Thursday, December 29, 2011

Ask Eric Anything: No Cheer Here

Dear Eric,
The holidays are supposed to be a time for cheer and spending time with family and friends but year after year I find myself getting more and more depressed and annoyed around this time of the year. 

I don't get the "Christmas spirit" and haven't for a long time. More than anything, I just see it as another year gone by and what do I have to show for it, nothing. 

The worst part is that everyone I know really tries to "cheer me up" but that just makes me more irritable even though it's not their fault. I'd like to enjoy the season but it just doesn't feel like I can.  Any advice?

Signed, 
No Cheer Here

Dear No Cheer Here,

First of all, you need to see your life in a different light.

With all due respect, your words seem laden with bitterness. Your present mentality seems to be projecting a reality which you have been carrying for years.

You need to let go of the past and break the cycle.

How do you accomplish this? Change the way you see life. As this year comes to an end, look at life with your heart and unconditional love. Do something different. Take care of yourself first. Find love for yourself. Fix whatever makes you unhappy and whatever is affecting your psyche. This way, no matter what external forces are at play, they will no longer affect you in the same manner. Look at the holiday season as an excuse to treat yourself and bask in the glow of the wonderful person you are.

See others with love and free of judgment to start anew. If it gratifies you to do something special for someone else, by all means extend yourself. Don’t allow the holidays to continue to inflict the negative experiences and emotions you have felt over the years.

You are free to live a life full of unlimited bliss, so long as you will it. Every thought creates energy and that energy transforms into reality. You choose the reality you want to live and no one can make you feel inferior without your consent, for you matter and are loved!

Make this holiday season an excuse to enrich your life. go out and buy yourself something to treat yourself for all you accomplished this year - by your standards and no one else’s. This holiday season isn’t just about the “Christmas spirit”, it’s also about embracing the New Year and what’s to come ahead in a world of possibility which will open for you only if you allow it. You mustn’t get in your own way. Do what makes your heart sing.

This season, make it about what makes you happy and full. Start your day with a holiday breakfast, do some holiday decorating and listen to fun music. As the day unfolds to your liking, make the night yours and only yours. That’s right, cater to your needs and make it a romantic night for you. Light your fireplace (if you have one), read your favorite book and cook up a holiday feast for your beloved self or treat yourself to a fine dining experience. Find joy in the things you enjoy doing most. Watch your favorite holiday movies, pause and play at your leisure and follow up with relaxing music of your choice alongside a romantic candlelit bath for one.

By ending this year and starting 2012 with a full heart of love and self-appreciation, you beget what you put out and that is love.  As cliché as it sounds, you can’t fully love someone until you love yourself.  Love yourself and bask in your greatness. Set your calendar, send yourself flowers, a card and have fun with you. See this year as a year of change and growth as you set foot into a new year full of love. By using the law of attraction, the more love you send from within, the more it comes back times three. Start this season with love and enjoy yourself. May you have a year full of love, health, success, joy and bliss!

Canadian Scientists Get Approval For HIV Vaccine Trial



In a first for Canada, researchers have approval to start HIV vaccine trials on people.

Download the free Denver Broncos app

I can't stand Tim Tebow and his anti-gay affiliations but love me some Denver Broncos. Click here for the new free app.

Cinema Q: PAUL GOODMAN CHANGED MY LIFE


Paul Goodman Changed My Life - Theatrical Trailer from Jonathan Lee on Vimeo. Paul Goodman was once so ubiquitous in the American zeitgeist that he merited a “cameo” in Woody Allenʼs Annie Hall. Author of legendary bestseller Growing Up Absurd (1960), Goodman was also a poet, 1940s out queer (and family man), pacifist, visionary, co-founder of Gestalt therapy—and a moral compass for many in the burgeoning counterculture of the ‘60s. Paul Goodman Changed My Life immerses you in an era of high intellect (that heady, cocktail-glass juncture that Mad Men has so effectively exploited) when New York was peaking culturally and artistically; when ideas, and the people who propounded them, seemed to punch in at a higher weight class than they do now.

Opens January 20 as part of Cinema Q.

Barnes & Noble Pulls offensive "sissy" calendar from site

Following outreach by GLAAD and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, a highly offensive and anti-LGBT calendar by cartoonist Joe King titled "I'm Not Gay, I'm Just a Sissy: 12 Months of Sexual Confusion," is no longer for sale on Barnes & Noble's web site. A spokesperson for the company yesterday also confirmed it was never sold in stores.

GLAAD is joining LGBT community members and allies as well as blogs including Towleroad and Pam’s House Blend in calling on Amazon.com to do the same and stand up for its LGBT customers by pulling the anti-LGBT calendar from its web site immediately.

GLAAD launched an online action to e-mail representatives and voice concerns about the product at: http://www.glaad.org/action/calendar.

“This calendar has no business being sold and supported by reputable retailers,” said Herndon Graddick, Senior Director of Programs and Communications at GLAAD. “King has a right to his opinions, however anti-gay or anti-transgender they may be, but retailers also have the right to decide that they don’t want to support hateful and dehumanizing content like this.”

King's cartoons employ outdated and highly-offensive stereotypes about LGBT people, and more specifically, gay men and transgender women. According to Daily Kos, King has responded to this controversy on his Facebook page with the use of even more dehumanizing and insulting comments against the transgender community, the gay community, and people living with HIV/AIDS: “Hoo-we! Hell hath no fury like a he/she scorned... The telephone tree of tantrums is lit up like a Las Vegas marquee for "Boy-Lesque" today with hate mail, threats of boycott and even the risk of Jesus spitting on me for my "Sissy" calendar. I SAID I WAS A SISSY UP FRONT. Ironic who the real bullies are isn't it? Let's see if I get a call from Oprah's people or even Anderson Cooper..."

King also stated:  “The "truth" is that AIDS is an "elective" disease. It STOPS the day guys quit sticking it to each other. And for the tragedy of women and children infected... THAT stops the day their gay husbands and fathers stop cheating on them. Anyone need MORE education, science or funding to understand THAT?”

To view the online action to let Amazon.com know that their support of this anti-gay and anti-transgender calendar is offensive and unacceptable visit: http://www.glaad.org/action/calendar.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Plaintiff in landmark gay rights case dies

John Lawrence, hero of the GLBT community as the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Lawrence vs. Texas that resulted in anti-sodomy laws being struck down across the country, died last week due to complications from a heart ailment. He was 68.

2011 Gay Year in Review: Best Facebook Page?
































Gay.net makes a pretty convincing argument for Sports Illustrated 4 Gays being the hottest Facebook page of the year. Give it a click. You'll like what you see!

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