Somebody asked the other day about “civil union rings” on the GLBT board I moderate. I directed her to gay-owned Jewelry by Ponce and gay-themed Love and Pride, but those are sources for specific types of jewelry. Gay people don’t have to get gay jewelry, of course - you can get any kind of gold and diamond jewelry…rings don’t know what gender you are!

An interesting point about gay couples getting jewelry, though - they might end up with different color metals. For example, my wife prefers yellow gold and I prefer white gold, so that’s what our rings are! You can see them here.

This is kind of a long post, so feel free to skip over it. I wanted to share an opinion I just posted, so there are quotes from others to put it into context. The thread is called Are gay men welcomed on Olivia Cruises? The answer from Olivia is no, but there’s been a lot of discussion about men’s space vs. women’s space, whether Olivia is practicing discrimination, whether this is different from the Augusta National Golf Club, etc.
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Well damn. Metro Weekly’s pictures from Pride weekend - the dyke march, festival, and the parade (which I didn’t attend) - are all online. And in the nearly 235 photographs from events I attended, I didn’t show up once! If I hadn’t specifically had my picture taken with preppyperv and boiswillbebois I wouldn’t have expected to be there, but…I did. The photographer even handed preppyperv one of those “I’ve Been Scene” stickers they give to people they take pictures of. Fortunately I made it into a dyke march picture taken by bias_cut (and also featuring boiswillbebois), or I would think the whole weekend was just a really long dream.

Well, they did have interpreters at Pride. It was a paying gig and everything…not sure how I can get in on that for next year, but from what I saw today I think there could be a slot for me. I arranged with them in the morning that I would interpret for Amy and Freddy, who were supposedly scheduled for 3:00. I wandered up and down the aisles and saw some people I knew, including a sweet older deaf man I had met on the RSVP cruise and not seen since! (I’ve seen a few of the others since last September.) I saw lots of things that would have been cool to buy if I’d had tons of cash, but I figured I would stick to just one purchase, if anything. I wanted a leather pride hat, but there was only one at the entire festival! It was on olive fabric, though, which didn’t appeal to me - I would have preferred it on khaki. I bought a leather flag dog tag from the same vendor for $6 - they were one of just a handful that had more than one leather flag item. I also contributed $4 to NatsCats, and I got a little pink stuffed kitty for that.

I returned backstage and waited around a bit, but after a while it became clear that Amy and Freddy wouldn’t be on for some time - they weren’t even there yet - so I wandered through the festival again. I went back to wait some more, and finally they turned up. After I reminded them about the cruise, they actually remembered me, or at least Amy did. I got hugs from both of them and Freddy showed me the set list. I recognized all of the songs, although when I was actually onstage I discovered I didn’t know many of the verses! I had a really good time up there with them anyway - I would be happy to interpret for Amy and Freddy anytime. (Amy mentioned that passengers had asked about me on a cruise this spring! Apparently the gay guys actually liked watching me sign the pussy song. Unfortunately they couldn’t perform that one at Pride, because it’s a family event.)

After that was done, I chatted with some of my deaf leather friends for a while and then headed home. I’d been out all day and my feet were really hurting. I managed not to get any more sunburned than I did yesterday; before going downtown I had bought some of that new sunblock that you don’t have to rub in. It turns out to be really sticky and weird, though…I’m not sure I like it. It also seems like you don’t get as much protection in one bottle as from a bottle of regular lotion-type sunblock. I think they’re probably the same size, but it takes a lot of spraying with this new kind to get good coverage, and half of it is still going into the air because the spray field is larger than your arm/leg/etc. But anyway, I had a good time, I got to do a little bit of interpreting, and I kept my spending to $10!

I hadn’t been to any Pride events since 2000, but yesterday I went! I had been asked to interpret for the DC Dyke March, and I was happy to do so. (They weren’t paying me anything, so I asked for one of the “MARSHAL” t-shirts other volunteers were given.) I had thought the interpreting would all be before the march, but it turned out there was one speaker, then the march, and then another speaker. Prior to the march there was a group of deaf girls there, but they paid absolutely no attention to me - oh well. I chatted with some deaf gay boys during the march and invited them to join us, but they were heading for Lambda Rising instead. I spent most of the march tagging along with boiswillbebois and the “Femmes Car” which contained pegsioux, bias_cut, and a couple of other lovely ladies. After the march, the speaker was Jessi Holman-Ahart, who is one of my absolute favorite people in the leather community. I didn’t see any deaf people, but I interpreted anyway; afterward a deaf woman came up and thanked me, so I’m glad at least someone was there!

After I was done, I headed over to the Eagle for the deaf leather workshops being given by boy alex. fairerhiannon and I were the only hearing people there, although Jessi and her partner Janet turned up briefly so fairerhiannon and I voice interpreted while they were around. She and I went out for dinner in Chinatown after the workshops (and 30-45 minutes of goodbyes) were done. I had been hoping to go to Crystal City to see Amy Armstrong perform, but I was too exhausted so drove me back to the metro and I got my car and went home.

This morning I noticed two things on the Pride schedule. First, I saw Amy and Freddy will be performing on the main stage this afternoon. Second, I noticed a complete lack of interpreting services - they weren’t mentioned anywhere on the website or in the official publication. Now, this year’s Pride theme is “Many Communities, All Proud”> - and yet they are ignoring the large local deaf gay community! So right now I am on the metro heading downtown to volunteer my services (I’m so nice). If they don’t need me I will just hang around the festival until Amy performs; I interpreted for her on the RSVP cruise last year so I’m going to try to ask if I can do that again. She is such a riot!

Yesterday I got a moderately strong sunburn because I completely forgot about that big star up there in the sky. So today I brought two kinds of sunblock - the regular kind, and the new “mist” no-rub kind. The latter is awfully weird - today is the first time I’ve tried it - so I’m glad I brought the regular kind, too.

My friend Cricket has a website for a meme/project she started: it’s called Before I’m Gone. I am going to send in this list of ten things I’d like to do before I die. My list is focused on things that are actually achievable now rather than requiring new technology to be developed or for me to have skills I should have started learning as a child.
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Getting married in the United States is fairly easy. One man and one woman must intend to get married, get a blood test, and get a license. There is no proof of cohabitation, no proof of intimate relations, no time limits from your previous marriage. Establishing a domestic partnership, though, is more complex.
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Oh my god! George Takei is gay! This is so cool!

Yay Sulu!

Today we are going to the wedding of one of :MK:’s friends from high school. She’s a very nice girl and I’m happy she’s getting married, but I can’t shake that deep-down bitterness from seeing straight people getting married. Every time I hear about someone my age getting married, they haven’t been together as long as I’ve been with A. And yet, to some extent, I agree with A - having a ceremony feels like it would be somewhat false without any legal backing. We were talking earlier today about wills, and how I have to be explicitly written into her will. We’re lucky that none of our parents would raise a fuss about that, but we still don’t have the automatic transfer of property that straight people do. Weddings just remind me of the inequality I’m living with every day. I am glad for the chance to dress up a little, and I don’t mind going to Richmond, and whatever they’re serving at the reception will be nice…but I’m still just a bit resentful.