I do.

I have always been proud to be a New Yorker, but I have never been prouder to declare it then today.

I have always been Bisexual, but I have never been prouder to declare it then today.

Today is a historic day. New York State passed a bill 33-29 that legalized gay marriage.

Upon hearing that the vote was pending last week, I spent this entire week on edge; constantly checking news media for updates on whether or not the Senate had yet reached a decision. And of course, tonight, while I am napping, I wake up to find that the amazing news I have been waiting for has finally arrived. I literally jumped out of bed, started crying, began jumping up and down in my room shouting HOORAY! and clapping. Shaking. Overwhelmed with emotion. Grateful that this day had finally come for members of the Gay and Lesbian community who fought so long and hard for this right.

This is not just a step towards equality for all, this is a GIANT. FUCKING. LEAP.

To all the Homophobes and the haters and the Religious zealots and the doubters:

FUCK YOU - We're here, we're Queer, get fucking used to it already! We're not going away. We are not going to stop our fights. This achievement is only going to make us fight harder, push stronger and make it known that we will not let anything stand in our way. We will not stop trying to make sure that Gays & Lesbians everywhere get the rights that they deserve. To ensure that the Gay youth have a future that they can look forward to without hiding in the closet, without having to hide who they are, without worrying about being bullied or denied a job based on who they choose to love or being denied basic domestic benefits because they just happen to be in a same sex relationship. We are all human; we should all be treated the same.

Hopefully one day soon, we can all emerge from our naps and jump up and down with excitement as we celebrate the victory for the legalization of Gay Marriage in other states, the entire United States of America, and all over the world.

Love is Love. Equality for All. I can't wait to see the pictures from Pride this weekend in NYC. It won't just be a celebration, it will be a god damned victory march!

Be who you are and say what you feel...

..."Because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

So as I've already said before, I am a proud, flag-waving, card-carrying Bisexual. I'm also a giant Fag Hag and a huge supporter of Gay Rights. I am also a big fan of the show, "Degrassi: The Next Generation". For those of you who aren't familiar, it is a long-running Canadian teen drama that has tackled every topic under the sun from teen pregnancy to school shootings to domestic abuse to eating disorders and everything in between. This season, they have introduced an FTM (Female-to-Male) Transgendered character named Adam. I think that it it so amazing and progressive that they have done something like this, to give a face to the Trans community and give young kids who are struggling with their identity someone that they can look to and to see their similar struggles play out on TV. It's really so unfortunate that there aren't more LBGT characters on TV - especially not in the U.S. It's even more unfortunate that here and now in the year 2010, we still live in a world where people hate other people for no reason, for things that they are scared of and things they don't understand and are too afraid to try and learn about.

When I first realized I was bisexual, I joined the LGBT group at my college in an effort to try and learn more and be more connected with that community. I had heard of transsexuals and drag queens, but I mostly associated it with men dressing as women. In our group, we had 3 FTM trans-gendered guys - one of them actually lived in my dorm freshman year. I remember seeing him on our all-girl floor and being confused as to why this guy was living on our floor. 2 of them were pre-op trans and one of them had actually gone through sexual reassignment surgery and was a post-op trans man. His story was especially moving because he came from a very strict Middle Eastern household and for him to have come out as trans was probably something completely earth shattering for his family. Apparently, his parents were able to cope with it - as they supported him through the surgery and his new life as a Man. But not as many Trans people are so lucky.

Being trans-gendered has certainly become a lot more public recently than it had been in the past. It has even been glamorized on TV with the VH1 show "TRANSform me!"  But obviously there is still a lot of stigma attached to being Transgendered, even within the Gay community. And of course, there is still a stigma attached to being Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual in general, regardless of how public, commercialized, stereotyped and sensationalized the lifestyles have become in the mainstream. We still live in a country where high ranking members of our Military are fired after having long and important careers because of their Sexual Orientation, thanks to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We still live in a country where Gays and Lesbians cannot legally get married, where our elected Government officials are fighting to define Marriage as the union between "One man and One woman". We may have a Black president in the White house, but is that where the progressiveness of our country ends?

I write this post with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart as I dream of a day where Gays and Lesbians can get married in the state that they live in and have their marriage recognized all across our great nation. Where they can share their love in a world that is open to love instead of hate. Where young gay boys and girls won't have to be afraid to go to school because they will be beat up because of who they choose to love and who to be. Where gay men and women won't be afraid to be who they are in a successful job because they might be fired for loving who they choose to love. People shouldn't be afraid of being who they are or doing what they feel. Because Love is Love - and that's all that really matters.