Shooting in California

I read a post today on LDS.net about the shooting of the bishop in California. The poster was a gay man who, as I’m sure many of us understand, felt very much harmed by the church. He expressed that although he felt remorse for the bishop and his family, that there was some sort of relief he experienced at hearing of the death of the bishop, as if this shooting filled some sort of “proxy” to the pain he felt in his experience growing up as a gay Mormon.

I’m disgusted by this sentiment – and had to publicly disassociate myself with this line of thinking. While the damage the church has caused to gay couples throughout the nation is no laughing matter, and without belittling the church’s involvement in horrors we have all experienced at its hand – no person deserves to be brutally murdered or have their death set up as a proxy or atonement for another person’s pain. To allow someone else to pay such a price is immoral.

Needless to say, this person was banned, but his post is still visible for all to read, standing as a singular testimony which I worry could be viewed as a representation of the thinking in the gay community. As such, it certainly doesn’t portray the general gay population in a decent light, and no doubt will be a roadblock to those who read it in opening up dialog about further gay issues. Why would someone purposely polarize this issue in such a way, burning the bridges so many have laboriously established? I would comment, but the thread has also been closed, leaving other members the inability to disagree, or express concern over the post.

I should note that there has so far been no connection to this murder and the Prop 8 issue in California – but this on particular gay person brought the two together personally for him.

I am also not naïve enough to doubt that there are members of the church who would like to see gay people physically harmed, just as there are members of the gay community who would like to see members of the church physically harmed, but both of these fringe groups cause me to be… very sad.

May we all choose humanity, love, compassion, dialog, and kindness over revenge, anger, violence, hatred, and silence.

Sometimes Life Just SUCKS!

It’s been a stressful month.

Remember when I went in for that physical, and had the doctor diagnose me with paratrachial melanoma, which actually just turned out to be my backwards facing aorta? Well I finally have finished paying off the CT scan.

And unfortunately, just after the CT scan was completed, I broke my foot (this was a few months ago) skating. Stress fracture. Another x-ray.

My insurance decided not to cover any of it (I knew they weren’t going to cover the CT), and it turns out my out of pocket max isn’t satisfied until AFTER the deductible is spent… which means I’m responsible for about 7000 dollars every year on my own before my insurance kicks in to cover anything (needless to say, I’m switching insurance companies this year. My “high deductible” insurance plan doesn’t even qualify for a Health Savings Account! WTF?).

Anyway… long story short, I have found myself in a place where my credit cards are maxed out, my savings is gone, and I have no safety cushion – which is a place I’ve never been in before, and I think that’s pretty scary.

What's a responsible guy like me to do?: I listed my BMW for sale :(.

After looking at all my bills and deciding where I could get the quickest amount of money every month, I really could do without a 400 dollar car payment, especially because I could lease a brand new car for almost half the price (with a full warranty and free maintenance for the life of the lease). I decided the disposable income was probably worth the loss of the car, and after crunching the numbers, found that not only would I be able to pay off my credit cards after a 3 year lease, but also be able to put together the down payment I would most likely need to get a brand new BMW – and that is assuming my income doesn’t change over the next three years.

So that sounded awesome. In two days I got a call on my car, and very shortly thereafter had a signed bill of sale.

So that night I went and leased a new car. After six hours of negotiating, and searching the entire western United States for what I wanted, I became the proud owner of a brand new Mazda 3 Hatchback…

Maybe that was stupid. Two hours before the guy was supposed to bring me the check for the BMW, he pulled out of the deal and asked me to drop the price of the car 2000 dollars – which I just couldn’t do (and the car is certainly worth more than that).

So now, instead of having cut my payment in half, I have two car payments totaling 1.5 times the original amount.

Luckily, I have an amazing partner, and after working some budgeting magic, we decided to take the money we get for managing the condo complex we live in to pay the lease – thus enabling us to make it all work until I can get the BMW sold.

Sadly, no more calls on the car yet :(. Any gay boys out there wanting instant prestige? I'm willing to sell mine off to the highets bidder. I'm talking about the car, of course. Haha.

Why is it so impossible to get ahead in life?

Prop 8: Unconstitutional

Today, California's Prop 8 was struck down in federal court.

I'm sure there will be multiple appeals, reaching all the way to SCOTUS, but for today, I'm pretty happy.

Here is a full copy of the ruling.