Last week, while most of you were probably still reeling from Bachelor Jake’s tragic decision to try to turn a ho into a housewife, a touching and long awaited moment happened for one of our favorite starts of “Will & Grace.”

Shelley Morrison, lifetime actress best loved for her truculent turn as Karen’s maid Rosario, came out as a Latina.

Never having answered any questions about her race to members of the press, she was often criticized by the Latin American community for her reticence.

When Peace comes it will not be on the wing of a dove

But on the wave of one hundred thousand million foaming tongues

She will ride the dirty water of hell backed vengeance

Surf over a centuries of violence that we’ve all called justice

But justice will have to leave his boots at her doorstep

Take the latchkey from around his neck and enter her house

On his knees

What are you willing to give up for peace?

We hear the words “I knew I was gay since…” fall from the mouths of friends and lovers – sometimes from our own reflective lips—and we never even think to question the authenticity of such statements. “…I was five…the 7the grade…high school.” Sometimes these words are spoken in retrospection as we remember the way we couldn’t keep our eyes off Molly Ringwald, or the way our heart hurt when the captain of the football team made fun of our stonewashed Levi’s, but sometimes these reflections aren’t about hindsight. Sometimes they demonstrate 110% clear, confident knowledge of a lifetime of same sex sexual attraction. You remember wanting to kiss your science lab partner on the mouth, you fantasized about locker room hand-jobs. In either case (uncertain longing for a friend, or a clear cut hotness for a person of the same sex) most of the time there was no hook-up. Maybe by the time high school rolled around, more likely it was freshman year of college, but the lack of actual fooling around never negates your gayness. We don’t need to answer the awkward parental coming-out question, “But, how do you know?” because most of the time, you just do.

Unfortunately, this trust in the inherent nature of sexuality isn’t really shared with folks who identify as bisexual.

The resurgence in popularity of libertarian values within the modern conservative movement has unintentionally resulted in the marginalization of social-conservative issues within the conservative movement, particularly on issues related to gay and lesbian Americans. Not surprisingly many anti-gay conservatives are concerned their foot hold on the Republican Party and conservative movement is slipping.

In my annual State of Pride post last year I mentioned that, like the infamous snowbirds of my home states of New York and New Jersey, Pride, which is most often celebrated June in the Northern hemisphere, migrates south when the weather turns cold around these parts. Which makes total sense, since who wants to wear leather chaps in the snow? It also happens that some of the biggest and more symbolic Pride celebrations have just taken place, so let’s take a look at them.

I still remember my first Christian worship experience like it was yesterday. Convinced by a friend to attend a Christian rally, I was quickly consumed by a sea of people with heaven-bound hands, eyes full of adoration for a guitar-saddled man on stage who, from his gentle doe eyes to his scraggly brown beard and flowing hair, served as stock-image Jesus placeholder. As it was, I turned out to be a sucker for the rapture and thrill of spiritual symbiosis set to music and was sold at first hook. And yesterday, I experienced something of a faith flashback.

When I was a young Evangelical Christian, I delighted in the subscription to CCM Magazine that I had gotten as a giveaway at the aforementioned worship rally. CCM was the authoritative source on all things Christian music – it was how I discovered my favorite Christian bands, from Audio Adrenaline to “rapper” tobyMac. Where the Fugees and Garbage made my middle school self feel slightly ashamed for enjoying their “explicit” content, I could enjoy the lyrics of dcTalk guilt-free. Furthermore, like the worship rally, Christian music made me feel like I was a part of something larger. It was one of the ways I most readily accessed my faith life.

As I got older, my religious identity changed and I started to call myself a Secular Humanist. Likewise, my taste in music shifted more and more toward what is often referred to as indie. I continued to seek out musical rapture, but instead looked for it in Minneapolis dive bars, not renovated warehouses equipped with strobe lights and a projector casting Scripture on the wall. I began to wear my so-called obscure music taste like a badge of honor among my hip friends: “What, you haven’t heard of Danielson? Man, you really should check them out. I think you’d really like ‘em.”

Meanwhile, I continued to listen in secret to bands they hadn’t heard of but that I was sure they wouldn’t like – my favorite Christian bands from childhood.

all right so gender should be as simple as gay or straight

cuz if you are attracted to the opposite gender

you’re straight

if you are attracted to the same gender

well i guess you’re gay

therefore if you have a penis you’re a man

and if you have a vagina you’re a woman

straight shot

straight answer

My internal GPS is a little off these days. It seems that there are a lot of roads under construction and I haven’t yet updated the latest maps. In the 3 months since I started this site many things have happened and the big question now is one of direction.

My cousin James was mysteriously absent from Christmas Eve dinner this past December. We would learn that he had surprised his girlfriend with a cavalcade of packed suitcases and two tickets to Rome, where he would ultimately propose to her in a romantic little cranny of the Coliseum. I overheard Aunt Lucille telling my mother all about it, my mouth full of kielbasa and a half-empty glass of homemade krupnik in my hand. I thought about the previous Christmas I had spent in Japan with Guillermo, how we had proposed to each other at the foot of Mount Fuji, and how we never even told anyone about it.

Lorie Zapf has made some indefensibly homophobic comments in 2006, but now claims that they do not reflect her true opinions. Is she fit for San Diego City Council?