Update for Everyone III - The Whinge Binge

[LeBron]

So the latest on LAMBDA leadership, our President recently resigned due to time constraints, and we had an election to replace him last week whereby the incumbent Secretary ran and won. That leaves an open Secretary position again and they really want me to run for it since I'm one of few in the group whose been in the group for more than a year, but unfortunately I can't because my political science class extends right in the middle of the group meetings. I have State & Local Gov. T-TH from 12-1:30 pm and the group meetings are 1-2 pm, so that won't work out.

As for my hunt for a boyfriend, I've made friends with one of the cutest guys in LAMBDA; like me, he's also a bit of a goofball, with a friendly personality. This is his first year on campus, so he's kind of shy, but from the short time I've gotten to know him, knows how to have fun and he's definitely hot.

He's pansexual, which means he's emotionally attracted to all sexes, but I don't know if he likes me or not. As far as I know, he is single because there's another guy I know who's already started hitting on him, but we'll see who gets to his heart first.

If I can't find someone special on campus, then there's always plenty of clubs in Lakewood and the local LGBT Community Center has an awesome youth program for this kind of stuff.

[LeBron]

More guys found and joined our group this week!   We also had an event for National Coming Out Day yesterday. Not as many people decided to give coming out story monologues as last year, and only about 20 people showed up for the event, but everything still went well.

After the monologues, there was 7 of us on a discussion/question & answer panel and we gave our thoughts on things like when, if ever our society will evolve on LGBT rights, whether or not marriage itself should exist, and when it will get to the point where LGBTQA won't be discriminated against, treated differently or be asked about sexual orientation/gender identity.


In other news, my absentee ballot came in the mail today. I'm still unsure whether I'll vote absentee or vote early in person, but I got this just in case. The weird thing is, the absentee ballot I got from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has Kasich at the very top of the ballot, even though it should be FitzGerald at top considering last names.

[LeBron]

So last week, our school's LAMBDA group got a few new guys who joined! It's a much more successful and active group than it was last year, but that's just my take on it.

The guy who I was talking about in the last Update on my boyfriend search, the asexual one, seems to have hit it off with another one of our gay regulars from last year. The 2 of them are a good fit for each other anyways.

But one of the new guys who joined last week I've gotten to know a little bit so far, so we'll see where this goes! He's shy which is to be expected, and not very talkative, but I think he's cute and he has a really nice personality.

For those wondering btw, LAMBDA is not just a gay hookup group! lol, I can see how someone might get that impression, but all groups are supervised by a professor. We have about a one hour or so meeting and then we hang out afterwards. But plenty of relationships have started from LAMBDA and we do a lot of out of school stuff together that really makes this kind of stuff possible.

[LeBron]

We're heading into the last week of Fall 2014 semester at my campus, and prepping for finals. I'm a bit worried about the Statistics one, but otherwise the others will be easy. Film Appreciation is simply going to be a True or False Quiz on some Japanese film, State & Local Govt. obviously will be easy, and science is my worst subject, but I lucked out with the teacher this year who literally posts a practice exam with all the answers online (and those questions are transferred over to the final), so it's pure memorization in Physical Geography.

As for my dating status, I'm still single, but come Thursday, it will be now or never to stop being a wuss and tell the guy I really like how I feel about him. We're both gay and single, around the same age, and I've been told by another friend in the group that he thinks I'm cute to. Most in the group know that we like each other, but neither of us is brave enough to ask the other out. :/

[LeBron]

It kind of sucked having to work today on Christmas Eve (luckily, I (and everyone else) got off at 4, but still) though we're having a good night as a family.

My family and I went out for pizza and are watching a few movies now. We just finished National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation a little bit ago which is a really funny movie (I love the Aunt Bethany "Pledge of Allegiance" scene ), and we're undecided on what to watch next. Polar Express, maybe?

[LeBron]

My boss is awesome!   She's closing the store tonight and called off for the night crew (which includes me) given the terrible snow blizzard we were hit with last night (as well as another expected snowy, cold night tonight) which means I don't have to worry about getting the huge load of snow and frozen ice off my car.

I'm just going to chillax tonight and *hope* my campus also calls off for school tomorrow. *Fingers crossed*

[LeBron]

So while we're on the topic of our colleges, our LAMBDA GSA group on campus has a special guest coming to our meeting tomorrow, and an influential and prominent one at that.

Alana Jachum, who formerly worked for the Human Rights Campaign and now is a regional coordinator for Northeast Ohio for Equality Ohio, is coming to speak to us about legal stuff and getting involved even more in the process.

For the record, EqualityOhio is the main group collecting signatures to get same-sex marriage on Ohio's 2016 ballot and are trying to get our gay-fearing legislature to force a vote on the Equal Housing and Employment Act.

She also helped co-found the LGBT group here on campus today FWIW! Honestly, I have no idea how many signatures the group as a whole has collected so far for the SSM initiative, so I'll be asking her about that. Because if Justice Kennedy does rule in favor of bigotry, then the next best option is what EqualityOhio is proposing, and 400K sigs are needed which requires a lot of time and effort.

In regards to the boyfriend search, progress! The friend I was talking about before who's also gay is still single, and me and him are becoming more comfortable with each other. I think it might happen this semester!

[LeBron]

Campus will be closed down all day tomorrow, so no classes! And that also means our 3-page essay on the breaking Nonverbal Rules of Culture experiment we did for our Interpersonal-Comm class and College Algebra test are both postponed!

This is all because the low is -15 tomorrow in Northeast Ohio. Hooray for Ohio's crappy weather canceling classes!

[LeBron]

Wait is there a non-college algebra class at his college?

Maybe it's Linear Algebra or something appropriate like that and I'm being unfair, but, particularly when throwing in the "Interpersonal Communications" thing, I get the impression it's not terribly, erm, advanced.

It's a prerequisite to get into Calculus, which is a class I need for my major (Accounting). It is a lot of college-level based stuff like dividing polynomials using long/synthetic division, complex (imaginary) numbers, and vertical/horizontal/slant asymptotes. Easy stuff, I know.

The Interpersonal-Communication class I'm simply taking for a few more required English credits. I already finished the last required College Composition courses, but I'm still 3 credits short. The class itself is an easy A, and the Rate My Professor check on the professor only made it easier!

[LeBron]

So our LAMBDA Gay-Straight Alliance group is finally going to have the official club shirts ready by April! There's going to be a T-Shirt design contest which we'll vote on at our March 3rd meeting (which will also feature an open Safe Zone Training), and winner gets a free of charge shirt.

I'm entering a design that has the state of Ohio in rainbow colors on the front with the name of the group below it. On the back, it will have our custom name that we want on there and our sexual orientations. I might add something else before the final submission. Any other ideas you guys might have are appreciated!

I already know one of my friends is also submitting a design of a shirt that's tye dyed and has the group name and a quote, so my design is by no means guaranteed, but it will be awesome to have a club shirt no matter what the outcome.

I'll post a selfie whenever the shirt comes out!

[LeBron]

So my T-Shirt design for our GSA group came in 2nd unfortunately out of 4 entrees. It won't be the design for the shirts of the club, but it would have been the state of Ohio on the front in rainbow colors with the group name below it and on the back name/sexual orientation (if preferred).

The design that was voted on is really good to though. And every single one of us voted for it. On the front it will say "2 4 6 8 Lambda (GSA) don't discriminate!" and the back will say the name of the college/year (2015) and a few other things. Font colors will be white shirt/black text, but we plan to tye dye them after they come in.

In other news, the guy who I like's birthday was today and we spent the afternoon at laser tag/Steak 'n Shake with another 3 friend of ours from GSA. We look like a better and better fit every time we hang out.

[LeBron]

What the heck is GSA?  Gay Scouts of America?

Gay-Straight Alliance. As one of the many GSA groups in the region, we make up the Northeast Ohio Alliance of College & University GSAs.

It's our goal to spread awareness for LGBTQA rights on campus and statewide like gender neutral bathrooms and ending discrimination in hiring and housing. We attend conferences (there's an upcoming one we're attending in April down at Ohio University), have special guest speakers, participate in Gay Pride Parades, support pro-equality candidates for office, volunteered for the Gay Games last year, etc.

The best part of it though is all of the awesome friendships and relationships that were formed among us.

[LeBron]

So I just got stuck in a "two places at once" situation. I was set to go down to Athens (Ohio University) this weekend for the Queer Studies Conference - Rainbow Intersectionality: Coming Out at the Crossroads of Identities with 5 of my friends who also belong to Lambda GSA.

.....But my boss released the schedule for the rest of the month yesterday and has me working for Friday April 10th (even though I requested that day off). I would just call off for that day because technically I already reserved it, but I'm also not the type of guy who likes to be an arsehole with this last minute sort of stuff.

I don't know what to do, but I need to know by Thursday afternoon. Ugh.

[LeBron]

If you'd rather go to the conference, you should probably go. You wouldn't be an arsehole for calling off work on a day that you had specifically said you wouldn't be available for already. Plus, you have a commitment to your friends as well.

All good points. There's also a take-home test we're being assigned on Thursday in one of my classes (which is a class that starts after we're set to leave on Thursday), so I'm hoping I'll be able to catch her at some point before then to see if I can get the test before heading down.

I like your idea Sawx. I just might do that, actually (that does usually work, after all).

this conference sounds like it's gonna be a non-stop 24/7 gay sex extravaganza, so obviously go to that, jesus.

It's only a two night thing, though Ohio University is known for it's crazy furry parties and such.

[LeBron]

just tell your employer the truth, say you've been registered for this conference for a while, you're part of the club leadership so you're expected to attend, and then guilt trip him a little bit about your gay identity (basically subtly imply that if he gets mad at you he's sort of a homophobe)

My employer's a she, actually. Also, she doesn't know I'm gay (although I'm open to friends and family), and it's for the best that I keep it that way in the workplace until Ohio gets it's act together on workplace discrimination.

But yeah that part can be left out. I think I'll be able to get off work either with the being sick excuse or just telling her the real reason. Thanks.

[LeBron]

just tell your employer the truth, say you've been registered for this conference for a while, you're part of the club leadership so you're expected to attend, and then guilt trip him a little bit about your gay identity (basically subtly imply that if he gets mad at you he's sort of a homophobe)

My employer's a she, actually. Also, she doesn't know I'm gay (although I'm open to friends and family), and it's for the best that I keep it that way in the workplace until Ohio gets it's act together on workplace discrimination.

But yeah that part can be left out. I think I'll be able to get off work either with the being sick excuse or just telling her the real reason. Thanks.

Why would she fire you for being openly gay? Its 2015! Unless she's some old Evangelical shrew I don't think you have much to worry about.

Well as you could imagine I have my concerns about telling an old person who controls my employment I'm gay. She might be a super-liberal Democrat for all I know, but it's not really worth it to tell her since I don't have anywhere near the kind of relationship with her that I do with friends, family and co-workers.

I turned twenty-two today.

Happy birthday!

[LeBron]

So with this school year wrapping up, a lot is already shaking up in the leadership structure of Lambda GSA for the upcoming school year.

Several members of Lambda GSA are graduating this year (including the current incumbent President), and whoever takes over next will be overseeing some big stuff like introducing the new T-Shirts at the start of next semester, representing the group at other campuses/conferences and bake sales, conducting Safe Zone training's, overseeing 2016 primary endorsements, and working on club activities.

I still have one more year to go in community college in which case since I've been with the group for two years now and all the relationships I've formed with other members, I am potentially the front-runner to be the next President or Vice President of my campus Lambda GSA come election time this September.

My best friend in the group (the guy I like) is thinking about running for Secretary meanwhile, so it's very likely that by the end of this, the (hopefully) soon to be couple will control half of the executive board.