What’s Hot Right Now (10-11-11)

Arse Electronic Wrap-up, Occupy Everything, New National Campaigns, plus 

We’re back from 2 weeks on the road, participating in and filing blogs on Atlanta’s Southern Comfort Conference and then from San Francisco for Arse Elektronika.

Arse Elektronika is a production by Monochrom, an Austrian collective of futurist artists describing themselves as “an art-technology-philosophy group” and “an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism.” They have been producing the European version of AE for many years and are now in their fifth year bringing this parallel one to the United States. This week’s list gives us a special chance to highlight some stuff that impressed us.

A converted church on Mission Street in San Francisco was one of the three venues over the four days of Arse Elektronika. It houses the Center for Sex and Culture run by the dynamic Carol Queen, a colleague of ours at Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance. Carol was in Berlin while we were there but her wonderful staff brought the important work of the Center to the attention of a crowd most eager for a  sex-positive future.

The last day of Arse Elektronika was held at one of the country’s biggest hackerspaces,  Noisebridge. If you are ever in San Francisco, it’s an experience not like any other. Here is Jack’s brief video walk-through to give you a taste.

Ned and Maggie Mayhem should be atop your list of things to Google. For one, their unveiling at Arse Elektronika of their PSIgasm (that’s Pounds per Square Inch, pronounced P-S-I-gasm, or sci-gasm for short) will not go unnoticed. It uses sensors on an engineered dildo to measure internal bodily reactions to orgasm, such as temperature, heart rate, and contractions. As one of the first legitimate, fully engineered entries into the nascent science of teledildonics, it deserved all the attention it received.

And, a shout out to author-rac0nteur Chicken John and his legendary warehouse for the opening night of Arse Elektronika. The same weekend, he launched his new book, (volume 1) Book of the IS, Essays by Chicken John on Engineered Disperfection. Congratulations, Chicken John.

Back home in DC this week we are participating in and have started writing about the new force of change — #occupy, #occupydc, #occupytogether, et al, and the long planned “October 2011” occupation of DC known as #stopthemachine and the October 15 International Mobilization trending #globaldemocracy. Working together we can reshape our world to serve all of humanity, not a few swindlers.

I’ve already attended several of the general assemblies and will soon be reporting out specific objectives being moved forward by numerous action committees that have formed on Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, working hard to press their demands to the financial, governmental, and religious decision-makers to force a new inclusive way of conducting human affairs. One person articulating this movement especially well is highly acclaimed Sally Kohn through her her “Movement Vision Lab.”

This new movement started on Wall Street and appears to have to courage to do all it can to dispense with that which is old and bad/useless and join what is good to what is new and good to reshape the world. And, DC-based Code Pink is once again being saluted here for its masterful on-the-ground orchestration of this unfolding revolution; one that sooner or later will force American politicians to pay attention to the things important to the people, as the rest of the world looks to America to define liberty.

This represents a historic shift that taps into the long struggle for economic and social justice on the shoulders of all who have laid down their lives for universal freedom. Give thanks that we have now crested the first hill.

We’re tagging the Southern Poverty Law Center that sets the standard to identify and disclaim hate groups such as the Family Research Council and the Oath Keepers, two of hundreds across America. According to the Center, all hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. Because of this the Center is just as dedicated to teaching tolerance and other forward and positive programs. Please check out their website‘s resources, contact its local volunteers, and if you can contribute.

And we are so pleased today to see the joint announcement of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s partnership with one of our fave organizations, Truth Wins Out, coinciding with National Coming Out Day.

Finally, we have to give a big COLD thumb down to the Chicago Board of Trade, papered this week in big white sheets spelling out the words, We Are The 1%. That’s cold.

 

Arse Elektronika: Come for science!

Jack Diehl, Alison Gardner, and Dan Massey contributed to this article.

VenusPlusX attended the Arse Elektronika conference in San Francisco (September 29 – October 2), hosted by the Austrian “art-technology-philosophy groupMonochrom. This energetic collective has run the European AE for many years, and this is the fifth year in a row they have brought its parallel to San Francisco. The call for entries last February gives some insight to what unfolded.

This year’s theme was Sex and Technology. It was hard to know what to expect from the schedule of four days of programming over three different venues, with intriguing titles like “Phallic Home Economics,” “Make your own Mind Controlled Dildo,” and “It’s Wankie Time!” But we are not complaining, we had to see it.

The entire conference had a natural leftist perspective, expressed in the sub theme, “Screw The System.” Kink was commonly understood, appearing quite abundantly in many presentations and all over the walls of the San Francisco Center for Sex and Culture, one of the 3 venues. Technology, the Internet, and hacking were also well represented. The last day of Arse Elektronika was held at one of the country’s biggest hackerspaces, Noisebridge. (Here is Jack’s brief video walk-through of Noisebridge.)

The first night was at author-rac0nteur Chicken John‘s legendary warehouse, a multi-media opening introduction made up of summaries of the previous 5 conferences in San Francisco, previews of talks to come during the following days, lots of high jinks, and some very enjoyable entertainment from “song a day guy” Jonathan Mann (who has made a song everyday for the last 1,000+ days.)

What Does It Mean To Love A Machine? (buy for $1)
Until The Vulcans Call (free download)

The presentations were extremely wide-ranging, and showed the creativity possible as a new age of sexual freedom emerges. Each one incrementally stretched the group or “hive” mind in real time.

Among the dozen+ offerings, we heard from Kitty Stryker in her frank talk, “Sex Work, Disability, and Stigma”  and Maymay presented “A Class Analysis of Social Status in the BDSM Scene” (also available on YouTube). David Fine, who vaguely describes himself as “a Sex Robot from the 25th century” spending his time in our era guiding technology in useful, or at least interesting, directions, brought us his reimagining of the Mindflex kids’ toy (available on Amazon) which he modified to activate a vibrator, simple and perhaps the first attempt we’ve seen to apply an EEG headset  to a sex toy; The future possibilities are endless.

Most expressive of the intersection of sex and technology, though, is the impressive work and activism of Ned and Maggie Mayhem.  Their  PSIgasm (that’s Pounds per Square Inch, pronounced, sci-gasm) is one of the first legitimate, fully engineered entries into the nascent science of teledildonics. As they describe it . . .

PSIgasm was conceived in 2010 by an HIV prevention specialist and an experimental physicist, both of whom moonlight as queer porn performers and are active in the Bay Area sex positive scene. The project revolves around measurement devices that can be used as sex toys, simultaneously getting people off and monitoring physiological responses correlated with arousal and orgasm.

PSIgasm

Considering themselves citizen scientists, the Mayhems prompted the assembled to start thinking about other commercial grade sex toys that might emerge and use their application and the sensors they’ve engineered in this device, and the ways that data on your heart rate, anal contractions, other statistics recorded during orgasm will prove beneficial.

Besides the PSIgasm project and being so damn cool, the Mayhems are HIV and sex educators, and among many useful things for society that they advocate for, they  campaign to empower others to produce and star in ethical and sex positive pornography to escape financial hardship. The pair are coming to DC in March to participate in the Momentum conference, and hold other events we will be promoting soon. For now, they are headed to the next phase of substantial testing and data collection for the PSIgasm under their slogan, “Come for Science.”

Overall, we assert that the teledildonics field hasn’t received the attention it deserves. These breakthroughs will lead to better and safer sex practices and extend to people often excluded from traditional social connections.

The toys being made right now are mostly DIY (do-it-yourself), and have very little financial backing. Technology will continue to be applied to sex, and as society grows out of its strangling sexual repression and we move further into an interconnected world, there is no doubt in our minds that the future of teledildonics will be exciting. Want to contribute yourself? Check out The Sex Prize, a new competition announced at this year’s conference challenging entrants to develop open source teledildonics software for f#^king machines. Entries will be judged by a Turing Test, meaning your program has to preform so well that it is indistinguishable from a human operator. With countless people willing to test such devices, we can’t wait to see what people come up with.

This Revolution Will Not Be Privatized

One of the best signs at the Occupy Wall Street‘s ongoing protest that is spreading like wildfire across the country right now said, “This revolution will not be privatized.” Well, what do we actually mean by that?

In the last 24 hours, Occupy Together has increased by almost 200 more cities, up from 749 to 928 cities, including Washington, DC. Wildfire. It’s about effin’ time. A movement like no other that has been 40 years in the making by my clock.

This week, Occupy Wall Street’s NYC General Assembly issued an official declaration. This is the American people standing up for the U.S. Constitution and the egalitarian principles it represents, here and abroad.

This is and always has been a public matter, of the people, by the people, and for the people, our joint struggle for universal pluralism, expressed by true democracy, not what passes for democracy today. It’s definitely not what the Values Voters Summit 2o11 speakers and politicians will be talking about tomorrow at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. They are billed as “upholding traditional values” and “protecting America” while they spout hate and homophobia and seek more and more draconian limitations on our constitutional rights. We’ll be outside there to call these bozos out, will you?

Occupy Wall Street and Occupy DC came together in irresistible solidarity yesterday with Stop The Machine, a 4+ day, long-planned event focusing on ending the wars, the killing, the corruption, and corporate greed that is ruining human lives and the natural environment. The mood of the crowd was summed up by one speaker at the microphone last night (paraphrased), “The economic collapse is good news because it tells us that this system is finished. The CEOs and politicians responsible should be jailed. No election in 2012, we need to start from scratch and never again allow class and race determine who can survive. Our environment has been ignored and we have a chance to fix it but that is not possible under this system.” He went on to say, “Nothing short of revolution is acceptable, an end to biggest police state (America) ever created. Like past successful revolutions where the people were pit against enormous odds, we will end this system once and for all.”

Yes, the meek will inherit the earth.

Liberty? Justice? Equality? Love? Truth? Freedom? Who will keep them alive if not us?

If not us, who will put an end to the coercive systems we have allowed our government to wield against its own people and innocents abroad? When will we stop the state-sponsored murders and corruption America has spawned? And who if not us can replace them with the voluntary associations of autonomous individuals? We can do it. We can envision a better world and make it a reality. We have ideas and we have skills.

Asking for the end of repressive government systems, such as War (the only thing to justify massive spending budgets and expand economic slaves to fill body bags without end) will be replaced by something better. It’s not anarchy, but anarchism that oversees the progressive ecology that replaces bad policy and legislation, all repressive, coercive systems, with something better. That something better focuses on helping the most number of people, not just the elite. This is the essence of progressive improvement of civilization.

Reproductive choice is a good example. Activists have worked and are working dutifully and passionately to extract this human decision from the grips of the state, religions, corporations, and even entrenched social customs. We know that it is private choice between a woman and her doctor, that’s it and that’s all it should ever be, a completely voluntary association.

To change our current system, to Stop the Machine that oppresses the 99% who wish to live in peace on a clean planet, we engage in envisioning, articulating, and advocating for better ways to do things, built to serve all of humanity, not a small global gang of greedy and bullying busybodies that stand in the way of all happiness. All of these movements, Rebuild the Dream, Occupy Together, and Stop the Machine are the spirit of Madison,Wisconsin, to the nth degree, and we applaud them. Power to the people. The truth will set us free.

At VenusPlusX, we have pointed out before that sexual freedom is the bedrock of all freedom because it brings to every human’s heart and mind the physical, mental, and spiritual “feeling” of freedom that no one can assail or strip. It’s a bodily guarantee that we carry inside us. Each person experiencing sexual pleasure or orgasm, for the first time or throughout a lifetime, knows in both heart and head what freedom feels like. Everything we do, our search for our own happiness, tries in some way to recreate a bit of that dynamism inherent in sexual pleasure because we know what we are looking for, that feeling of at-one-ment, peace, joy, and satisfaction, the drive to move forward towards a better life.

Right now many movements are coming together in force to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat. We are doing this without uniformity (not needed) but with passion for a newfound unity of purpose, long overdue.

Wildfire.

What is the Name of God?

For more on Transhuman Erotic Freedom…

También en español In his 1953 sci-fi story, The Nine Billion Names of God, Arthur C. Clarke imagined a Tibetan monastery where monks labored ceaselessly to list every permutation of letters in their alphabet and thus to list every possible name of god, fulfilling their destiny and bringing about the end of the universe. With the help of a computer (in 1953!) they finish the job in three months instead of 15,000 years, after which…

Ten emanations of deity

Humanity has long been preoccupied with knowing the name of god. Priests, magicians, and other charlatans tell the gullible that knowledge of the name gives power. For priests, it gives the power to tell the faithful to believe the priests are uniquely able to speak to god on their behalf, both to solicit the boons of providence and atone for past transgressions. For magicians, it gives the power to summon and direct divine forces and influences, as if, by knowing the name, one could forge god’s signature on an order to a company of angels. And, just to make sure the rubes don’t figure out the scam, the unholy are forever barred from ever uttering the name on penalty of eternal damnation. Isn’t it odd that so many people have blindly accepted this kind of bulshyte?

The ancient cultures of the levant had many gods with many names—El Shaddai, El Elyon, Yahweh, Elohim, El, and more—all of which finally collapsed into the tetragrammaton, YHVH, in Romanized Hebrew. With no vowels, like most written semitic languages, the letters merely indicate a spoken word already known to the reader. More to the point, with so many possible vowel substitutions, nobody has any idea (unless informed by an oral tradition) of how to correctly pronounce the word. And, of course, be it prayer or magic, everybody knows that god won’t pay attention if you don’t get the inflection of his name exactly right. Of course, YHVH is pretty much the way you’d write Yahweh if you left out the vowels, except it’s an improved form and you can’t be sure the old vowels really work to get the old guy’s attention anymore. In the meantime, the variant Jehovah or Jehovih has been accepted widely in fundamentalist, evangelical, pentecostal, and some other really batshit crazy cults.

Christianity, like Judaism and Islam, features a singular omni-cubed deity presiding over a legendary cosmic horde that somehow takes care of whatever happens on earth (and maybe elsewhere if there is an elsewhere). Although this idea is usually called God, that is a presumptive description, not a personal name. Cults that have a Christian origin frequently use the term Father, which derives from Jesus’ use of the term during his ministry, as recorded in the Christian gospels, as well as the prior beliefs of the Jews. And Christians further identify Jesus with the Father, since Jesus is said to be the Son of God. And he was called Yehshweh or Joshua, written as YHShVH. And of course mystical significance is attributed to the appearance of the Sh, symbolic of the spirit, in descent at the precise midpoint of the YHVH. Wow!

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury

To name God, we must define God. Unless we know who or what we are talking about, have identified him or it, there’s no point in asking for a name. Around 1070, Anselm of Canterbury framed the idea of God as “that than which a greater cannot be thought” in his famous Ontological Proof of the existence of God. While most philosophers today accept the validity of the proof, with some qualifications, it clearly does not prove the existence of God, unless you accept Anselm’s definition, which is basically that of an omni-cubed deity that is totally all-pervasive and totally involved in the dynamic upholding of everything we perceive as finite reality as well as (probably) a great deal more. Thus, if this presumptive deity is to treat all creation equally, we will not find this God personally intervening in the affairs of individuals, except by providence. In effect, although one may choose to believe in the existence and power of the omni-cubed deity, one is forced to admit that there is no objective way to directly and unambiguously observe that God’s existence in Real Life.

Suppose we clarify Anselm’s term “greatest” to be “perfectest.”Ahhh, we are not allowed to compare perfections (at least not in conventional English language). Rather, we say things are imperfect, partially perfected, or completely perfect as a first approximation to the relativity of perfection. So we might say God is “that which is absolutely perfect in all respects.” But Anselm’s simple logic doesn’t make sense here, because our ability to imagine such a thing is questionable and perfection is an absolute reality outside space and time towards which the finite universe is evolving. We can only utter a sound offered as a name, but we cannot properly describe or conceive of such perfection. The absolute deity is, from the viewpoint of time and space, irrevocably committed to upholding the causal consistency and realizing the inevitable destiny of the finite universe as it evolves towards final perfection.

Venus, god of Love

So, in reality, we see the possibility of two concepts of complete deity. First is the absolute deity outside the finite universe who is committed completely to keeping the framework of finite reality intact and ongoing, along with a lot of other universe activities. Second is the supreme force of destiny manifested by its influence over space-time affairs and its interactions with volitional beings of its own creation and evolution.

The first, absolute deity, is thus the existential foundation of all that can be and is. Uniform in power throughout space and time, this first deity gives all that there is to the realization and support of a universe populated with potentially deified identities. If we seek to name such a power, a stable form that gives meaning and consistency to our universe experience, we would have to call it “Love.” And if you stop thinking “God” with all the craziness your culture has attached to that word, and think “Love” instead, you will soon be developing a healthier viewpoint and attitude. In the final analysis, Love is the desire to do good to others, and Love is the best name for God that we have.

Hermaphroditus

The second, finite deity, is thus the source of the evolution-driving force of destiny that bends finite sequential linear factual causation to the arc of destiny’s fulfillment. Love inspires action, but action cannot be satisfied unless good is actually being done. It is necessarily the work of this second, finite deity to arrange orderly evolution of the universe towards a goal of finite perfection, akin to the absolute perfection of Love, but evolved in time from initial existence to final perfection. If we name such a power, a dynamic influence that shapes our Love-inspired actions to maximize the accomplishment of good, we would call it “Truth.” And, if you stop thinking “what do I do now” with all the confusion of everyday life and act in the spirit of “Truth” instead, you will soon be developing an easier, more orderly, and much more effective approach to life. We have called this god “Truth,” the guidance of will in the application of action to the doing of good and the realization of beauty. We will explore this concept more fully in our next post, “What is the Word of God?”

When you think about what kind of God might mean something to yourself, remember that the omni-cubed existential absolute and perfect deity is unnoticeable unless one seeks to find a cause to explain the existence of the universe. We affirm that such a God is known to us through recognition of Love as the upholding structure of reality. On the other hand, the active, evolving, self-perfecting deity manifest as the force of destiny acting in time and space we can observe as we draw on Truth to direct our actions of will in the doing of good. Truth is the name of the active, saving deity that saves us from the uncertainties of right and loving action in seeking to do good and make beauty.

 

The Sexual Freedom Project: Room for Change

Do you agree that gender roles define or control our personal behavior? limit our freedoms, opportunities, and ability to be ourselves? Is location, where you are in the world, the greatest indicator? What will be the results of raising children today with more relaxed ideas about gender? Do you foresee a future in which gender gradually disappears?

We want to know what you think, hear your voice. Make a video. Write u an essay or a poem. Paint us a picture, write us a song. If we feature your views here on the site, we will send you a VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.

Video by Tiye Massey.

TRANSCRIPT by David Kreps.

Um, oh, I don’t know actually . . . our gender… that’s a difficult one. I think it’s definite qualities that lead to, that lend themselves to a different gender, but I don’t think it’s this is clear-cut. It’s not black and white. You know, I grew up with all boys, so  even though I’m very much female, I still have a few male qualities, and I don’t think gender, I don’t know . . . I get kind of not annoyed, but I get kind of worried at the fact that everything is based on that gender specification, as opposed to just being human and being allowed to be who you are and whatnot. I think there’s definitely, obviously, there is something to be said about genders and how do they have their specific traits, but just to concrete them as that and not have any room for change, I think as the world changes, it’s just a bit silly, really. It’s definitely religion, I think it’s just we’re in a generation in the moment where it’s not been long enough out there in the open for people to realize that’s a thing, you know. When something’s been concreted for so many generations and since relationships in humans began, that males were males and females and were females, if you think about it, instead of being the last couple of generations that it’s sort of been coming out in the open, that there are, there is room for difference. There is room for people being who they are. And there is, there is biological reasons why people are who they are, for every facet of everything. I think it’s just we’re just too soon into it with only the second generation of [us] having that out there. So I think religion plays a lot, a big part of it. Your family upbringing plays a big part of it, the country you reside in plays a big part of it. I mean, even London is not as accepting as maybe here in New York. I know New York is more accepting than maybe the rest of America. So it’s just a lot of contributing factors. I think it takes a while for people to catch up with actually what’s happening in the world, if that makes sense.


 

Southern Comfort—Historic Gathering

What is “gender non-conforming?” “What does a transexual person have in common with a part-time cross-dresser? or with a transgender person who identifies as neither?” “Can transgender and gender non-conforming people, cross-dressers, transexual men and women who have undergone Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS), and other segments of this diverse cohort group ever speak as one?” To feel the power of collective action that is sleeping beneath us? “What are the limits of working in coalition with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and interesex people?” “What are the shared policy priorities we can all work on together, in unity without uniformity?

These are just a few of the brain-twisting questions we heard and engaged in while attending Atlanta’s Southern Comfort Conference, our second year at this awesome and inspiring event. There were many firsts in this 21st gathering, now closely associated with the name of Robert Eads, a transman who died 13 years ago in Georgia because not one doctor would agree to treat his ovarian cancer. Eads’ case was internationalized with the release of the 2001 documentary film Southern Comfort, which received awards at the Sundance, Seattle, and Berlin film festivals. Talking to some social workers from Japan, I found his cause and the American trans movement is known in Asia as, simply, Eads. Just now, the CAP 21 Theatre Company in Manhattan is presenting a new musical, Southern Comfort, based on the 2001 documentary.

Southern Comfort was featured last year in Chaz Bono‘s history making documentary, Becoming Chaz, about his transition from Cher and Sonny Bono’s daughter Chastity to the Chaz he always knew he was. Bono attended last year’s conference and met many of us, and at the same time has emerged as a fierce advocate for trans and equality rights. This year he called into the Saturday night gala to say hello to everyone by phone, saying he couldn’t be there this year because he’s in training for his groundbreaking appearance on TV’s popular Dancing With The Stars.

This year, Southern Comfort broke all attendance records and must be credited with bringing together the largest gathering of trans men ever, 60 among a crowd of nearly 1000 dominated by feminist expression. Noteworthy to the media was the first-ever joint seminar with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) that comprised Southern Comfort’s last day.

You can call this one of the happiest week in the calendar, where all these segments get together in an environment of safety, acceptance, and celebration. It is the courageous lives of these most tolerant, compassionate, relatively highly educated people on the front lines of obtaining full legal equality and the freedom they deserve to live their lives as they choose and in peace. It’s the happiest because it’s a taste of a world totally free from sexual oppression, free from government interference, man-made religious precept, and outdated social customs and discrimination. While the questions we wrestle with often disable an otherwise productive unity of purpose among this most select community of gender benders, every encounter leads to more shared understanding of what we are fighting for.

For this and many other reasons we are trying to get an online national conversation going about building trans unity and trans leadership. Together we can bring the rest of the world to understand that gender freedom is a crucial and unfairly maligned gateway to creativity, truth, and love. Together we can move the political debate forward, influence state and federal policy and lawmaking, and bring about trans-inclusive legislation that will save so many lives.

We welcome guest bloggers and cross-posts, or just leave a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter. Let us know what you are doing to educate and advocate for trans equality. If you work with one or more organizations, are they making trans rights a priority? What will bring about comity among superficially different segments of the trans community? What are the shared policy priorities that will have a universal appeal, not only in the gay and trans community, but to all Americans and citizens abroad?”

 

Ugandan Bishop Christopher Senyonjo Calls for Compassion

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.  Dalai Lama

The other evening I received an email inviting me to meet the man commonly refered to as the ‘Desmond Tutu’ of Uganda – Bishop Christopher Senyonjo. Bishop Senyonjo’s unfailing support for the LGBTI people cost him his job in the Anglican Church of Uganda and everything else but his integrity. To his fellow Anglican Bishops and church leaders, he is a useless, good for nothing person, BUT to the LGBTI community, he is a savior and that is what keeps him standing. When the Kampala tabloids called for the hanging of LGBTI Ugandans, they included his picture.

He has been aggressive in his fight against the Ugandan Parliament’s “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which calls for imprisonment and death. Against all odds, he has gone on to create a safe space where the LGBTI/straight allies find refuge while the rest of the population turns against them: St. Paul’s Reconciliation And Equality Centre-Kampala.

St. Paul Reconciliation Centre pursues a holistic approach to the challenges in Uganda, providing essential services while also seeking systemic change and fostering genuine reconciliation for LGBTI persons and other marginalized groups. Its programs include business development, HIV education and services, counseling, and support for expanded schools, LGBTI advocacy and dialogue, an LGBTI legal resource team, and a sanctuary safe house for activists who frequently need to go into hiding.

Whenever he is around town, I get to see him, and over the weekend had another opportunity to listen to him speak at All Souls Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. Throngs listened to him talk about Compassion and call for all people to be tolerant of everybody like Jesus was.

He thanked Americans for their good heart and for sacrificing their huge taxes towards helping the disadvantaged populations around the world, including but not limited to the LGBTI community in Uganda.

Anyone who wants to contribute to this cause…please visit the center’s website.

“The only weapon we can use to fight our battles isn’t guns, atomic bombs, or missiles, but compassion.” Bishop Christopher Senyonjo

 

The Sexual Freedom Project: “I AM” Justice

Thanks to theMassachusetts Transgender Political Coalition we are able to see powerful videos from its I AM: Trans People Speak project. Check the other ones out.

Justice, a trans man learned a lot about life at college, and still ponders the racism, classism, sexism,  homophobia, transphobia, and oppression all around him. His mother’s unconditional love helped form his own activism and desire for healthy communities.

What experiences in your life has radicalized you, inspired your own activism?

Let us know, okay. We’ll give you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt for taking the time to tell your own story, make your own video, write an essay or create a piece of art to express your stor

Why Trans Life is a Necessary Cosmic Reality

For more on Transhuman Erotic Freedom…

También en español At the end of the last post I admitted that  I certainly cannot prove that this higher level of Transcendent Life (Trans Life) exists beyond Real Live (RL) as RL exists beyond Second Life (SL). If it exists, then there is surely a path of transition from RL to Trans Life that is similar to the SL to RL transition, and our destiny is to transcend RL and occupy this new level by following the path of living truth.

Follow me now into a domain of rational speculation and let me explain why I believe Trans Life is a universe reality.

In the post Where Did All This F*cking Evil Sh%t Come From? we explained how the presence of evil in the universe is in contrast to the presence of good. There is no reality in evil; however, good has not yet fully permeated the entire finite universe. If the final state of the finite universe is destined to be completely permeated by good, then a process must exist in time and space for the generation of good to fill the gaps of apparent evil. This process is the action of individual beings satisfying the desire of love to do good to others as an act of free will guided by truth.

Where are the beings to come from who perform the great task of filling the universe with the true goodness born of perfected love? We might speculate that an initially empty finite universe comes into existence with some minimum capability or imperative to satisfy the universal desire of love to do good. We can further speculate that this capability has been sufficient to bring into existence a partially developed and populated universe in which a large number of planets are populated with communities of physical creatures, who are endowed with similar abilities and characteristics as ourselves.

Now we may ask what would be the purpose in populating a RL universe with limited, finite beings destined to decay and disappear after a few decades of productive life? Is it reasonable to speculate that such beings could progressively transfer the seat of their personal consciousness from RL to Trans Life? Looked at from the viewpoint of destiny, would it not be necessary for these finite beings to finally participate in Trans Life, where they could continue to develop as individuals and as doers of good?

The exhaustion of all potentials of finite development will equate to the full expression of love throughout the universe and the full personal development of every person to Trans Life. If RL persons did not survive in Trans Life, there would be no path to the inevitable finality of destiny, the complete emergence of the unified consciousness of all mind, standing at the end of time and drawing all events towards its generation and fulfillment.

To summarize this speculation, if free will personalities aren’t going to live forever as citizens of Trans Life, there will be no way to fully populate the finite universe at the finality of destiny, nor would a corps of beings associated with the finality exist to eventuate identities and provide the tools of transcendence to the citizens of the infinite (post-finite) universe that they will construct, beings we imagine might develop a bit like we have imagined avatars in SL.

True Transhumans, everyone who embraces physical, intellectual, and motivational technologies that provide transcendence, are personally destined to serve truth, as the focal exercise of the true will, for eternity. Transhumans experience the joy of participation in creation and continued existence to satisfy love by doing good to others, guided by the spirit of truth.

Survival of the human consciousness in Trans Life is necessary to provide for full realization of all the potentials of the universe, the true multiverse.

 

The Sexual Freedom Project: Telling my dad that I am gay-LIVE

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell takes effect this week, so we are sharing this viral video that’s reached TV and over 3 million people on YouTube. An active service member calls his Dad in Alabama from where he’s stationed in Germany to tell him he’s gay, and his father responded in a way that’s been very moving.

What’s your coming out story? And what were the reactions of your families and friends? Every coming out is its own revolutionary act, and some people say they come out to a further degree on a daily basis.

Are you in the military now and seeing the effects of DADT repeal?

What are the factors that make coming out easy or hard?

Make your voice heard. Make a comment, or for a free VenusPlusX t-shirt celebrating sexual freedom, send us your own video, or send us a poem or essay or work of art. free