Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Milk and ice cream

Tonight, I had dinner with a friend, and then went to see Milk with her, and then got ice cream with her. I know that you are more interested by the inner workings of my brain than with the contents of my dinner, movies, or dessert, so here is a brief round-up:
  • Everyone should see Milk. And also Dustin Lance Black's acceptance speech.
  • The most perfect, radical, simple piece of queer activism a queer person can do is come out. But you unqueers aren't off the hook in that department. Come out, often, loudly, in our support. Do it when we are around, and do it when we are not around, and do it especially when you think we might be around but for some reason haven't said anything. There is, I promise you, some reason.
  • Apparently, one of the signs that you are a New England driver is that you refer to driving distances in minutes, rather than miles. Is that true? I mean, I do that, but I assumed everyone did. Readers from other places, do you live X minutes from work, or X miles from work?
One of those things is not like the others, but it is all, I think, necessary for us to discuss.

8 comments:

Funky Kim said...

- I'm in the beginning phase of planning a commitment ceremony and celebration for my daughter and my daughter-in-love. As I talk about this at home, at work, at play, online I see understanding start to happen. It's a good thing.

- I think most of us refer to minutes rather than distance. Because the 249 miles to my grandmother's house only takes a smidge over 3 hours to drive, but it can take that long to drive across LA County. Not that I live in California. I've just driven there and am glad I don't do that much!

Anonymous said...

In Oregon we also use minutes instead of miles. How far away you are isn't as useful as knowing how long it takes to traverse the distance.

bzzzzgrrrl said...

Many congratulations to S and K, and to you! And bless you for seeing what happens when you talk about love, even in (especially in?) conservative places.

bzh said...

I use minutes. Husband uses miles. As a result, we never know how long it'll take to get there, or how far we have to travel.
It's a match made in heaven.

As for support, I hope you know I give mine in every way I can. And will always. (Not mostly but certainly in some measure because I want to wear an awful dress in your wedding someday.)

Anonymous said...

Until I moved out of Indiana, I always referred to driving distance in minutes. Maybe it was the pizza-delivery first job I had. But i think it had more to do with living so close to a highway in the country. You just went 50 to 60 mph to get "in town" so 30 miles was 30 to 40 minutes depending on how long your country road was to the highway and if you had a police scanner.

emily anna said...

i definitely use minutes, "give or take, depending on how fast you drive."

miles mean nothing because there is much difference between a city mile and a country mile. whatever that means.

Anonymous said...

I'm originally from D.C. and I think driving minutes are much more relevant for most purposes than driving miles. But then, I'm an ambulance dispatcher.

And as far as I know, all the numerous queer people I know are out. Where I live -- and where my family, including my lesbian babymamas, mostly lives -- there are supportive and affirming communities. So I may not be the best example of helping people come out. Haven't much had to.

Sadako said...

I'm glad this wasn't about the other kind of milk...I hate it so much. Even though I like ice cream. Weird.