I’m a Bisexual Part 7: “An Addendum to Part 6”
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"I will put the strength of democracy before politics."
- Governor Kate Brown (Oregon)
Now I wish I’d have waited a couple of weeks before writing the last installment of this series. Every day it seems like awesome things are happening in the LGBT community and true equality might actually happen before I’m dead and cold in my future watery grave having pledged myself to the Great Old One’s who forever dwell below.
*NOTE: No I don’t plan on drowning or being entombed bodily in the chilly depths. My post death plans are to have my body cremated and the ashes spread under the Mackinac Bridge.
So why do I wish I’d waited to write the last one?
Because, despite wishing I’d waited I’m pretty fucking happy today. There is now a sitting openly LGBT Governor in the United States. Not just openly LGBT but open about it before she was sworn in. Not only an openly sworn in LGBT governor but one who actually looks like she’ll do a pretty good job based on her track record… except for her support of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner merger.
But, everyone get’s one.
So who is this flawed but ultimately, in my opinion and let’s be honest if you don’t love feed fund or fuck me I don’t care about your opinion, a decent person. She also might be a pretty good governor.
Katherine "Kate" Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and former attorney who is the 38th and current Governor of Oregon. Before becoming governor, Brown, a member of the Democratic Party, was Oregon Secretary of State, having been elected to that office in the 2008 elections. She was re-elected to a second term in 2012.
Prior to becoming Secretary of State, Brown served in the Oregon State Senate representing Oregon's 21st Senate District, which includes portions of Northeast and Southeast Portland and Milwaukie.
Because Oregon does not have a lieutenant governor, Brown was first in line to succeed the governor. Following Governor John Kitzhaber's resignation, Brown was sworn in on February 18, 2015, as his successor. Brown is the state's second female governor, after Barbara Roberts, as well as the first openly bisexual governor in United States history.
Early life
Brown was born in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain, where her father was serving in the United States Air Force, but was raised in Minnesota. She graduated from Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minnesota in 1978. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Conservation with a certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1981 and a J.D. degree and certificate in Environmental Law from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in 1985.
Career
Law
Brown has taught at Portland State University, and practiced family and juvenile law. She was a family law attorney with Youth, Rights and Justice (formerly the Juvenile Rights Project), a non-profit corporation in Portland, Oregon, providing legal services to children and families with both defense and advocacy programs.
Politics
Brown began her legislative career in 1991 in the Oregon House of Representatives, when she was appointed to fill a vacancy left by Judy Bauman's acceptance of an executive appointment. She was reelected to a second term before being elected to the Senate in 1996. Two years later, she was elected Senate Democratic Leader; and, in 2004, senators made her the first woman to serve as Oregon's Senate Majority Leader.
In July 2007, Brown announced that she would give up her seat in the Oregon Senate to be a candidate for Oregon Secretary of State in 2008. On May 20, 2008, Brown won the election for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State; and, on November 5, she won the general election by a 51-46% margin against Republican candidate Rick Dancer.
In 2009, the Aspen Institute named Brown as one of 24 "Rising Stars" in American politics and awarded her with a Rodel Fellowship. The program is a two-year fellowship designed to break down partisan barriers and explore the responsibilities of public leadership and good governance.
In January 2015, Brown submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission in support of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger that had been written almost entirely ghostwritten by Comcast, a company that has made a total of over $10,000 in donations to her past election campaigns.
Oregon Secretary of State
Audits Division
Coming into office, one of Brown’s priorities was to perform rigorous performance audits to help balance the budget. In 2008, for every dollar the State spent, performance audits returned $8 in cost savings. In 2010, Brown reported she delivered $64 in cost savings and efficiencies for every dollar invested in the Division.
Elections Division
In 2009, Brown introduced and passed House Bill 2005 to crack down on fraud and abuse in the initiative and referendum system. It gave the Secretary of State more power to prosecute fraud and enforce the constitutional ban on paying per signature on initiatives.
Brown also implemented online voter registration. As of March 2010, a year after its introduction, Oregon Public Broadcasting noted nearly 87,000 Oregonians had already registered online to vote.
In October 2012, State Tech magazine highlighted Brown's use of iPad and tablet technology to increase accessibility for voters with disabilities. In 2011, Oregon became the first jurisdiction in the country to use this technology to help voters with disabilities mark their ballots.
Governor of Oregon
On February 13, 2015, Governor John Kitzhaber announced his resignation, amid a public corruption scandal; Brown succeeded him on February 18, 2015.
Brown named Brian Shipley, a lobbyist for Oregon Health & Science University and former deputy chief of staff to Governor Ted Kulongoski, as her chief of staff.
Personal life
Brown lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband Dan Little. She has two stepchildren, Dylan and Jessie. She identifies as bisexual and was the country's first openly bisexual statewide officeholder.
Awards and distinctions
1995 Recipient, Woman of Achievement Award from the Oregon Commission for Women
2004 Recipient, National Public and Community Service Award from the American Mental Health Counselors Association
2007 Recipient, President's Award of Merit from the Oregon State Bar
Profiles in Courage by Basic Rights Oregon
Not only do we more have a sitting LGBT state governor but she’s also a bisexual. Now before you say anything approaching “Big deal homosexual is homosexual” allow me to serve you a preemptive sit down and shut the fuck up.
You mad yet?
Good, because we have some issues we need address when it comes to being bisexual. Just because a human being identifies as bisexual does not make them the same as gay or a lesbian or a transgendered individual… and vice versa up and down the line. I mean do I really need to explain this to anyone? Apparently because I see comments all over the infosphere from straight and LGBT people about how Bi people are either liars or they are selfish.
Were the people saying that dropped on their heads as children? Are they the descendants of thalidomide victims? Did they perhaps ingest worms as children that found their ways into the cerebral cortex and set up camp? I mean seriously, are they fucking morons?
Okay, I’ve calmed down. I just needed to get that off my chest before I got to the meat of this essay. But one last thing needs to be said before I continue, if you like just because a person who is bisexual (ahem that would be me by the way) is predisposed to be a promiscuous, cheating, and deviant sex fiend I want you to leave. Seriously don’t read my work anymore, I don’t want your money, I don’t want your support, and I want absolutely nothing to do with you. And frankly that goes triple if you’re LGBT.
Back enough of that shit. Let’s get back to the topic at hand.
Yesterday February 18, 2015 Kate Brown was sworn in as the Governor of Oregon. She is the first openly Bisexual governor in American history. It may not seem like a big deal to the straight community, or even to many in the LGBT community as a whole, but to me it’s on par with the election of Barak Obama in 2008.
I know what some of you are thinking.
“But Josh that was a monumental event that will be remembered as long as there is a United Sates of America and this is a footnote at best. It’s nice that one of you finally got one but we’re just really sick and tire of hearing you people whine.”
I don’t have a witty retort to you if that’s what you’re waiting for, say sorry. It hurts me to say it but you’re probably right. Barak Obama, Harvey Milk, Sally Ride, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Thurgood Marshall are names that will be remembered two hundred years from now. Sadly Kate Brown will likely end up as a footnote with Crispus Attucks, Hiram Revels, and Rebecca Latimer Felton as significant but not wall shattering American’s.
But you know what?
That’s okay, that’s pretty good company to be remembered in.
Everything would have been coming up Millhouse if I’d just stuck to reading the articles. Like every liberal progressive who gets off on opinion mixed with fact I shamefully admit to enjoying the Huffington Post.
Much like conservatives who get guilty pleasure reading The Blaze even though they know 50% of it is full of shit I absorb Huff Post every morning. Yeah Josh bad, but at least I read BBC, NPR, and The Guardian for my more factual news.
So like I always do I read Huff Post. Then I did something I almost never do… I read the comments. I know that was a really bad ideas, for the most part I don’t even read the reviews some of the mouth breathers leave on books so why in the name of the seven hells did I read the comments on a Huff Post article of all things?
Okay, the article in question is below for you to read. Beneath that I have selected three of the most benign comments to respond to. I can’t take the uber religious fanatics, obvious homophobes, trolls, and morons too stupid to string a sentence tighter serious enough to respond to. I have altered these quotes in no way except for omitting the author names, there’s no need for that.
Kate Brown Sworn In As Oregon Governor
By Shelby Sebens
SALEM, Ore., Feb 18 (Reuters) - Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown was sworn in as governor on Wednesday, taking over from a fellow Democrat who saw his decades-long political career crumble because of an influence-peddling scandal involving his fiancée.
Governor John Kitzhaber had said he would resign effective Wednesday morning after federal and state corruption probes stemming from allegations that his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, used her role in his office for personal gain.
Brown was sworn in during a ceremony on the floor of the state House of Representatives in Salem, Oregon's capital, becoming the country's first openly bisexual governor.
Elected to an unprecedented fourth term in November, Kitzhaber has denied any wrongdoing but agreed to step down following criticism from prominent fellow Democrats. His resignation triggers an election for governor to be held next year in the West Coast state.
Brown, who has touted her work in passing comprehensive civil rights and domestic partnership laws, has said little about her plans. But her office said she would urge a bipartisan approach and "lay out a series of immediate reforms needed to restore the public's trust in government." (Reporting by Shelby Sebens in Salem, Oregon; Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Will Dunham)
“I think all hetero's need to start bragging too. I am sick of hearing what kind of weird sex everybody does. Who cares? keep it to yourselves. lamers!”
Bragging that they’re Hetro? Why would they have to do that? Heterosexuals have been and always will be the dominate section of the population. It’s been the hetero community (although far from all of them) who’ve oppressed and discriminated against the LGBT community. How exactly is being open and honest about who you are bragging? How is it “Weird Sex”? Umm… I care, a lot of people care. Here’s an idea if it’s not hurting you shut the fuck up.
“dont flaunt it...keep it in the bedroom where it belongs”
So does this mean that hetero’s should never mention or display their affection for their loved ones as well?
“She cannot be in a monogamous relationship, if she goes both ways. But she could be in a threesome!”
You are an ignorant piece of shit and I hope you wake up with a spider in your bed. Not the poisonous kind just one big enough that you wet yourself.
Alright boils and ghouls, hope that wasn’t too repetitive from last time.
- Josh