From the Advocate:
Calif. Senator Ashburn Comes Out
“http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/03/08/Roy_Ashburn_Admits_He_is_Gay/
“The California state senator who was arrested for driving while intoxicated after a night at a gay bar announced Monday that he is gay.

Roy Ashburn, who has had a decidedly antigay voting record, made the announcement on KERN radio. Ashburn, a Republican from Bakersfield, said his votes were a reflection of his conservative district.

(snip)

Ashburn had voted against bills on such issues as the statewide Harvey Milk Day and gay marriage, and had even hosted an anti-gay marriage rally.”

From Gay Politics:
Conservative California state senator comes out
California State Sen. Roy Ashburn, a conservative Republican with a solidly anti-gay voting record, came out as gay today on a Bakersfield radio station talk show. Ashburn’s sexual orientation had been the talk of Sacramento since the legislator was arrested for drunk driving after leaving a gay bar in the state capital last week.

(snip)

Radio talk show host Inga Barks wanted assurances that Ashburn would continue to vote in a conservative manner on LGBT rights issues. Ashburn responded, “I believe firmly that my responsibility is to my constituents. I will take a careful look at each measure and apply that standard. How would they vote on this? How would they want me to vote on this,” adding that most people understood what that means.

“I don’t know how else to ask this, but are you going to live this lifestyle now in the district?” Barks asked. Ashburn, who announced he is not running for public office again, said, “I pray to God I can find peace. I want to go back to the senate and work hard for the people of my district…Now you know everything about me.””

—

That didn’t take long. I first blogged about Ashburn here. I expected him to deny it.

How about his cop out though? Would an Evangelical Christian politician vote for what his constituents wanted if they were all atheists? Ok, they probably wouldn’t have voted for him but still I think Ashburn is copping out here. And his little pray for me comment seems to indicate he’s only half way out of the closet.

From the New York Times:
Officers Won’t Face Federal Charges in Sean Bell Killing
“Citing insufficient evidence, federal authorities said Tuesday that they would not bring a civil rights case against the New York City police officers involved in the killing of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was shot by the police outside a strip club in Queens on his wedding day.

The decision by the Justice Department came after prosecutors and federal agents reviewed the case, in which five police officers fired 50 shots into the Nissan Altima that Mr. Bell was driving. The car struck a detective in the leg and hit a police van just before the officers began firing their weapons.

(snip)

Detectives Isnora, Oliver and Cooper were acquitted by a Queens judge in April 2008 of criminal charges. The two other officers who opened fire were not charged criminally.”

(snip)

Ms. Paultre Bell said she hoped to get the attention of the White House. “There is a history of black men being killed by police officers, and something needs to be done,” she said. “We’re hoping to eventually meet with President Obama, and that he’ll do something, because this is a national problem.””
—

I don’t see the White House getting involved in this one. More likely this story will just fade away. I originally blogged about this incident here.

From Feministe:
40 vs. 4000
“On February 17th, anti-choicers started the “40 Days for Life” campaign, where they show up at abortion clinics and harass patients and employees even more than usual. Now there’s a great (and informative) response: 4,000 Years for Choice. The conclusion: Women have, forever, been trying to control their reproductive capacities and determine for themselves the number and spacing of their children.”

From the site 4000 Years for Choice!:
“Ever wonder about the history of abortion and contraception? When did women first begin to desire control over their reproduction? Are these practices new? Or, in fact, quite old?

Despite the existence of much academic scholarship about this history, most people believe contraception and abortion methods are recent inventions that occurred as a result of the 20th century women’s liberation movement.

In addition, the polarized pro-choice/pro-life reproductive rights debate has been caught between two specific symbols; the hanger and the fetus. 4000 Years for Choice deconstructs these myths and invites viewers to discover a radically different history of the roots of reproductive choice.”

About the campaign:
“4000 Years for Choice is responding to the pro-life movement’s occupation of women’s reproductive health clinics through a national postcard campaign. Beginning on the 37th anniversary of Roe v Wade (January 22, 2010), one postcard a week has been sent to clinics across the country, specifically to those identified in the 40 Days for Life campaign, as well as women’s health clinics in my home state of Illinois and a couple of others that I am personally connected to and want to honor.”

—

This was timely for me. Mr Radical and I were recently driving on a highway when I say a pro-life billboard. It said “Pray to end abortion so more [big city] babies can live.” I read the billboard and then commented to Mr. Radical-”yeah, so there can be even more cars clogging up traffic, just what this city needs”.

I’m reminded of a Doug Stanhope line “I’m pro-abortion. Talk someone into it.” I know I’m veering from politics into comedians again but man, Stanhope is one of my faves. His political, overpopulation, religious bits are full of truth and laughs. I had the pleasure of seeing him in person last year and he was amazing. Drunk as a skunk, as my parents used to say, but still amazing. His Fetus Photo bit is appropriate for this post.

Where was I? Right, abortion history. I studied it a bit in college and it’s pretty interesting. Personally, I think modern women should learn some herbal abortion techniques since controlling what goes in and out of our vaginas is considered controversial.

The site also has a contraceptive/abortion timeline which is informative. Here’s some snippets:
“1000s – In the Middle Ages, artemisia was known as the “mother of all herbs” and used to cure female ailments. The Bishop of Rennes in France wrote, “it stimulates menstra, and whether drunk or applied, stimulates an abortion.”

300s BCE – A colony in northern Africa called Cyrenne became rich from exports of silphium, a plant well-known for its abortive and contraceptive qualities. It was said to be a gift from Apollo. After six-hundred years, overharvesting drove it to extinction.

1850s BCE – The Petri Papyrus, a medical text from Ancient Egypt, listed three different vaginal contraceptive methods; gummy substances made from honey, sodium carbonate, and crocodile dung.”

From My San Antonio:
Bibles-for-porn stunt draws crowd at UTSA

“Tired of that old Bible or Quran?

Members of the Atheist Agenda, a student organization at the University of Texas at San Antonio, are encouraging students to trade in religious texts for pornography this week with their “Smut for Smut” campaign.

In the view of club members, religious texts are as smutty as pornography because they contain violence and torture and spark religious wars. But mostly, it’s a public relations stunt meant to ignite debate and attract new members to the club.

(snip)

“It’s a First Amendment right,” said Bradley Lewis, 18, a freshman from Pear-land who said he plans to join the Atheist Agenda. “If religious groups can put out missionaries and go knock on my door and wake me up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I can put a table outside of the college.””

I love this! This Atheist Agenda group makes an excellent comparison between religious texts and porn. Plus their name is hilarious.

—

From the Advocate:
Vatican Staff Implicated in Prostitution Ring
“An usher and a choir member at St. Peter’s Basilica have been accused of involvement in a gay prostitution ring.

Reuters reports that police recorded Angelo Balducci (pictured), who is in an elite ushers’ group called Gentlemen of His Holiness, having phone conversations with Vatican choir member Ghinedu Ehiem about securing male prostitutes. At least one of the prostitutes was studying at a seminary.

In an unrelated ethics investigation, Balducci, who is also a board member for Italy’s public works department and construction consultant for the Vatican, was arrested on corruption charges last month. He is still in jail. His lawyer declined comment to Reuters on the prostitution allegations, and the news agency could not reach Ehiem’s attorney.”

I’m fine with the anyone connected to the Vatican hiring prostitutes only if they reverse their position on gays and sex workers.

—

From Racialicious:
African-American Transgender History-50’s Style
“One of the beauties of surfing the Net is that from time to time, you’ll stumble across a nugget of history or some photo that you weren’t even aware existed.

I’ve mentioned that JET, EBONY and the now defunct HUE magazines when they first started back in the day served as historical chroniclers of the Black experience in America. Google just negotiated a deal in which they will be digitizing pre-1960’s EBONY and JET magazines so that you can access their content on the Net.”

This is an interesting nugget of sexual history I didn’t know about.

—

From Towleroad:

CA State Senator Arrested After Leaving Gay Club
“California State Senator Roy Ashburn, who has “a history of opposing gay rights,” was arrested in Sacramento early Wednesday morning for driving under the influence after a CHP officer spotted his SUV weaving in and out of traffic. According to the local CBS affiliate, Ashburn, a divorced father with four daughters, was with an unidentified male passenger. It’s also being reported that he had just left Faces, a gay club in the Sacramento.”

Queerty has an update.
Meet The Man Who Outed CA Sen. Roy Ashburn to the Media (That Refused to Report the Story)
“The television station CBS 13 is being credited with outing California State Sen. Roy Ashburn, arrested on DUI charges this week after leaving a gay bar. But as more details unfurl, we learn other reporters knew Ashburn — whose voting record is anti-gay, are as his public pronouncements — is a homo. And they were tipped off by one guy who says after he first spotted Ashburn, he called the local media, but nobody would carry his story.'’

Smells like a scandal is brewing doesn’t it?

—

Found this via somebody’s Twitter feed.
Multigenerational Experiences with & Attitudes About Casual Sex
“There’s a lot of buzz right now about “hooking up,” the newest term for casual sex, though casual sex isn’t new at all — nor does it only belong to the current generation, despite often being presented that way. Unlike a lot of the buzz out there, I’m not interested in telling anyone how to have sex or in presenting any one kind of sex as the one ” best way.” I’m just looking for what’s real, both in sexual attitudes and personal experiences.

Rather, I’m doing this study to try and gather data on multigenerational experiences and attitudes with/about casual sex so as to discover and present a more diverse, realistic and non-prescriptive picture of people’s sex lives and ideas about sex. The data will ideally be used for publication, but your answers are completely anonymous and will only be used anonymously.”

I just took this survey and it’s pretty good. The questions were very inclusive of multiple sexualities and non-judgmental.

“Yes. Knitting.”
-me

From Divine Bitches. This picture reminded me of the Fabulous Foot Slut. He often calls me after seeing a woman wearing a sexy pair of heels.

From the Human Rights Campaign:
Take Action: Today’s Virtual Lobby Day on Capitol Hill
“Today, hundreds of Human Rights Campaign volunteers will be in Washington, DC meeting with their members of Congress to tell them it’s time to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” pass ENDA and take action on a number of other priorities for the LGBT community. No matter where you live, you can join in RIGHT NOW!

We’re holding a virtual lobby day to coincide with the meetings taking place on Capitol Hill. All it takes is a few minutes and you can play a critical role in ending the DADT law that forces brave men and women to lie while defending our country. Think of the power of having LGBT people and our allies meeting members of Congress while we fill their inboxes and phone lines with a simple message: “Repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ NOW.””

—

There’s several links in the above story to take action. While I don’t support people joining the military (Why sign up to kill and die for the ruling class’s pet projects?), I don’t support DADT. If someone really wants to join the military they should be able to do so. Discriminating against gays makes them second class citizens and that’s unacceptable.

To end on a lighter note-click here to hear what the late, great Bill Hicks thought about gays in the military. Gods, he was hilarious.

From the Texas Tribune:
DNA Deception
“When state health officials were sued last year for storing infant blood samples without parental consent, they said it was for medical research into birth defects, childhood cancer and environmental toxins. They never said they were turning over hundreds of dried blood samples to the federal government to help build a vast DNA database — a forensics tool designed to identify missing persons and crack cold cases.

A Texas Tribune review of nine years’ worth of e-mails and internal documents on the Department of State Health Services’ newborn blood screening program reveals the transfer of hundreds of infant blood spots to an Armed Forces lab to build a national and, someday, international mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) registry. The records, released after the state agreed in December to destroy more than 5 million infant blood spots, also show an effort to limit the public’s knowledge of aspects of the newborn blood program, and to manage the debate around it. But the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit never saw them, because the state settled the case so quickly that it never reached the discovery phase.

(snip)

Over the last several years, researchers have requested Texas baby blood spots for a variety of medical projects: to study the gene involved in club foot, to inspect the DNA of infants who develop childhood cancer, to examine prenatal lead exposure. Those are the projects state health officials have touted repeatedly before lawmakers and critics. But the least publicized of these research projects is arguably the most interesting. Between 2003 and 2007, the state gave 800 de-identified blood samples to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) to help create a national mtDNA database.

(snip)

Eventually, research proposals indicate, federal officials hoped to be able to share this data worldwide, “for international law enforcement and investigation in the context of homeland security and anti-terrorism efforts.”

—

This is some creepy ass shit. The way this program was hidden shows there’s more going on than just “innocent medical research”. The bit about using this data to one day enforce “anti-terrorism efforts” certainly makes my paranoia flare up. Just a few weeks ago I blogged about a Dallas DNA collection database for prostitutes and now this? What the hell is going on in Texas?!?

The first one is a Black Onye. This is the older design-the newer version is called Onye Fleur. The box certainly is cool:

When I took the vibe out Mr. Radical said “you’re sure you’re not keeping it for yourself?” I said no but ooh it’s one of my faves.

And the vibe itself:

The second toy is a Nexus double dildo.

This is a silicone dildo from Vixen Creations.

Another angle:

And there’s more prizes on the way!

Afterward, several of us gathered at a friend’s house. As we drank and reminisced more the reality of his death really hit me. Out of habit I had turned on my phone when we got to the house. I was crying when it rang.

I pulled the phone out of my pocket and hesitated. Should I really be answering today? But then I thought the distraction might be nice. I answered and said hello. It was a regular client who normally talks for a couple of hours.

As soon as I realized an easy regular was on the line I decided to take the call. I left the group and went to our friends guest bedroom. (They knew I was a PSO and I had done calls at their place before.)

His fantasy was easy enough-some light humiliation and then some “forced” cocksucking. The call was exactly what I needed-a distraction. I was so upset by the injustice of the universe. Why did such a good person have to die? I needed a break from my reality.

My regular client provided me that break. I jumped right into his fantasy and gave him a great call. I leaned back in the chair, closed my eyes and tried to envision every detail. My sadness was still there. We talked for two hours and I cried for most of it. But the weight of the grief was lightened with the distraction of the call.

He didn’t realize he was giving me compassion. At the end of the call he was excited. “That was great!” he said before hanging up. It was great. I got a break from my grief by visiting another’s fantasy. It was exactly what I needed.

Since that call I’ve often used calls as distractions. When life gets stressful I can hop on a call and take a break from it all. This works great when I’m PMSing and want to strangle those around me for merely breathing the wrong way. It works best with regulars. If I know the guy’s routine I can relax and get into his fantasy. Often the stress relief will feel so strong that I’ll cry. (This is what I alluded to in my Burn Out post.) I’m an easy crier-a good song or movie will make me tear up. I’ve read the Harry Potter series several times but still cry in certain spots every single time.

It’s like a weird meditation. I’ll be leaning back in my chair, silently crying and talking about golden showers. Take your bliss where you can I figure.

The clients give me compassion merely by distracting me. Invariably these calls get great reviews. Clients will often tell me it was our best call together or that no one has ever captured heir fantasy like I have. I’m not quite sure why this is. Perhaps it’s because I’m so focused. In those moments I ignore my thoughts to create a more detailed fantasy for them. By the time we hang up we both feel better, albeit for very different reasons.

Sex Work And Compassion Series
Sex Work And Compassion: Panty Tree
Sex Work and Compassion: Self Hating Client
Sex Work And Compassion: I Show No Compassion
Sex Work And Compassion: Death In A Client’s Family
Sex Work And Compassion: A Call From Baghdad
Sex Work And Compassion: A Client Shows Me Compassion
Sex Work And Compassion: The Angry Family