This commitment is what has led me to decide to hold off, taking the rest of the summer off and our next issue being published in the Fall. I won’t go into the details, but I can say we are going through several stages during this time and when complete, the fully envisioned id Magazine will be the result.

This does not mean our site and blog will be static during this time…far from it. We will be adding articles, news and some great interviews with people in the community and a few celebrities sprinkled in. I’m pleased to announce that our first interview is with Pandora Boxx from RuPaul’s Drag Race!

Please continue to support our advertisers and our ideals program participants throughout this time…the businesses in our community need our support now more than ever! These include Cupcake Jones, Designs by Michelle Lagos, Wild Abandon, Starky’s Restaurant and Bar, Mother’s Bistro, Mamma Mia’s and Hotel Deluxe.

Again, I’d like to thank the countless people that have supported id Magazine from the beginning, without them, we would not have survived or be where we are today.

These great people include: Sam Adams, Horace Long, Matthew Free, Rosemary Ragusa, Michelle Lagos, Rasha Spindel, Judy Devine, Chad Delco, Jim Wilburn, Roberta Mac Laren, Ed Garren, Barbara Hart, Nikki Jardin, Andy Clemmer, Matthew Morrison, Andy Yost, Nikki Jauron, West Duncan, Josh Hein, Frankie Frimberger, Lisa Watson, Peter Shanky, Lisa Schroeder, Tom Geil, Dennis Ishler and Neal Clay.

Here’s what we’ve pieced together:

Saturday night Portland artist Logan Lynn posted a message on his website: Dear Portland Rose Festival Gay Bashers: If it’s blood you want, it’s blood you’ll get. In his post, he starts out by saying, “I can barely make out the words on the screen through my tears as I am typing this. I’ve hit a wall with being able to push down my anger about the cruelty and hatred that’s directed at me and my friends just for being ourselves. Last night a group of my friends got jumped by a bunch of gay bashing Rose Festival hill people. Everyone is alive today with much to be thankful for, but I’m fed up.” We haven’t been able to contact him for his recount of events, but we agree with him and are glad that he and his friends are alright.

We then followed several thread discussions on Facebook, beginning with Red Cap Garage stating, “We want to remind everyone heading out and about this weekend to be careful after recent gay-bashings in our city. Watch out for yourselves and one another. But, most of all, enjoy yourselves! Happy Memorial Day weekend to you all!” Within that thread was local DJ Robb Nelson’s own experience:

i dont know .. was walking then approached by three guys .. next thing i remember , i was home . hit in the face a few times , scraped up arms . i dont remember but i called someone that came and got me . my jaw is swollen and messed up a bit , but ok . the not remembering is what scares me

Evidently, other events happened around the city. At the moment, this is all we know, we have more work to do to get the full story delivered to you. We will be at the forum tomorrow night, and hope to see you there as well.

What can you do right now? It is worth noting that Q-Center has a self-defense class on Tuesday, June 15th, just days before PRIDE, so that is a great action step. Event details:

6:00pm-9:00pm
Q Center, the NEW location
4115 N Mississippi Ave, Portland (map)
$10-$50 sliding scale
NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS!

I sat down with Troy West and Jill Nelson, owners of Empower Fitness, a untypical gym in downtown Portland. I wanted to get their professional and personal opinions and experiences with weight, and any other insight that they could be to the subject. What follows is my interview with them.

Jill Nelson: I’ll give you a personal story, it goes back long before I knew Troy. When I turned 41, I had one of those mid-life things…it wasn’t a crisis, it was just, “Oh my God I’m 41!” At that point I realized I wasn’t happy with my life, I wasn’t happy with my relationship, wasn’t happy with my weight, wasn’t happy with my job. Basically there wasn’t anything in my life I really liked. I made it a personal agenda to change all of that including my weight.

I think one of the things that changed for me in my 40’s was that I hired a personal trainer, I joined an gym, I dropped 30 pounds, you know…I made that significant change in my life. And I’ve pretty much maintained that over the last 10 years to the point where, I’m not that far off from my high school weight. Probably not the same shape as high school because I swam competitively. It’s just become a life style for me.

There are things like…we went to a body building show to cheer on one of our clients and one of our trainers that were there. I was telling Troy, “Yeah, I could look like that…if I wanted to.” But I like eating too much. There’s things in life that I enjoy, so I’ve made it my own life style to balance my exercise, make sure I exercise and that I eat well and feel good and to me that’s what it’s all about.

It doesn’t hurt to have access to a facility like this (meaning Empower Fitness which she and Troy own) where I can come in a couple of times a week and work out.

Troy:(photo at left) It is about life style. That’s where the bike shop in the gym comes in, why we are surrounding ourselves with this…it’s because we want people to get out do stuff. It’s much easier to get people addicted to doing something, than it is to their mirror. It’s giving people things they want to do. Jill just brought that up, “I can look like that if I want to,” what kind of confidence is that? That’s fantastic!
That’s a healthy prospective on things…do I want to? Can I do it? Do I have the talent? I don’t know, but I can do it, because physically I know I can. That’s what we call Empower Fitness, that’s why it’s called Empower. The ability to do what you want without your body becoming a hinderance. It’s just a fact.

She could change and work towards it…would she win? I don’t know? Would I win if I decided to be a body builder? Probably not. Genetically it’s not probably not my strong suite. But could I? Yes…sure.

Jill: My personal experience, especially in the perspective of a gym is that not everybody is into gyms. But for some people, it is a critical part of their exercise routine. A lot of that is more mental.

It’s like going to a job, rather than working from home…

Jill Nelson of Empower Fitness

Have you talked to Kendall Clawson?

We wanted to but we never connected thoroughly.

Jill: Yeah…Kendall has her own program and the stuff that works for her and she’s…well, I don’t know if she still is…but at one point she was evangelistic about it. You know, “This worked for me, this is great, come do it!” Most of us, if we find something that works, we want to share it. And that’s important, you want to have people doing it with you, it reinforces what you’re doing it makes you feel good.

Troy: But remember it’s their thing…just because you have a friend and it works for you doesn’t mean it’s going to work for everyone. Just like everybody is genetically different.

Well and you know…like Marty Davis in Just Out, she spent part of her editorial some months ago about “the losers.” She was expressing how she was tired of hearing or reading about all the people who were losing all this weight, trying to get others involved etc. That’s not the first time she’s talked about her weight…but it’s a great example of how, say here’s Kendall (or anyone who finds something that works) and she’s evangelistic about it…and plus-size people who aren’t ready just don’t want to hear it.

Troy: What system is that?

Jill: Take Shape for Life…

Troy: Ah, yeah…it’s the Medicare deal… based on a program they used to drop weight of overly obese people when they needed to do surgery on them. My only problem with that is that the people who prescribe them…it’s the same thing with hair dressers, they don’t have the associates degrees. It’s not a bad system. It is a medically based system, but just because a doctor came up with it at one time doesn’t mean…it’s like everybody has to have appendix surgery…why? Because I removed an appendix.

Jill: The cool thing about those programs and things is that…Troy will give me a hard time because I’m a huge proponent of The South Beach Diet. I love it because it works really well for me. But I have people who I talk to who loathe it. Mostly because, if you like those kinds of foods, then The South Beach Diet is great for you. If you can’t stand eggs and you can’t live without pasta, The South Beach Diet is probably not a good thing.

Troy: You can break it down to this: somewhere between what’s called a 70-20-10 diet. Which is more like a vegetarian. So you’re talking about 70% of calories coming from carbohydrates, 20% coming from protein, 10% coming from fats. Between that and what’s classically called The Zone diet, 40-30-30; it is going to be within a natural basis. But if you’re talking about weight loss, you’re talking about one thing: calories in vs. calories out.

Is it really that cut and dry?

Troy: It’s that freakin’ easy. That’s all it is. Now nutrition is different. Nutrition and Weight loss are two totally different animals. Completely separate. Nutrition is the amount of vitamins, minerals, the entire up tick of what your doing to your system, how well you balance your food with of your muscles and nervous system…it’s really a science. That’s the reason there’s a science to it.

Programs like Take Shape for Life, that’s fine. What they are is they have a lot of vitamins and nutrients directly in them. You follow a formula, where you do X amount of calories according to what your weight is at. All pre-done meals.

Yes, delivered to your door.

Troy: The reason it works so well is that it is because it’s pretty close to a 40-30-30 diet. It’s really close to that. The higher amount of fats you have in you the fuller you feel. Carbohydrates go through your system fastest because they do nutrients for the nervous system and muscles right off the bat, anything that’s extra gets stored. Protein takes about three hours to get through your system which is why you have a fuller feel, but it’ll go through you and in three hours, you’ll feel hungry again. Fats have about a five hour process that goes on.
Something like that plan, you eat throughout the day and you have a little bit of 40-30-30, it balances you out and you cut your calorie count by about 800 calories…well, this is how easy it is to lose weight. One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. If you cut a deficit every day of 500, well at the end of the week, you’ve lost a pound. Simple math.

So you put that on a diet that somebody’s cutting a calorie count of 1,00 calories, “Oh my God! I’ve lost so much weight!” But you’ve also lowered your metabolism without exercise. Without exercise with it, you’re gonna gain it back!

Jill: Which is why if I sprinted 8,000 yards a day in high school, I could eat a Snickers bar. When I quit doing that, and I quit swimming? All of a sudden that Snickers bar turned into a pound of fat on my ass within a week!

So is there anything else you need to know from us? Other than anyone who doesn’t know or can’t figure out how to get into shape should come see us?
id: I think we’re done…Oh! The education part…how do you do that?

Troy: We teach first. We show you what the program is, why you’re doing it, what part of the anatomy it’s working, why it’s working, why to do it. You don’t get that elsewhere. You can’t even get trainers to write down things, because they’re worried that their clients will become independent and won’t need them anymore. That’s what happens after “The Biggest Loser.”

Jill: Let me give you the Reader’s Digest answer to that: Education is built into everything we do. Whether it is your first health assessment, to your first training session, every class. Our classes range from bands or resistance work, yoga classes…everything is going to teach you what it is and why it is we do what we do. Any private one on one sessions, our trainers are all instructed to make sure that the client walks out with an understanding of not just what to do but why why they’re doing it.

That’s fundamental to how Troy trains. Even when people are working out in the gym, if he walks in and he sees someone doing something that’s not quite right, or their form is not quite right, he’ll stop and correct…he’ll explain why the form should be different and how the form should be different. You can work out at 24 hour fitness for six months and not have a single person speak to you. You could be something wrong for six months and never have someone teach you how to do it right, that doesn’t happen here. So education is an intrical part of what happens here, it’s not just sign up for a diet class or motivation workshop.

Troy: One excuse killer…it works to our advantage and disadvantage. It’s not the gym you go to that you have an excuse of why it didn’t work. It’s always been the work, just whether you’re going to stick with it or not. It works positive and negative on things. It’s a long road to haul, but to re-education people is different. There’s people that come in here and say, “Oh I know what’s best for me.” No you don’t or you wouldn’t be in the shape you’re in. We do a fitness test to see where people are, we don’t base it off of weight. We do the test to see physically where you are. I’ve had people come in that are way obese and they’re technically in shape, heart rate is low, recovery heart rate is low…You can’t tell something by the package.

Well, in doing research for this topic, I came across the Fat Haters…I would have never known about them. They’re vicious!

Troy: They’re horrible. They’ve got problems…but they usually have hand in hand with their own body dysmorphia. They’re self-loathers. It’s like the closeted anti-gay guy. The guy that goes out and says, “Kill all the fags!”

Jill: That’s so typical! A closeted behavior, no matter what it is, if you’re a closeted overeater, closeted purger, closeted homosexual…you’re always going to create the image of the exact opposite.

Troy: Fat doesn’t equal lazy. And that is a point they like to use…and it’s usually learned behavior. I’ve usually used combat for one of the things that was quite easy for me. You know…the day that you can actually beat me? You can talk. because I was fat as a kid, I was a chubby kid who played football and played violin. That was hard, it was really difficult. Throw on top of that a weight problem. But I was also the kid who if you ever said anything, I’d literally kick your ass…didn’t matter one way or another. I grew into that with the Marine Corp, barely met weight standards with a 300 PFT (Physical Fitness Test.)
I run into that all the time. I have people that come in and say, “How could you?” Easily – because I’m the best of the best. By educating yourself out of those things. With any kind of hate, it’s usually ignorance.

Well, see that’s what we’re trying to do here with the magazine. It’s parallel to what Basic Rights Oregon is doing with repealing measure 36 in 2012. The way they intend to win is to win the hearts and minds of Oregonians by having one on one conversations. With id Magazine, it’s our mission to Educate, Motivate and Inspire. Introducing people everywhere, especially Oregon, but introducing to people to community members they might learn something from, or may be inspired by. If it happens to be a straight person that was ignorant, and it changes their mind, then we’ve done our job.

Troy: Here’s what’s very interesting…you’ll run into fat haters everywhere, in all cultures. Whether you’re gay or not, I’ve made a lot of friends in Portland and my business partner is gay. I’ve run into a lot of fat haters in the gay community. I find that really super-twisted sick. But it’s a matter of body dysmorphia. I find it sick, but not angry sick. Usually hatred inspires pity. Because physically they can’t do anything to me, frankly. I gotten to the point now, what are you going to do.

Right. What strikes me is that we have a majority of people who don’t like us in the nation. But in our own community we have ignorance about things we know nothing about or don’t understand. We have prejudice against people that we don’t resinate with.

Troy: Blacks do it too, whites do it. Cowboys do it! I grew up in Wyoming…”We’re real cowboys!” “No! WE’RE REAL cowboys!” You’re both rednecks, now shut the hell up! It’s gonna happen in everything. I had roommates in the Marine Corps. who were black and felt bad because they were lighter skinned-blacks. One of by very best friends was a very dark black man. He felt bad because he was really dark, and he was outcast.

Jill: It is a basic element of human nature that breaks things down to Us’ and Them’s. We struggle constantly because of our basis tribe mentality, to overcome that. And we just don’t do that very well.

Troy: With fitness it happens too. I had a gentleman that comes in here and he said we needed to get more hot boys in here. He said he’d come workout more often if we got more hot boys to come in. You’ve got to be kidding me! He’s a supporter, a great guy and everything else, but it shocked me. “Well, it’s perceived as an old guy gym,” he said…what do you mean? Half of our population of our gym is under 29, that doesn’t make any sense. Just because most of the people that use our trainers want to go out screamin’ and “Oh shit! I better take care of it now!”

I saw Raquel Welch on Oprah and she was just amazing, she had to have had surgery, for her age to look THAT good. But that’s a great target market for you guys, that part of the population.

Jill: The baby-boomer generation, they are at that age where they’re worried about their weight, they’re worried about their health, wanting to look younger…and I say that as a member of that generation!

Troy: Going back to our earlier topic, I’ll leave you with this: Weight is a symptom of something going on, it is not the problem.

Jill: Well basically what you’re saying, weight…being overweight, underweight, is not necessarily an indicator of health, but we make the assumption. The person, if they’re in a certain weight range, they’re healthy…if they’re out of that range, they’re not healthy. It’s an assumption, it isn’t grounded on fact.

The media has done a very good job of that.

Jill: Very good job. We also make assumptions that just because someone is overweight, that they just don’t eat right. We make a whole lot of assumptions of people on weight…people who are habitually thin, they can’t put on weight no matter how hard they try…they just have that kind of metabolism. People make assumptions about naturally thin people that are not grounded in fact, they’re simply projections or assumptions.

For More Information:

Empower Fitness Co Inc
1127 Southwest Morrison Street
Portland, OR 97205
(503) 274-2639

My lover has email communication with her ex on an (almost) everyday basis. I know this because she and I share a computer. She doesn’t delete incriminating information, or always close her email accounts. She says that there is nothing going on, and that there won’t be in the future. She says that I am overreacting. I feel hurt and we argue often because she plays down the frequency and meaning of their communication. I am considering leaving the relationship over this.

An ex can become a great friend and an ally. There is a wealth of opportunity for continued intimacy. On one hand, I can see how this intimacy could be seen as a threat, but she’s not lying about her friendship. She is not communicating like you might communicate, but she is allowed to be her own person, isn’t she? Cheaters will typically go out of their way to hide evidence, especially on a shared computer. I think this has way more to do with you being controlling. She is obviously not telling you what you want to hear, which is that you want her communication with the outside world to be on your terms.

Consider the possibility of her not being up to anything covert, instead of the dramatic creation of her running away with her ex. You know that she is having this correspondence, and you should be grateful and satisfied being in the know, yet you don’t trust her. I will assume that you have been reading her emails? If this is the case, consider making good on your threat to leave; for the both of you.

My partner and I have been together for two years. He is in very good shape and has a youthful outlook, so I had no idea that he was nearly twenty years older than I when we first got together. He is handsome and romantic and we have a lot of fun together. I want to be with him for the rest of my life. He is very loving when talking about the subject, but he refuses to consider marriage or talk about our future in depth at this time.

Your partner is twice your age. You have never been his age, but he has been your age before. A night of dancing can be hell on the knees when you are older. Hanging out with your friends, assuming that they are around your age, can feel incredibly stifling. Being seen as Daddy by that group, could make him feel twice the age he is now. References to TV shows or music that was popular when he was younger will bring blank stares, as will a candid discussion about how best to re-arrange the retirement 401k after the economy begins to recover. You can laugh all of this off, but he will not get the joke.

Though I believe that age difference is a lesser problem than a difference of economic class, it is still a big issue. It sounds like he really loves you, but I don’t blame him for not wanting to talk about further commitment. Although this may change in the future, his being conservative is actually allowing you both the opportunity to grow. He is being realistic, by staying safely in the here and now. You will both benefit from this experience, and you can certainly benefit from the freedom you are being offered.

And there is no timeline on love… What’s your hurry?

He will get older, frailer and most likely die before you. This is reality. Even the statement “the rest of my life” takes on a new meaning above the age of forty. You likely have no concept of what this will be like, nor do you need to right now. By forty, I had done all of things I said I’d never do at the age of twenty-five. I had no concept of just how much I would change. I have a sneaking feeling that when I am sixty, I will look back and see just how much I didn’t know at forty.

Between two bold white lines of 100-yards on tightly cut green grass fields framed by two towering yellow goal post women have come to battle full contact in the grid iron across the nation. Over forty teams are established in the Women’s Football Alliance–one of the nation’s strongest professional tackle football organizations for women–with the addition of the Portland Fighting Fillies this year. With a roster of 40 our local athletes have stampeded on the scene with a solid winning record, and scoring an average of 25 points per game. The game takes guts, muscle, sweat and sometimes blood but above all passion. A passion demonstrated by each member of the team roster.

Passion of Life: The game has provided some players a stronger sense of purpose for who they are and what they can achieve in life.

“Last year I came to football in a very dark time of my life,” shares Wendi Kali. “Depression and anxiety was eating away at my life, and desire to continue. This sport, quite literally, saved my life. It gave me a sense of belonging and strength both physically and mentally that I needed to climb out of that darkness. Being on the field is almost a meditation for me because time stops and nothing else exists. I am completely in the moment. Those feelings translate into my everyday life and knowing that I can play football helps me to know that I can do absolutely anything.”

Passion for Social Change: One of the biggest challenges to overcome is to gain the respect as a serious professional sport from not only other athletic organizations that are mostly male dominated but also the media. “The existing ‘Old Boys Network’ is pervasive and very difficult to break into. Essentially, women’s sports are considered ‘special interest”’ and not actual sports. [As a result] getting media coverage can be difficult,” explains Tracy Sand who has been playing full contact football for nine seasons in Oregon. Despite perceptions Fillies continue not only to play but also outreach to the next generation of female players with hosting young women football camps throughout the year.

Passion of the Game: Anticipation of game day has energy like no other. Holly Custis explains,

“Usually about Wednesday I start getting excited. By Friday night I have butterflies in my stomach and it can be hard to sleep. Come Saturday morning when I wake the nerves are more intense” until she hits the field and lets it all out with some of most exciting fancy footwork in the league. Tracy agrees with Holly, “no other sport has ever engaged me emotionally like being on the football field.”

Support for continuing this passion and the revolution of change it will produce is dependent on the fans. As the bleachers and the surrounding fields continue to fill up with enthusiastic supporters of all genders, ages, and sexual orientations with each game there is still plenty of room for more including you. Feel the power of joining this herd Saturday June 19th (Pride Weekend) 6pm at La Salle High School in Milwaukee, Oregon as Fighting Fillies battle Central Cal War Angles.

Today, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, applauded China for ending its ban preventing those with HIV from traveling into the country. Kerry co-authored legislation and led the successful effort to end a similar ban in the United States in 2008.

“This is a evidence that when the United States leads with our ideals, the world takes the power of our example very seriously. We fought hard to end our own unwarranted, unjustifiable HIV travel restriction, and now China has taken the same step,” Kerry said. “I urge other nations to follow this example by striking down any law that unjustly discriminates against HIV positive individuals.”

President Obama has sent a memo to the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a new rule that would prevent hospitals from denying LGBT couples visitation rights. In the memo, the president had this to say:

“There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. … Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides.”

Gay and lesbian Americans are “uniquely affected” by relatives-only policies at hospitals, Obama said, adding that they “are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.”

This new memorandum will apply only to those hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. This is a huge first step by the president, and seems to be evidence that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is actually making progress in Washington, though to many in the community it has been very slow progress.

Mayor Sam Adams received approval form the City Council to use “savings” from Portland’s Big Pipe sewer project to jump start the Bicycle Plan for 2030. There’s one problem though: the true savings won’t be known until the project is finished. As reported by Willamette Week, the sewer project is expected to increase in cost by 45% because of recently found cobbles and boulders at the site. (Which is odd, isn’t that to be expected when excavating?)

The Bicycle Plan for 2030 is overseen by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, but the funds come from the sewer project. Which means that rate payers will be footing the bill to pay for these bicycle boulevards. Do you approve or oppose this move by the city?

For further information on these projects:

Video on the use of bioswales in Portland
 
The City’s Green Streets program page
 
Link to a video produced on the nexus between bioswales and bike infrastructure.
 

In her calm manner, she stated about the attendees, “They had the time of their lives. That’s the one good thing that came of this. [they] didn’t have to worry about anyone making fun of them.”

The Mississippi teen gained national attention because she had petitioned her school to attend her prom wearing a tuxedo and with her girlfriend as a prom date. McMillen had petitioned the school since December twice, and on the third try, they advised that they could go to the prom, separately and would be asked to leave of they showed each other affection or slow danced with each other.
Once the teen went to the ACLU for help, the school canceled the prom altogether, rather than let her and her girlfriend attend the prom. This of course made her very unpopular among the students, yet she showed strength and resolve, continuing to go to school with her head held high.

Ellen Degeneres was so impressed with McMillen that she offered to throw her a prom, but the teen turned her down saying that all she wanted was, “to go and be able to myself, and go to the prom I was supposed to have.” Degeneres found another way to help and show her support by partnering with Tonic.com and gave McMillen a $30,000 scholarship and a summer internship in New York.

A judge ruled that the high school did violate the teen’s rights and said he would hold a trial on the issue. Show your support through McMillen’s Facebook page and become one of over 425,390 fans!

Lt. Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo have been arrested at the White House while chaining themselves to the White House gate, protesting the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy.

After a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) rally in Washington on DADT, Choi and Pietrangelo led the rally of about 100 people to the White House where the two proceeded to chain themselves to the gate. Choi had asked HRC executive director, Joe Solmonese if he would join in the march to the White House after the rally, asking Kathy Griffin as well. Though the two had agreed, they were not present at the White House demonstration.

Pietrangelo was discharged under the DADT policy, Choi’s is still pending. Choi started the group “Knights Out” a West Point alumni organization of LGBT soldiers. He stated at the preceding rally: “You’ve been told that the White House has a plan, but we learned this week that the president is still not fully committed. … Following this rally, I will be leading [the protest] to the White House to say ‘enough talk.’ … I am still standing, I am still fighting, I am still speaking out, and I am still gay.”

HRC released a statement about the protest, saying, “Today more than 1000 people showed up at a rally – 500 of which signed up to become more involved in the fight to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Joe Solmonese along with [gay Iraqi War veteran] Eric Alva and others felt it was important to stay and engage those at the rally in ways they can continue building the pressure needed for repeal. This does nothing to diminish the actions taken by Lt. Choi and others. This is the nature of social change and everyone has a role to play.”

We here at id Magazine agree…this is the way change is made, and fortunately we have someone with a backbone to hit this head-on. We’ve counted and there are 33 countries who don’t have a ban like DADT, why is the U.S. so backward on this detrimental policy? Is it because we still live in a puritanical society in the America? What do you think?