Some recent stand-up fun. Thanks to Nato Green for having me at Laughing Liberally, Kurt Weitzmann and Will Durst.

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Join web designer Jeff Veen, Intersex activist Thea Hillman and microfinance expert April Rinne as the Heather Gold Show explores the concept of Service and balancing one's own needs with the needs of others.

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Courtesy of the 5th circuit Federal Appeals Court which relied on a privacy argument.

I still favour a Constitutional Right to Sexual Pleasure, which I spent my third year writing up in law school. I never published it, but it will make an appearance in The Law Project.

The pragmatist in me finds criminalizing sex toys just plain funny in any state that sells vegetables.

I've decided to start sharing these moments.

"I belong to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (while fishing a card for me out of her pocketbook) and we have many gay couples. And they're very ordinary. They have jobs. I don't like it when people are half-naked. …When we were having dinner with friends the other day…they've been together 25 years, and, well they're retired now, and they were holding hands. I felt so good inside. Not tolerant you see, I felt good."

–A Holocaust survivor in the locker room at the YMCA (and I'm not just adding that detail in for irony)

I meant to write this while I was still in the vortex of power and love, but the thing about the vortex of power and love is that it felt so good, I didn't want to do anything like leave it, and that's what thinking would do. 

Now I am thinking a little.

Do you feel any different?

Yes. I feel relentlessly loving toward Stacey. I am not annoyed by anything she does. I have been happy every day. I can now feel the ground beneath my feet. 

We were together 5 and a half years and lived together for 3 before marrying. I never did the lesbian UHaul thing because I had thought moving in together would be the only marker of commitment I would have. Years ago, I didn't think I'd have family support for a marriage and for more years than that I didn't think I'd find someone to marry. I certainly *never* anticipated the possibility that I could get legally married. Now that it's all happened I am amazed at how different I feel. 

Where are the photos? 

 Our excellent documentary photographer Ian Taylor's + few from my sister Wendy + Paul Schreiber's. You are welcome to use Ian's photos, but you must name the people in the photos, credit him and link to his site: iantaylor.ca 

What did it feel like to get married?

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In honour of our December 29, 2007 legal wedding 1.0.

1.      1. My mother is obsessed with my wedding. She is obnoxious and annoying. What do I do?  

        Congratulations. This means you are finally being treated like everyone else.

2.      

       2.  I always learned that the parents of the bride pay for the wedding. But there’s two brides? 

         Don’t feel guilty. This is the only time the income disparity between gay men and lesbians is reversed.

3.      

       3. Which one is the man? 

         If you have to ask, neither.

4.      

       4. What gift should we buy? 

         Something expensive. In America, if you buy them enough stuff, the marriage counts.

5.     5.  How do we deal with our interfaith marriage ceremony? 

          Don’t worry about it. Your already going to hell for being gay.

How different is it to be forced to prostitution to survive by economic necessity than by a beating?

The cunning realist blog discovered that all sorts of folks share tips on the Internet and form community, even johns who view women like this:

Heading over there myself in a week or two and am 50 / 50 on local action. Have been defense contracting for years (Egypt / Jordan / Yugo / Germany / Italy / Hungary) … never had an issue finding good quality locals for dirt cheap.

More of this crap here. I'd thought lit theory in college used up any interest I had in naming things misogynist, racist, colonialist etc, but what else do you call this? Most succinctly: dehumanizing.

The commenters on his blog, like this one named Matt Connolly, say things like:

So what's new? I was in the service in Japan in the early '60s and it was the thing to do to have a young Japanese woman as a mistress for the 13 month tour and then to return home to the wife in America. It has been forty years plus since then and we seemed to have endured. We also did the same in Vietnam.

What's new Matt? More media. The Internet. And that means more transparency. And that means more people seeing the reality of the crap we do. Specifically in this case: that men do to women, that moneyed are doing to poor, that America is doing to Iraq, that sexual shooting galleries do to hope of meaningful connection and genuine intimacy.

Tip of the toque to Andrew Sullivan.

I went to the 30th anniversary party for NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights) last Saturday thanks to a friend and donor's generosity.

There were sexy acrobats hanging from sheets and lesbian hair from every era and to top it off, Martina Navratilova, the first real, out lesbian I ever saw and the best tennis player too.

In the mdst of the festivities they auctioned off a racquet of Martina's from the 70s. It was used to win a Grand Slam in mixed doubles. It fetched (with a hug), more than $14,000 via live auction.

And as the fearless leader let us all know, they'd "raised enough to cut off Antonin Scalia's left ball." It was like Eugene Levy stating that the Jewish medi conspiracy had finally achieved it's goal of worldwide domination via rugelach.

It was a room of many ethnicities, races, genders and finances. I've never before been at any hoo hah event where the folks with the most money didn't seem to be treated like they were from a distinctly superior caste.

I wished I had a bank account with a million dollars in it so I too could write a cheque and give it to Kate Kendall to stuff in her shirt with the other spontaneous donations. Like she said, they can't wait to close the doors on NCLR. But they won't do it one day before we have full equality.

The show was a blast. One audience member brought her teddy bear named Cuddles to the show.Turns out she's a straight Christian who lives her spiritual politics. Of course, the bear brought up plushy references from me in the show which then brought out a furry to me after the show (who pronouced Cookie "The hottest, funniest show I've ever seen."). That's some diversity!