Boi From Troy

In more than five years since this blog started, more than 3.5 million people have visited BoiFromTroy–for some reason or another. And to each and every one of you, I want to send my appreciation, as I bid this blog farewell.

Over those five years, BoiFromTroy has been a unique experience–bringing together a unique mixture of folks–gay and straight, Democrat and Republican, sports fans and those not athletically-inclined. It became a part of my identity to many people.

I loved this blog…but sometimes relationships just run their course, for better or worse.

I had rationalized keeping the blog since last summer on the grounds that I would still be doing some good for my constituencies by blogging until after the election and USC football season were over. Maybe that was a mistake. But now that time has come. My blog-crush, Brian Cushing (pictured) has played his last game at USC and this Trojan is writing his last post on this blog.

As many of my friends will tell you, I am not particularly good at letting things (or ex-lovers) go… So one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to “Let Go” and this is the first step.

Don’t worry about me–I will find other outlets and other mediums to write and share my thoughts, but it won’t be here. And to Jay and Scott and John who helped on the technical side and to all of my readers, commentors and, especially the subjects of my content, a big, enthusiastic THANK YOU!

Adieu.

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It’s a Three-Pete for the USC Trojans, becoming the first team to win three consecutive Rose Bowl games with a 38-24 victory over the Nittany Lions of Penn State.

Driving back from the Roosterfish to West Hollywood New Year’s afternoon, I explained to my not-so-sports-inclined friend Daniel that the key to this game would be coaching–and Penn State has a pretty good coach.

You can have the best players in the nation, but if you get out-coached you may not come away with a win–or a title.

And although USC head coach Pete Carroll is one of them, there are a few chinks in the armor.  Psychologically, it can be difficult for Carroll to keep his team motivated for every game, especially when playing what are perceived to be “gimme” football games.  On the field, a little misdirection by an opposing offense can give USC fits, as the Trojans’ super-fast defenders have a proclivity to over-pursue.

Are they the best team in the nation? Perhaps.  But because of the greed of the athletic department officials scheduling a Thursday night road game against a lesser opponent (one of the safest bets in college football is the Thursday home underdog), we won’t have a chance to know…

For now, we will just have to say, it is on to 2009 and, “Beat the Spartans!”

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Californians will have to wait until they finish driving before sending off a SMS to their friends and family under a new law.

When California becomes the seventh state in the nation to ban text messaging Thursday, dispatches from the fast lane will become a violation of the state vehicle code, subjecting drivers caught writing them or reading them to a $20 fine for the first offense and $50 for repeat offenses.

The new law is the handiwork of state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, who also wrote the hands-free cell phone legislation that went into effect July 1. In just under six months, the California Highway Patrol has handed out 45,000 citations to violators of that law, and the CHP is expected to have its hands full trying to keep up with motorists who have their hands full of tiny QWERTY keyboards, thumbing their way down the open road.

It took Simitian six years to ram hands-free calling through the Legislature and onto California’s roadways, but he says he encountered almost no resistance to the no-texting law. “It’s really the worst of all possible worlds,” Simitian said of texting, which has grown increasingly popular with supposedly grown-up drivers. “Eyes off the road, and hands off the wheel. That’s a dangerous combination for all of us, not just the people who are texting.”

Not to give Simitian any bright ideas, but I wonder if it is okay to check email, browse the web or play Brickbreaker whilst driving, too?

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SFSU researchers confirm what should seem straightforward.  Parents’ reactions to a child’s coming out can gravely influence their children’s mental health.

“Parents love their children and want the best for them,” said lead researcher Caitlin Ryan, a social worker who directs the university’s Family Acceptance Project. “Now that we have measured all these behaviors, we can see that some of them put youth at extremely high risk and others are wellness-promoting.”

Among other findings, the study showed that teens who experienced negative feedback were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.

More significantly, ongoing work at San Francisco State suggests that parents who take even baby steps to respond with equanimity instead of rejection can dramatically improve a gay youth’s mental health outlook.

Seems to make sense, if you ask me…

Meanwhile, in un-related news, I found out over the Holidays that my mother did not invite me (or for that matter tell me about) the family reunion my parents and siblings attended last summer.

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California Republican activist Mike Spence is clinging to the hope that he can rebuild the party on the back of gay-bashing.

Spence, however, sees opportunities to expand the party’s reach. Conservatives can take heart, he said, in the strong support of Latinos and African Americans for Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

“There’s at least one issue we agree on,” he said.

Spence, a former Mormon bishop who serves on the West Covina school board and advises the National Right to Life Committee, also sees Republican resistance to tax increases as attractive to many Californians.

If that is truly all the California GOP can cling to, then the party is, indeed, dead.  A greater fear I would have as a Republican is that Barack Obama adopts a new “Southern Strategy” to bring evangelicals into the fold of the Democratic Party by wooing the Rick Warrens of the world…

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Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sorry for the hiatus here on the blog…  While I have been away from writing, I have had to report to jury duty, only to be rescheduled, and visit the family in Texas.

It’s great seeing my three nephews grow up and hanging out with my brother and his wife.  As for the rest of the family, well, maybe some of my friends are right to consider that it may have been a gift that I wasn’t invited to the family reunion back in July!

Have a happy holiday, and stay warm and dry!

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After an often-turbulent, 14-year relationship, the American people broke up with the Republican Party last month, sending a clear message that they had found new suitors in a Democratic President and Congress. Today, and for the next year, the GOP must face a touch choice. Does the party stick around and fight for a love lost, or step back, evaluate what went wrong adopting the classic “it’s not you, it’s me,” strategy to assure the party’s long-term viability?

With the events that have unfolded since Republicans were swept out of Washington, it would be tempting to stick around for a fight. The Right’s favorite punching bags - the Clintons and their minions are back as part of the Obama Cabinet. Juicy corruption charges are engulfing politicians in the President-elect’s home state of Illinois. Congress is on the verge of an historic heist of the taxpayer’s treasure.

With so many opportunities, the temptation to score political points today must be unbearable. But for the sake of the Grand Old Party, we must resist.

Continue reading, “Forty Week Solution for the GOP“… 

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Happy Day Without A Gay Day!  Like many others I am trying to figure out just how to celebrate it.

As my own boss, I cannot really “call in gay” and having a home office, I cannot really stay away.

I am going to try to give my business exclusively to LGBT-owned establishments today, which means no Starbucks and no Abbey–but neither of those is a big loss.

How will you celebrate a Day without Gays?

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If anything is clear about the State of California, it is that our government is not working.  Some may even say that California is un-governable.  But others are suggesting we just need a shake-up–and a big one.

Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, is offering a solution that’s bound to raise the hackles of interest groups and partisan chieftains who thrive on governmental dysfunction. It’s a resolution calling for the state’s first constitutional convention since 1878.

His resolution, SCR 3, is open-ended and vague — calling for a constitutional convention without specifying what it is he wants to reform — leaving enough room for all factions to weigh in. A constitutional convention can address the whole constitution or parts of it, depending on the political will of delegates chosen to fix the core laws and principles that guide the state.

Delegates typically are chosen outside of government to remove appearances of legislative or executive interference and would likely meet in a series of hearings during a period of what could be years before arriving at a product that would ultimately have to be approved by voters.

Another Republican proposal for a Constitutional Convention has been floated in the Assembly…but it doesn’t seem likely that either will actually happen.

Nonetheless, like most State Constitutions, California’s could use some simplicity and clarity, focusing on the structure of governance–rather than being a vehicle for tying the hands of our representatives.

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Those who thought there would be no economic impact to the passage of Proposition 8 have another thing coming. Falling ad sales since November have meant that the Los Angeles Newspaper Group is shutting down CLOUT magazine.

After the ballot initiative campaign started, that impacted ad sales to the tune of $15,000. And once Prop 8 passed, that was it. “It basically felt like they were trying to stay away from us,” he said. “With no legal tie-in, why should they promote it?”

To the most cynical supporters of Prop 8, this is a win-win. Marriage’s big threat to the anti-gay voices behind Yes 0n 8 was its ability to legitimize and visualize healthy, rather ordinary same-sex couples. Killing LGBT publications is another step in making people feel invisible.

The advertizers aren’t advertizing because there isn’t the money to be made from same-sex weddings, post Prop 8.  That also means there aren’t the tax dollars that come from those weddings, either!

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Controversial Los Angeles County Republican Party County Chairman Linda Boyd was ousted from her post Saturday by a team of rivals, and those who had felt the wrath of Boyd’s heavy hand.

Her husband Doug describes the proceedings as a Paulista Putsch.

Despite being supported and mentored by Chairman Boyd over the past five years, Al Han presided over a motley crew of assorted local hangers-on “elected” in districts where other Republicans don’t file to run for central committee, gay activists upset by Linda Boyd’s strong support of Proposition 8 and Ron Paul supporters new to the process this year…

Although the Nominating Committee recommended longtime incumbent Chairman Boyd for reelection, she declined to run as did her picks for First Vice Chairman, Jane Barnett, and Second Vice Chairman, Bob Haueter. Perennial Board of Equalization candidate Glen Forsch was elected the new county chairman, and Paulistas moved into key slots in local assembly district committtees around the county.

With 26 Assembly Districts wholly or partly within Los Angeles County and seven people elected to the central committee per district, Los Angeles County has a Republican Central Committee more than three times as large as any other county in California. It also is a place where anybody can run and win - and they do. All the local flotsam and jetsam turned out today to team up with the Paulistas in an effort to take control.

Yes, Doug, the gays are responsible for ousting your dear wife.  But let me ask you this–if the gays are so powerful within the L.A. County GOP, wouldn’t it have made sense to not offend them by pushing so feverishly for Prop 8.

Enjoy the wilderness, Linda Boyd, and take solace that you are not alone in paying the price for supporting discrimination.  The rest of us will enjoy our schadenfreude.

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Had you told me USC would commit more turnovers than UCLA, give up a touchdown on a trick play and miss three field goals, I would have worried that the Bruins had sent the Men of Troy packing for San Diego, not Pasadena.

USC’s second consecutive win over UCLA basically summarized the whole season–excellent defense, inconsistent offense, with flashes of brilliance and stupidity.

The prize for the 28-7 win over the Bruins is a roundtrip ticket back to the Arroyo Seco to play Penn State on January 1st.  Even Ohio State is getting a better bowl game, it would seem.  Thanks Rose Bowl folks!

For me, watching the game made me experience what it must be like for folks around the country on New Year’s Day.  I was speaking at a conference in Washington, D.C. so I went to Nellie’s to catch the game on TV.

Outside, it was cold and snowy.  On the TV, it was sunny and crisp–and although people were donning sweatshirts, it looked like paradise–motivation enough for me to head to Reagan Airport early to get back home!

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One post-Proposition 8 has the newspaper world divided.  Was it Religion and Republicans which passed the ban on gay marriage or education and economics that made the difference?

Consider the following headlines:

• Education and income were strong factors in vote against gay marriage [SJ Merc]
• Prop. 8 poll: Evangelicals, Republicans were biggest backers of … [LA Times]
• Poll: Calif. gay marriage ban driven by religion [AP]

The truth is that religion, education, economics and party all played a role.

Among independents, though, the split on Prop 8 reflected the overall vote.  That tells me that the best time to put an initiative on the ballot would be in June 2010, when there will be a closed GOP Primary for Governor and an open Democratic Primary–that will mean turnout will more strongly favor Democratic-leaning voters, and independents inclined to side with the GOP won’t turn out.

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Although I am a BlackBerry person, I couldn’t help but pass along this little tool for you iPhone users.

The new service eCardlets lets you send electronic greetings to people’s iPhones.

There is even a special BoiFromTroy message. Check it out.

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At 6:46 this morning, the LA County Fire Department received a phone call from a passerby–the notorious Sunset Strip Strip Club, the Body Shop was burning.

According to employees at the Starbucks two blocks west, a customer called in the fire, as she saw smoke coming out of the building and a man running out.  By the time she ordered he drink, the fire trucks were on scene.

Residents in at least one nearby apartment building were evacuated, but that was it.

As I laid in bed watching the morning news, I could see my courtyard pool in the frame, while the spokesperson for LACOFD said that the neighborhood was being evacuated…  Not quite.

For most Angelenos, the last dance for “Live Nude Girls Girls Girls” will mean little more than a traffic nightmare as Sunset Boulevard is closed between Crescent Heights and La Cienega during the morning rush hour.

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