Making History: One Step at a Time

Now that I have your attention, are you gonna be a voter this Nov 6 to elect Bill Bolton , Molly Kelly , and Annie Kuster ? Check your registration status below, and don't talk to me unless you're at PSU and ready to volunteer. Talk to y'all on November 7th after we FLIP THE FREAKING HOUSE! www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org www.vote.org

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog, but I figure that today is as good a day as any.  Firstly: Happy Pride Month! Secondly: I am so heckin gay. I’m bisexual/pansexual.  I use bisexual and pansexual intermittently and interspersed because bisexual means that I am attracted to both genders, male and female. Pansexual means I am attracted to all people, regardless of gender. I think personally that the two go hand in hand, because it’s important to recognize that all people are whatever gender they associate themselves with, and I am attracted to all human beings, whether they identify as cis males, cis females, transgender males, transgender females, or non-gendered human beings. Moral of the story, I’m heckin gay.  You can define me however you want, as long as it is in the scope of bisexual and pansexual. But I am not straight, and I am not a lesbian. I am somewhere in between.  I’m still figuring it all out. I’m trying to explore a bit more. I’m try

This Martin Luther King Jr Day, I educated myself.  I spent time reading articles about activism and the potential horrors that come with it. I read about all of what the great Martin Luther King Jr did and how he was treated because of it. I read about his wife, Corretta Scott King who was influential in MLK’s successes . I read about some of the darkest parts of our history, because history text books don’t tell us nearly enough of what happened in our country. I read the true statement that, as news reports want you to believe, Martin Luther King did not “give his life to this country,” he was murdered because of our country .  We have come so far, but we have so far to go. Without doubt, I know that King would be fighting today, and would recognize the civil and social justice that is going down in history right now.  This day, I’ve thought back to how our world is in shambles right now. How other presidents in history have celebrated this day by exercising community s

The most recent things that have been viral lately are the #MeToo posts, which I, along with many others, are feeling conflicted about. First, let me explain the hashtag in case you're reading and don't understand what I'm talking about. There's a viral post going around, and it began on Twitter, followed by Facebook, and then Instagram. This is the initial post: "Me too. If all women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me too." as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem." At a first glance, it seems to be an effective use of your status, right? Raising awareness about sexual assault? Sign me the heck up. As you begin to question this movement, however, it becomes clear that there are many people missing from the conversation with this viral post. Men are sexually assaulted, LGBTQ+ are sexually assaulted, POC are sexually assaulted. If It's On Us has taught me anything, it's tha

As many of you might be aware, Betsy Devos rolled back portions of Title IX that were put into place under the Obama administration. If you have not read up on it, please do so here before finishing this post. In summary, DeVos would like even more evidence from survivors that they were sexually assaulted and thus, they should punish the perpetrator. You may think that is not problematic, but let me tell you why it is. Yes, it definitely cuts down on wrongful prosecution of those being accused. The issue is, though, that wrongful prosecution barely happens. Only 2-8% of sexual assault cases are proved to be inaccurate. That leaves 92-98% of sexual assault cases to be proven to be correct. Why that means we should make the reporting process harder, I cannot say. This is also problematic because it not only disrespects everything that the Obama Administration did prior, but it shows that Betsy DeVos is more concerned with protecting rapists than she is survivors. It shows tha

Please bear with me during this post. While it is long, it's very important to me, and reading it would raise awareness. It was hard for me to type this all out, but I do hope that it helps somebody for me to tell my story.  This past week, I experienced the first ounce of being uninsured by healthcare. I'd like to start this blog post with stating that I'm so lucky to have healthcare, and to not have to worry about it very much in the past. My parents are so lucky to have jobs that insure healthcare, and I couldn't imagine not being able to be insured, for whatever reason. This past week I took a trip to the gynecology office. I've only gone once before, just to discuss birth control methods that were best for me, and that trip was over two years ago. The trip consisted of discussing methods with my doctor, learning what they all do to your body, thanking her, and leaving. This next trip was a bit more complicated. Let me explain. Ever since I started dating m