Dang it. I really meant to keep my mouth shut today.

It's the national Day of Silence, promoted by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network. We can't add much more to the fine post over at Pam's House Blend about the significance of it all.

It's not too late for you to STFU and read all about it.

We Are Virginia Tech

We are Virginia Tech
We are sad today
And we will be sad for quite a while.
We are not moving on
We are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly
We are brave enough to bend to cry …
And sad enough to know we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech
We do not understand this tragedy.
We know we did nothing to deserve it.
But neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS.
Neither do the invisible children
walking the night away
to avoid being captured by a rogue army.
Neither does the baby elephant
watching his community being devastated for ivory.
Neither does the Mexican child
looking for fresh water.
Neither does the Appalachian infant
killed in the middle of night in his crib
in the home its father built with his own hands
being run over by a boulder
because the land was destablized.
No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie nation embraces our own and
reaches out with open heart and hands
to those who offer their hearts and minds.
We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid.
We are better than we think and
not quite what we want to be.
We are alive to the imagination and the possibility.
We will continue to invent the future.
Through our blood and tears
Through all this sadness
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail
We will prevail
We will prevail
We are Virginia Tech.

-- Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor of English, VTI&SU UPDATE: Thu., Apr. 19

Truth be told, we've been a bit glued to the screens throughout the Virginia Tech tragedy. (Hands down, best coverage has been on the college level, at the Collegiate and Planet Blacksburg.)

We've been waiting for the finger-pointing, and it finally came. Queerty blogged about Opus Gay's piece on the Fred Phelps crew who are purportedly planning to protest at the services of the victims of Monday's massacre. How positively macabre. Disgusting.

We are very proud of the queer blogosphere for demonstrating such charitable restraint in not directing the obvious "Virginia is in your back yard," finger-wag toward certain other popular Virginia-based Blamey McBlamersons.

Under the benevolent gaze of LBJ, more than 150 Texas queer kids have gathered to brainstorm, compare notes, take this "life" to anotha lev-elllll. Community. Kids. Cute as hell and earnest as all get out. Kate Bornstein thanked the kids assembled at her 11:45am workshop, Sex & Gender Outlaw Survival Tips for the 21st Century, for picking up a torch that has blazed into territory even she could not imagine 30 years or so ago. The kids are pumped, the cookies delicious, and my mind has already been blown/rocked humble by the energy … and honey, it's just lunchtime.
– KXM

What has blown me away is the vibrance alive in these kids. Maybe's mine's been beaten outta me by the cruel world of unfair homophobic principle. Not these kids, though. Optimism abounds. The T-shirts for the conference deem them "More Than a Label." And they are proving it. Gender-neutral bathrooms elevate social normality, discussions explore issues happening now. I attended the Gender, Race, and Hip-Hop Workshop, where we watched Byron Hurt's Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a documentary begging to reassess the man's role, queer or straight, in hip-hop and mainstream culture as a whole.
– K8G

Click the pic to access the photo gallery! See entry below for registration and tonight's keynote (with Kate Bornstein) info.

UPDATE: Join Us This Morning at the LBJ School
There is still time to register.

It's not too late to be a part of this weekend's slew of homo-curricular activities at QTC 2007. History making and such. For the first year ever, UT's Queer Texas Conference is alive.

And we – yes, Kate & K8 – will be there to learn, grow, and evolve right alongside the rest of ya's.

Just check out the array of workshops, etc., available to the baby queerling abreast in the journey to sheer happiness in homo-dom: The Drag King Workshop, Sex and Gender Outlaw Survival Tips, Queering the Stripper, Trans 101, Spirituality and Sexuality, and even an LGBTQ Professionals Panel. Get up early enough on Saturday; you'll see a Kate or two (as in: us) talking about some queer media junk. We've got Chrondoms, and we're not afraid to use 'em. (Speaking of Kates: Kate Bornstein, political gender outlaw, activist, and author, will speak out as keynote.)

Feast your gaydars on this. Ask about their sliding scale. Oh, and register: 232-1831.

John Cameron Mitchell is a genius. Genius. He is. First, Hedwig, a musical worth screaming along to. Now, Shortbus, a spunky little film exploring the frankness of sexuality, the human nature, and alternative explorations of relationships. To quote Justin Bond, headmistress of the movie's sex salon: "It's just like the Sixties … only with less hope."

Free love. Seeking orgasms. Understanding yourself. Finding what makes you tick, what makes you come, and what makes it worth all the damn pain. Life. Suffering. And a room full of flesh mounting flesh, bodies pulsating, rocking, living, loving, panting, breathing. Fucking.

This movie is the realest thing I've seen all day.

The lead singer of the Flaming Lips was in Austin for South by Southwest and made some silly clippage as part of the "Let's Hip up Leno" segment on The Tonight Show. As we said, "gay" is apparently the new "funny," as each of the interviewees is sooooo verrryy not straight. Ish.

First there's EdMo from Hug, showing his tits. (Truth be told, the main reason for this blog entry is to pimp the most excellent EdMo and Hug.) He's so dreamy and so unqueeny. All man. All glam. And fabulous tits, brother.

Then Coyne tells two guys from some band named Glacier Hiking that they'd get more attention if they'd "have sex with each other in the middle of the street."

Then there's the cactus Coyne mistakes for a pickle. (Wayne: Sometimes a cactus is just a cactus.) Anti-product's lead dude suggestively nuzzling into the face of a hapless male bystander (who seemingly enjoys it), and the big finish complete with thong and ass cheek, courtesy of Austin homeless transvestite Leslie.

When did The Tonight Show, let alone Coyne, get so kah-weeeer? Or is this just more of that Snickers commercial hynuck hynuck straight panic that's been flirting with the mainstream of late?

Hmmmm. Gay is the new funny. Wish someone had told us. We were really getting good at the whole "strident, humorless lesbian" thing.

This month's Glamour (did I just "out" myself in some weird way? I swear, I only read it for the articles) features a piece about a woman recovering from a Christian gay recovery center. Ex-ex-gay recoverer Christine Bakke, 27, shares her story.

OK, first off, at 27, let's not be surprised if Madame XX doesn't go through a few more twists and turns on this religious roller-coaster ride. They probably never warned her about those pesky Saturn returns in Bible school.

The piece describes the ex-gay Xtian recovery center as being "located in a gorgeous, dramatic Gothic townhouse, with gargoyles on the roof and stunning interior woodwork … [did a gay man write this? And how are they expecting to cure her in a place patrolled by gargoyles?] … that Christine came to know intimately — as part of her volunteering in the ministry, she polished the old wooden banisters." Is it just me, or does that visual suggest some serious overcompensation?

Christine relates to what struggling Christian poster boy the Rev. Ted Haggard has been going through: "Part of me feels really sorry for him. He has no choices. He has to go along with all their stuff, or he loses everything. Even though I’ve never been publicly shamed, I know how vicious some Christian people can be."

Ooh, girl. You think the grass is pinker over here?

Well it's nice to see that after years of dropping the ball, Out's balls have finally dropped (and they're almost as, well, ample as when Sarah Pettit was editor).

Perhaps they'd like to Google Map a li'l pink icon right here in Austin for their next closet cleaning?

Top shelf blog the Gideonse Bible posts this great think piece, putting into perspective the rise and drop and promise of this queer mass medium.