The National Equality March in Washington, DC.
October 10-11, 2009

Join Nick Reitz and thousands of other LGBT people and our Straight or Questioning allies in Washington, DC.  We will be joined by members of every race, class, faith, and community, as we see the struggle for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.

Do you remember the 14th amendment?  It forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws.”  Click here to learn more about the 14th amendment and how it applies to our situation.

Also, check out No on 1 in Maine as well.  Help support marriage equality by preventing another prop 8 from passing by clicking here.

Are you interested in learning more about LGBT issues or other Marriage Equality issues, subscribe to our LGBT RSS Feed.  If you haven’t already shared your story of coming out or having someone close to you struggle with the burden of being gay, Share Your Story Here.

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I’ve seen many a card trick in my day, but nothing as elaborate as this.  There isn’t any camera cuts either; it’s obvious that he practiced this many times to get it down.  It makes me feel like a kid again whenever I watch this video.  Enjoy!

Song: Thick as Theives by Dashboard Confessional

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The new preview for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” was just released.  Besides for Johnny Depp being his usually creepy self, it just seems like Alice is on Acid more than anything.  Good job, Disney.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjMkNrX60mA

Way creepy, if you ask me.  Is this a children’s film or an adult movie?

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Every LGBT person has a different and unique story about their life and coming out.  Some are joyful- Parents and friends accepting them for who they are, people caring about them no matter what, and a sense of overall acceptance toward the person.  Others are horrifying- Teenagers being kicked out of their houses because of their sexual orientation, being taunted and beat up and school, and not having anyone to turn to or trust because they are different.  Well, I want to hear your story.

You can share your story in the “Comments” section below.  I will compile the stories into a few posts.  If I use your story, I will contact you via e-mail before I do.

I look forward to your stories.  Thank you so much for sharing.  If you want to help to share your story, please Digg or Tweet this post.  Thank you so very much.

If you’re interested in learning more about my LGBT experience, you can go the my series about LGBT life by clicking here.  It contains useful information and videos about my year as GSA founder and President in my small farming villiage.

Nothing is too personal or unorthadox to talk about; however, any uncalled for profanity or sexual details will not be tolerated and the comment WILL be deleted.

Thanks for sharing; Also, vote in our poll below.

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I came across this story on Digg.  Watch it; you’ll be shocked.  Then, voice your opinion on my poll, or leave a comment on this thread.  The story is completely outrageous, and I hope you are as angry as I am about it.

After watching the video, now we want to hear back from you;

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

It’s completely outrageous.  That man could have died, and never once did he even ask what was wrong or if anyone was even in serious medical need.  Unbelievable.

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Just the Facts: Mitosis

If you’re like me, you need both a visual representation as well as an explanation as to what is going on.  With Mitosis and Meiosis, this can be especially hard.  I’ve found an extremely good Mitosis video.  The video ends at 1:21, but for some reason the video tries to keep going…  Just know that after a minute and twenty-one seconds, that’s it.

Not only does this video show the details of what happens during Mitosis, it also has the phase listed down below on the left hand side.  I hate to say phase; I believe that Mitosis is more of a fluid process.  Metaphase and the other phases are just snapshots of the entire fluid motion of Mitosis.

Enjoy!

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Nick’s Blog: The Top Five Disney Movie Songs of All Time

This is a completely musical perspective on the movies.  I’m a devout athiest, yet you’ll see “The Prince of Egypt” on my list.  Feel free to comment on this- disagree, agree, fight, whatever.  I was to hear your opinions.  If there is enough talk, I might even start a poll of sorts.  If I can find youtube clips of the songs, I will link them.  Here goes:

Disney Movie Five: Aladdin

One of the best, but unfortunitely, way too overplayed.  The most well known song is “A Whole New World“, of course; however, one of my other favorites are “Prince Ali“.  Not only am I really surprised that someone like Robin Williams can sing so well, but the son is actually really good.  The chorus is catchy, the tune isn’t simple, and the ending leaves you very up beat.  One of my favorites.

Disney Movie Four: Lion King

The Lion King is another classic, but a genius one at that.  The Circle of Life still to this day gives me goosebumps when I hear it.  When you watch the movie with the song, the effect is completely phenominal.  The movie also has some amazing songs like Can You Feel the Love Tonight? and Hakuna Matata.  Can You Feel the Love Tonight is another of Disney’s killer long songs, it makes me tear up every time I watch it.

Disney Movie Three: Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast not only teaches kids to not be selfish or judge a book by its cover, it also contains some pretty smashing songs.  Belle and Be Our Guest are two of my personal favorites, but yet again, Disney hits it out of the park with a Tale as Old As Time, another classic love song, backed up by Something There.  When the movie accompanies the song, Belle’s yellow dress leaves a great image in your mind for the rest of your life.

Disney Movie Two: Pocahontas

One of my all time favorites.  Not only does Paint With All the Colors of the Wind teach about protecting the environment, but also to not be hasty about judging people or situations.  Around The River Bend,  Listen with Your Heart (short but sweet!), and Steady as the Beating Drum are all phenomenal songs, but my personal favorite is Savages. It sums up how people really feel about people different from themselves, and it’s extremely depressing but true.

The Best Disney Movie: The Prince of Egypt

The Prince of Egypt has some of the best songs ever.  Plagues is completely amazing, and along with the movie, it’s even better.  Deliver Us gives me goosebumps every time I hear it because of the combination of the music, the singing, and the actual movie.  My all-time favorite, the song that makes me cry at times, would be There Can Be Miracles (When You Believe).  This song is completely, absolutely, amazingly beautiful.  There have been lots of remakes, but none even come close to Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky’s duo.  If this surprises you, again, it has nothing to do with God or religion.  It’s just a work of art; the music is phenominal.  If you’ve never seen “The Prince of Egypt”, you should see it.  It’s a spectacular movie.  Another few songs worth mentioning are In Heaven’s Eyes and Playing with The Big Boys Now

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I’ve added even more features to make the site more adequate.

First, the site is now accessible via your mobile phone.  You can read up-to-date posts on the go, as well as comment on the posts.  Also, I’m currently in the process of adding blogcasts to the site.

Also, I added a “Donate” page for anyone who would want to donate to keeping this site up and functional.  I’ve added Chitika Ads as well to help generate more income in conjunction with Google Adsense; I don’t want to ever have to pay for site hosting, domain names, or anything else out of my pocket ever again.

More information will come soon; stay tuned!

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Reader’s Choice

Reader’s Choice will be a weekly blog based on questions or subjects that I will receive from my readers.  Feel free to sent me an e-mail at questions@nickreitz.com. I will receive your e-mail almost instantly, since it is sent directly to my Blackberry.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

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It’s estimated that 42 million people have an abortion every year.  About 3,700 abortions take place every day in the United States (www.agi-usa.org).  And with the constant debate that rages between pro-life and pro-choice groups, here are some facts that are usually left out.

A big fact that surprised me was that “women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%” (http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html).  One of the current anti-abortion groups are Notre Dame.  When President Obama spoke at the Notre Dame Graduation class of 2009, a person even interrupted his speech yelling “Abortion is murder! Stop killing children!”

What I really don’t understand is the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of children in orphanages.  If there were a shortage of children, I’d understand the rage and uproar that people cause.  However, it’s quite the opposite.  If people weren’t able to get abortions, most would put their children up for adoption.  This means thousands and thousands of children flowing into already crowded and underfunded orphanages. It wouldn’t be a pretty picture.  Crime would increase in those areas from kids who would act out in anger towards their situations.

As Neil Steinburg puts it in his article on Abortion in the sun times, “Stealing is bad, and religion speaks against it, but no congregation ever took to the streets to protest theft.”  The same thing is true for gay marriage- There is only a few key verses that even mention gay marriage, yet most religious groups think it’s the sin of all sins.  Even saying that “Abortion is Murder” in insidious.  Murder in the last trimester, yeah.  But when a baby is only sixteen cells? No.  When a baby doesn’t have a brain or a hearbeat?  No.

My own personal opinion on the subject is this; if you don’t want to get an abortion, don’t.  It’s none of your concern who gets an abortion and who doesn’t.  It’s none of your business.  Leave your nose out of everyone’s business.  Period.

So here it is to the Catholics: Spend your money and time on adopting children.  Keep away from saving children until you have somewhere to put them, families who want them, and money to support them.  Growing up in a home where you know you’re an accident isn’t a self esteem booster, we all know that.

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