeniable ways. Where at one time the idea of politicians taking up the cause of marriage equality... Read More

Sally Ride And The Glass Closet: Did She Break It Soon Enough?

Shattering Ceilings, Even In Death In the past week, a quiet announcement of an astronaut’s death brought the world a first: Sally Ride, once lauded as the first American woman in space, has also been illuminated in her obituary as the first astronaut to have been publicly outed as having a same-sex relationship. Read More  Read More

We Know Better

Happy Co-option Day! Ahhhh, Pride. That yearly celebration of all things LGBT that has, for so long, been a hallmark of every young (and old) queer’s social calendar. That magical time of year when people dust off their booty shorts, wrap themselves in a boa, and shine up their sparkly shoes in order to hit the streets, dance the night away, and unapologetically shout “We’re... Read More

Radicalizing Netroots, Part 2

This is the second in a two-part review of Ian Awesome’s adventures at Netroots Nation. Click here to read part 1. The next day started off with chuckles. Daniel introduced me to the most ridic spoof of Jem (remember? From the 80s?) on YouTube that could ever be made. Warning: extremely offensive. Do not play around children. Do not play around elderly people. Do not... Read More

Radicalizing Netroots Nation, Part 1.

Netroots Nation. This is my second year participating in the gigantic Netroots Nation conference, a big event billed as a “progressive” bloggers’ conference put on by blogging giant Daily Kos. I was lucky this year, like last year, to get a full scholarship to go, with all expenses except for food paid for through the LGBT Netroots Connect program. Last year... Read More

Justice Isn’t Just

I miss my brother. I haven’t seen my brother, Jon, since I was fifteen. I can distinctly remember his last visit to the house I lived in with my mother. He seemed… well. A troubled man, one who had been in trouble with the law consistently in his youth, had secured a good job, had a wife, a stepdaughter, and would have a baby in the near future. Now in his late thirties,... Read More