the difference between Murder 1, Murder 2, and Manslaughter (hate crime protest in Queens and a bridal fashion show)

I woke up on Saturday morning with my clothes and lights on. Obviously I had passed after gorging on a whole rice and beans meal with chicken from El Mambi (across the street from No Parking). Luckily, none ended up on the bed.

I had read online earlier in the week about a rally happening in reaction to a guy getting gay bashed in Queens. I was still all activist-gay from the National Equality March, so I started trying to rally troops for the rally around noon.

You can tell it's gonna be a looooong fight for equality.

As you can see, most people were being trés lame, but I was determined not to be by myself out there. Med School Mess, who was shockingly drunk at the open bar the night before, agreed to meet me. While I wanted to meet up in Manhattan and travel together, he wanted to rendezvous at the rally so that he wouldn’t have to use two swipes on his MetroCard ($2.25 is hard to come by these days).

Somehow, it took me forever to get ready, so I didn’t end up leaving the house til 1:30. I figured I’d be a little late, and it woouldn't be big deal. I mean, how long could it tiake to get to Queens! Did I mention that the protest was at 2? In College Point, Queens?!

I finally looked up the details of the protest on my iPhone on the way to the train. “Okay, so I take the 7 train to Main St. Wait, Main St… like Flushing! I have to the full length of the 7 train! And then take a bus?! Oh hell no!”

Thankfully, the 7 train is one of the shorter lines in the subway system, and most of it is above ground. Between starting on a blog entry, twittering, and nodding off, I was able to keep myself entertained for the duration of the ride. I got out at the end of the line and had time to grab a vitamin water and a Red Bull before the bus came.

Med School Mess had arrived before me but was obviously running on Gay-Light Savings Time too.

Why was the bus that came so old that it had the pull cord instead of the strip of tape to request a stop! Two blocks from the protest, the bus had the nerve to break down!

When I finally arrived at the protest, I found Med School Mess with Tighty Whitey standing towards the back of the small crowd.

Med school Mess, looking up from his phone: “Did you see the counter-protest?”

Me: “You mean the 5 people behind the police blockades? Speaking of, there’s a lot of police presence here! I guess that’s a good thing.”

Tighty Whitey: “Depending on whose side they’re on!”

Me: “The counter-protestors are the ones in captivity. I think we’re good… Mess, are you on Grindr?!”

We had obviously missed the march, but they were in the middle of a series of short speeches by community leaders and students. Med School Mess pointed out a reporter he recognized from one of the local news stations . I pointed out that his camera man was shooting on a Betacam SP camera: “Damn, the couldn’t get the gays in HD? Or at least digi! And you know how they always send the black reporter to Harlem and the Latin reporter to WaHi? I wonder if they sent the gay reporter to the rally!”

Eventually the speeches ended, and people started milling about. We started to leave, but we decided to give the counter-protesters (or “bashers” as I called them) a few minutes and catch the next bus. I subtly checked out a husky but cute cop as I walked by him.

A woman announced as we were getting on the bus, “Hey, did someone lose their wallet…”

Me, checking my pockets: “Nope, got mine.”

Woman: “…'Cause I gave it to the cop.”

Me: “Come to think of it, I just may have lost mine!”

Tighty Whitey: “I’ll be King of his Queens!”

Tighty Whitey was on his way to a party in Astoria (nowhere near College Park) and invited us along. “I have to warn you: it’s a straight party.” I appreciated the warning, but l was up for an adventure.

Can we have a short conversation about how no one in Astoria lives near the train! It’s one of the main reasons why I ruled it out as a place to live: all the good, affordable places I saw were at least a 15 minute walk from transit! Anyway, Tighty Whitey introduced us to his very nice RG friend who happened to have some very nice Real Gay friends, the hottest of whom (boyfriend and out of towner, ugh) made us drinks using port wine and ginger liqueur.

At one point, we were talking to a straight white dude about the protest we were at, and he comes out of his mouth with, “I really don’t see why we need extra legislation for hate crimes.”` I was about * this close to blurting out something condescending and handing him a brochure for a sociology class, but Tighty Whitey and Med School Mess had a very articulate debate with him about the messages hate crimes send to the society that observes them. I could really only get composed enough to chime in towards the end.

Him: “Well, I really don’t agree with legislating what’s going on inside a person’s mind. Because that’s really the difference between a hate crime and a random act of violence.”

Me: “Yeah, that’s also the difference between Murder 1, Murder 2, and Manslaughter.”

Don't sleep: I used to watch New York Undercover. Malik Yoba was FOOOIIIIIIIINE!

If we didn’t change this guy's mind, we definitely gave him a lot to think about. But really, if you’re part of a majority group and you’re not convinced of the validity of a law protecting a minority group of which you are not a part, don’t phrase it that way because you’ll look like an ass. “Devil’s advocate…” and “But what I don’t understand is…” and “Can you give me an example of…” are much more intelligent and peaceful phrases than “I really don’t see the point of…” Really.

Totally Tyler had texted me about a bridal fashion show with which one of his designer friends was involved. Fashion runway outrageousness meets bridezilla? Of course I wanted to go! Tighty Whitey took her leave, but Med School Mess gladly joined me for the show.

The fashion show, held at 583 Park Ave, was quite the scene! We were seated upstairs since the lower level was reserved for press and such. It was difficult to see the runway, but we crowded around the balcony railing to gawk and photograph. The first half of the fashion show was a bit more tame, but it still elicited a few gasps and one spontaneous round of applause.

Please tell me why the served cans of champagne with straws at the intermission!

Yes, it's an American Eagle shirt, but I crossed out "American" and wrote in "The". WOOF. Not that there's anything wrong with the GAP corporation; I'm just not in high school. Or Ohio.

Those cans just made it more portable so that people could throw them in their coat pockets for later. Not that anyone I know did that, just sayin’.

After the second half of the show (much more exciting and daring designs and a different set of models who were all giving us walk with a generous dollop of fierce!), we went to Pop Burger in midtown. I had a funny experience because a coworker had suggested we go there a few weeks before, saying it was an upscale burger joint. The food was good, but it didn’t seem particularly “upscale” to me. What I didn’t know was that there was a whole restaurant/bar/lounge upstairs! People were coming in and not even ordering food. Very nice decor and a cool mix of music, but drinks were $8. And that’s just happy hour!

After a bite there, we grabbed a cab (at Totally Tyler’s insistence… and on his dime: I see no need to take a cab when the trains are running regularly, but I won't turn down a free one!) down to Pieces for Saturday Karaoke.

It wasn’t crowded at all (though it was only about 10:30), so I went to the song book to take advantage of the less-than-an-hour wait. While we were looking through, the new, comically tragic drag queen host called out the name of a guy who wasn’t present.

Her: “Jason? Jason going once... going twice... Okay, anybody wanna take his song?”

At that point, I immediately grabbed Adam4FaceHunt’s (a friend of TTT’s who earned his name because his Facebook profile pictures are always shirtless... class of '04) hand and raised it for him. He grabbed Med School Mess, who put up no fight, to help him sing the song.

“And you’ll be singing…. 'Circus'!”

Needless to say, it was tons of tone-deafening fun.

I was surprised by how quickly my name came up. I had picked what I thought would be a crowd favorite, and I was right. From the opening chords, I heard sounds of recognition and approval. The song I chose: “Hush Hush; Hush Hush” (the “I Will Survive” remix, of course). It was a last-minute decision to sing it in the original octave, and thankfully, it worked out well. So well, in fact, that a guy gushed for about 15 minutes about how he’s worked in TV for years and has never seen such “effortless” talent. Let me tell you: it was far from effortless. In fact, I had to cut out half of the run after the “I Will Survive” sample (whatever! Nicole was smart enough to avoid that high F live!). And with Med School Mess singing “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” and MicHELLe singing "Million Dollar Bill" the Ivy League Crew et. al. made quite the showing at Saturday Night Karaoke.

Did I mention Totally Tyler required for a cab for the ride home, too? Yeah.

A few of us had a blast at last year's Gay Erotic Expo. Click here to check it out.

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