Another Picture of my old office building. This is a side view there use to be a building on the dirt patch in front of it but thats gone now ...

Something else I stole ...

I came across this again today and couldn't help but to re read it so I thought I will steal it and post it on my blog.

Repeat after me - being gay is okay

By Tracey Barnett

Stir caused by opera character's sexual identity shows society still mired in paranoia.

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The legalisation of gay marriage in New York makes the axing of Lee Hall's opera seem even more archaic. Photo / AP

Prepare yourself for the truly shocking bit. These are the lines of an opera by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall that caused so much contention it was cancelled.

In one scene a painter is the victim of taunting. He sings, "Of course I'm queer/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And I'm working class/I'd have to concur."

That's it. Those are the words 300 sets of delicate childhood ears had to be protected from, during a scene in which the children aren't even onstage.

Apparently, having children be part of a production that has a fictional character even acknowledge being gay is "inappropriate". No, this isn't Tom Ford's A Single Man circa 1962. It was England last week.

After extensive negotiations, Hall couldn't bring himself to do the one thing authorities demanded. Indeed, what most of us still demand in our offices, of our teachers, of our sports stars, of our clergy - that we keep a person's sexual identity publicly silent. That is, only if it's not like our own.

In the same week that New York state became the sixth in the US to pass gay marriage - literally to dancing in the streets - Lee Hall's opera ground to a halt because it still isn't safe even for a fictional character to say he is gay with children nearby in 2011.

Not that anyone involved believes they're being homophobic here, of course. Opera officials were just being sensitive to school officials, who were being sensitive to parents, who were being sensitive to the undoubtedly scandalised kiddies.

Hall wrote in a Guardian piece entitled, "I will fight this", "The argument is that everyone is just worried about other people's sensitivities."

Hall made clear what a dog biting its tail looks like: "Effectively, I feel I am not being allowed to represent a gay person. The idea that being gay is something inappropriate for a child to witness is insupportable - as if gay people weren't fathers or mothers or sisters or brothers."

One of the saddest personal battles I can imagine is having to defend your right to say out loud that simply being who you are will not be hurtful to children.

Are we supposed to be grateful nobody's getting beaten up in dark alleys these days, when we erase people into "sensitive" silence instead?

The failed US gays in the military policy, "Don't ask, don't tell" may be a better marker of an entire gay generation today than we want to admit.

This is the same week that India's health minister declared homosexuality a disease. The New Zealand Anglican Church is still arguing whether being gay is an act of "wilful human sinfulness" or an "expression of God-given diversity" after one of its billboards was defaced, according to Bishop Philip Richardson.

Still, a gay couple in New Zealand cannot jointly adopt a child or get married like anyone else who want to spend the rest of their lives together, with little political will to change it anytime soon.

Recently, Tennessee batted down a possible law known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill that would ban teachers even saying the word "gay" in classrooms. How fabulous. They must have figured if we stop talking about being gay, it will just go away, like carbon paper or pet rocks. Think of the possibilities. If we outlaw the words "Insane Clown Posse" or "gum disease", the world can be a better place.

I don't care what we say socially, what our organisations, workplaces, churches, rugby teams, actually say instead is: Be invisible, because it's easier for us both.

I can ask if you're Italian or left-handed or put mayo on corned beef (which is just plain wrong), but socially, I'm not allowed to ask if you're gay. There is this weird wall that neither of us will leap over to ask if you've had a good weekend with somebody un-named. In that silence, you erase them, you erase yourself and moreover, any chance I will ever have to know you wholly.

What absolute drivel that we pretend, if you're gay, it is none of our business. It is as much my business as hearing that your dog has an IQ of 12, or your kid got a school prize for whingeing.

Amazingly, 48 per cent of gay, university-educated Americans pretend to be heterosexual at work still today. Roughly a third lead "double lives", closeted while at the office, but openly gay in their personal lives, according to the Center for Work-Life Policy.

Let's just agree, if you teach my kids, if you coach my team, if you work beside me, and you don't feel safe coming out there, just tell me you're Italian. I'll understand - or begin to. Because I honestly will never know what it is like to live in a world that still asks you to be half invisible - until you teach me.

www.traceybarnett.co.nz or Twitter @TraceyBarnett

I couldn't have said it any better myself.

My old office building ...

That's my office building on the left not the tower but the grey pile of rubble. Really breaks my heart to see my beloved city so scarred and hurting.

Books and the Cosmo's

So as most of my darkest moments go tonight was no different. Well I guess they aren't as dark as they use to be so lets just call it a low point on the road of life. However as I was saying as all of these moments go they always seem to hold another piece of the puzzle. Tonight was no different, this week has actually been a week of missing puzzle pieces turning up in the oddest places. I now know with certainty what to do. I can feel it in my gut and all the conflicting ideas and problems in my head that seemed to have generated so much noise up there is quiet now.

I actually wanted to write this post last week and had all these metaphors of one chapter finishing but not knowing if it was the end of the book or if another chapter would follow. But I'm glad I wait as I now know thanks to a lot of pieces of the puzzle coming together that it is indeed the end of the book, well not just yet but the 'End is Nigh' as the crazy man on the corner of the street would say.

Not sure what this new book will hold but I have some idea on how it will start but that's a post for another night (which I'm busy writing at the moment). However with the closing of this book I also have become aware that a few friendships might be ending to. I have always held the believe that people enter your life for a reason and purpose and when they have been served and you have learned you lessons from them they exit your life. Some just fade away some leave with a lot of noise and excitement and some just nod their head turn around and walk away.

Funny thing is one of these people is someone I hold very dear to me but I know it in my gut this is the end, sure we will probably reconnect later in life but I'm pretty sure this is it for now. It will be sad but that's life the world keeps spinning and the sun rises each day and sets each night.

A few weeks ago I posted a picture that showed a fork road and ask which way should I go should I go left or Right. Well I have passed that sign now and another on is in front of me saying road splits in 200 meters. Well I'm pretty sure I will be taking the exit on the left when I get to it what it holds who knows.

What are you trying to tell me ...

... Google. So I was bored and thought I would Google 'What I should do with my life'. As I'm lazy by nature I thought screw reading. So I looked at Google images and this was one of them.So I'm taking it as a sign. Not sure thou if it is trying to tell me to give him a 'lift' or start hitch hiking topless. But its a Sign.

I play Chess Good and some other stuff too ...

So apparently I'm a secret geek. Yup I discovered a secret talent I poses this weekend in good old Dunedin .... Chess ... I might as well get myself braces, some suspenders a pocket protector and start wearing my reading glasses permanently.

It took Gareth I believe 3 goes and much frustration before he could beat me. I took great pleasure in this of course.

However the real reason I went to Dunedin is to do some soul searching. You see my best mate Gareth also doubles as my spirit guide if you want to go that far. He seems to be able to put things in perspective when all I see is chaos. So instead of finding the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (which is 42 by the way) I discovered I could play chess. I also found time in there to somewhat sort the chaos that is my head.

But yeah Dunedin what can be said about it besides that its south from Christchurch and north of Invercargill. I suppose it is a really beautiful city but I couldn't help but walk through the central city looking at buildings thinking to myself that will collapse, that will collapse oh yes that would definitely collapse. There is one building I would love to buy one day and turn into my private residence, just something small for me and the cat. The building in question is the Dunedin Railway Station. I think it will be just perfect for the lifestyle I intent to live a life of being 'a lady of leisure'. The only problem would be the trains but I'm sure they can find somewhere else to go. As one would not be amused being waken up by the noise of train carriages.

Well this is where the blog post ends, was pretty lame really you probably wondering why you even bothered reading this blog but you will be back they always come back yup you can resist the urge to come back and see what other crap I'm going to be spewing on to a page.

Till laterzz ...

Dun Dun Dun Dun Duuuuuun ...

So I'm of again not to a tropical place nor a place that I would classify as exciting. Yup I'm of to Dunners, for those of you playing in the Americas Dunners is just the nickname for Dunedin our second largest City in the South Island. I really wished it was Dunedin, Florida but I guess we cant always have it our way (damn you BK).

It was kinda a spirit of the moment thing even thou I was planning to head to Dunedin this weekend I decided on Wednesday that I would rather not. But here I am packing my bags to do another road trip. I suppose at least there is no earthquakes down there and they do at least have a CBD. But its still Dunedin if it wasnt for my best mate down there I wouldn't really see the point of going there, its cold its wet and has way to many hills for my liking. But I shouldn't be so negative about it I'm sure its a lovely place to live .... if you have access to drugs.

Anyways follow me on Twitter as I probably will not be updating the blog till I get home, when ever that maybe.

Till laterz ......