But I am exhausted. All I wanted to do over the weekend was sleep in and relax but instead I had to entertain family and play the good host. Now that they are gone it still does not end. I have to do the laundry including all of the extra sheets from my family, eat all of the left over food, return borrowed air mattresses, and try to catch up on sleep. Well time to get back to work.

So I waited and have had plenty of time to think about the decision, and I still do not know what to say. On the one hand I want to say “Yay! We won the first battle of the war.” and yes this means it should be easier for the LGBT side as we do not have to prove the judge wrong in the appeals court. On the other hand I want to say “So what. It is going to be 3-5 years before this means anything. Damn our court system for being so slow.” Even after they decide this case there will be a bunch of additional lawsuits to turn over the laws in every other state.

So for me the Prop 8 news was a very short celebration that ended Thursday night. Now it is back to the grind. Trying to figure out how to Boycott Target and Walmart at the same time. Boycotting Best Buy even though I rarely shopped there in the first place. Trying to figure out how to be interested in ENDA when I live in a state that already has these protections. (Yes I know you do not have the protections and I do care about that. But, I am selfish, and therefore do not care as much.) And trying to find a boyfriend. (Apply in the comments )

Also, all of their protests have been 5-10 people who go perform some sort of impeding protest and get arrested. So 5-10 people go sit in an office until they get arrested, or 5-10 people hold a sign across the lanes of the Las Vegas strip until they get arrested, or 5-10 people sit in the capital rotunda until they get arrested. I am not saying these are bad actions, but why only 5-10 people. Would it be more effective if they did it with 50-100 people?

I understand the need to keep their actions quiet beforehand to prevent the police from being ready for them, but I really think they need to find a way to get more people involved.

Now, in Colorado, we still get thunderstorms but where I am at they are usually short and very strong tempests. And they usually are at 4 in the afternoon, not prime lightning watching time. Typically we do not get lines of storms that you see coming 30 miles away, partly because my horizon to the west is only 10 miles. At 4 in the afternoon in 15 minutes we go from sunny, to golf ball size hail, to torrential rains, to sunny again. Not nearly as enjoyable as the long drawn out storms of the midwest. I miss lightning shows.

One thing I think most people are afraid of when they come out to someone is the challenge of explaining why you are gay and getting someone to accept you being gay. We are afraid of getting fired or ostracized.

When I came out to my coworkers I experienced none of this. The conversation went:

Me: Well honestly I will never have a girlfriend.
Co-Workers: Why?
Me: I am gay.
Co-Workers: Do you need a boyfriend?

This made me realize just how far the gay community has come in its acceptance recently. There was no asking why I was gay or how I was gay or wow or we can no longer be friends. It was let me help you find a boyfriend.

I learned not to be afraid of coming out anymore. Yes, you can still have a bad experience coming out, but it is a lot easier to do today.

This conversation almost doubled the number of straight people who know I am gay. However, this conversation has also made me a lot happier and feels like a big weight lifted from my shoulders. I learned to not be afraid of coming out.

Can it still be dangerous? Yes. I could have gotten fired as a result of that conversation. But I learned not to be as afraid and be much more willing to come out.

P.S. I know I said I was done posting, and this does not mean I am starting again. But I will continue to post occasionally about important events that I think need to be shared.

However, just because I have decided to stop posting here, does not mean I am done blogging. I just began a new blog www.holdnothingback.com. In this blog I have quit being politically correct and am saying what I want about any topic I want.

I hope to see you there!

So where did I go? Why did I stop posting?

Well, if you were here looking at me right now you would see me with my hands stuffed deep in my pockets looking down and shuffling my feet. I do not have a good answer. The best one I can muster is I got busy with work and I simply did not have anything to say. However, as we all know, I will always be busy with work and I honestly always have stuff to say. Granted some of the stuff I say could get me into trouble.

So where does that leave me and my blog? I am not entirely sure. I will probably post occasionally. Hopefully more often than once every 4 months; however, I am not going to force myself to post extremely consistently. I am of the belief saying nothing at all, is better than inventing something to say and make reading my blog difficult.

Anyway, rather than continuuing to ramble, I just thought I would say hello again to all my readers.

I found something he said several times rather interesting. Whenever Romney was asked about his religious beliefs he refused to answer the question and said he would defer to those who study his religion. There is the obvious conclusion about this that Romney cannot make his own beliefs, but I am not writing this to bash Romney.

I am writing this because this made me realize something. I realized that a large reason behind the bigotry and discrimination toward GLBT is because of religion. Not only is it because of religion it is because a significant number of people refuse to choose what to believe and simply follow their religion blindly.

According to CIA estimates from 2002 10% of Americans are not religious. Of the remaining 90% of Americans I would say 10-15% of those follow their religious leaders blindly and if the religious leaders say the sky is green would believe it. I estimate another 20-30% do actually think for themselves, but are afraid to publicly oppose the stance of their religion (Romney is an example). Then you have another 10-20% who do actually challenge what their religion says with the remainder being loosely affiliated with their religion. These are my estimates not facts.

When I do the math I realize that probably 35-40% of Americans oppose same sex marriage solely because their religion says so and they do not have a good argument otherwise. So in America, the land of the free, why do so many people not think for themselves? After America was discovered immigrants moved to America to get away from overpowering religion in Europe. So why is it that some locations in Europe now allow gay marriage, yet the United States is still bound by their religious leaders?

I do not know the answer. I do not know why Americans do not make their own decisions. Maybe the political activism in the United States has died away for a while? I have no doubt it will come back, but when was the last time there were major organized political protests in the US? Maybe there is some other reason entirely? Whatever the answer one has to ask, if religion is such a large part of American’s values what type of influence good or bad has this blind following of religion had on the current United States?

(By the way, I have no idea why the CIA is collecting religion data on the United States.)