I don’t own a car but when I did I would go to any length to avoid getting my gas at an Exxon Mobil station. It’s time that we started a nationwide boycott for LGBT Americans and our allies to know you never ever stop to get gas at Exxon/Mobil.

 

Today is their annual shareholders meeting and for the 14^th consecutive year the issue of job discrimination based on sexual orientation is on the agenda. While 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted written nondiscrimination policies Exxon Mobil has moved further from the mainstream. Exxon Mobil ranks last in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality index of the Fortune 1000 corporations, with a score of negative 25 out of a possible 100. The first company to have ever received a negative score from HRC.

 

Freedom to Work (nonprofit LGBT worker advocacy group), submitted fake resumes for two women for an administrative assistant position at Exxon’s Patoka, Ill., office. Only one got a request for a follow-up interview. Freedom to Work filed a complaint because of one particular item on the resume set the second applicant apart. Applicant one volunteered as a secretary for a feminist group, while applicant two served as a treasurer for a local chapter of the Victory Fund, a gay-rights organization. There were also significant differences between the two resumes the LGBT resume was stronger and better qualified for the position than the non-LGBT resume she also had a higher grade point average, more advanced office skills, a higher ranking previous position with a greater level of responsibility, and a longer work history…..but they don’t discriminate!

 

They also have no benefits for domestic partners and when they acquired Mobil they demanded that those benefits be dropped. A company that has gone to such lengths to avoid equality for LGBT employees shouldn’t be getting our hard earn dollars.

 

So as I said why are people still buying gas at Exxon Mobil??

At midnight Anthony Weiner threw his hat in the ring…will New Yorkers forgive him? What does the LGBT community do? How important is having a LGBT mayor? What comes first?

 

The announcement came in the form of a video. He apologized for his misconduct and asked New Yorkers for forgiveness and the opportunity to be our mayor. Weiner’s entry in the mayoral race certainly makes the race a lot more interesting.

 

The purpose of this blog is to encourage conversation and this is a topic that I would really like to hear from you.

 

Aside from the fact that I’m just too tired to even think about writing anymore….so what do you think is having a gay mayor the top priority?

 

Once again the City has taken it upon themselves to anything they want without notifying residents. An example is seen by the hundreds of bike stations set up around the City. I ride a bike and I’m all in favor of the Share A Bike program but I didn’t expect to see these horrific looking stations put in about dumbest locations one can imagine. The Trader Joe’s loading dock on 21^st Street….or on 20^th and 7^th a block that has vertical parking!!!

How about in front of apartment buildings leaving residents the inability to unload anything in front of their building. How about the handicapped or seniors who need curb access for wheel chairs to get into and out of taxis! Also these stations aren’t mobile so how will the City clean streets or plow snow? I doubt that anything said by residents will change where the stations have been placed….and in time perhaps we’ll grow accustom to seeing these bike stations.

 

The past few days the City has placed three DOT guys on 9th Ave holding signs saying “STOP” and “WRONG DIRECTION”! They hold the STOP sign up to warn cyclists to stop on red. These guys have no authority can’t give tickets and many the cyclists are just ignoring their presence and as usual are ignoring the lights. Another example of our tax dollars at work!

 

Did you know that electric bikes are illegal in New York? The number of delivery guys with them has grown out of control. They go in any direction they want and most of them go at speeds faster then cyclists.

 

This is just the beginning of my bike rant…

Sanford the former governor of South Carolina whose career and marriage fell apart in 2009 after he disappeared for six days when he went to visit his lover in Argentina. He was the governor who left office in 2010 because of his admission of an extramarital affair. Sanford thinks he has been forgiven… I think it was just a few ignorant voters who put him back in office. South Carolina just elected a man who deserted his marriage and the people in his state by lby disappearing for 6 days!. And he stole from the state by using public funds to visit his mistress. How the hell did he pull this off?

 

If Sanford has been forgiven by South Carolinians can New Yorkers forgive Anthony Weiner? There’s certainly a difference between texting embarrassing photos on your Twitter account verses running off for 6 days while using government money and cheating on your wife.

 

If Weiner decides to run he would make the mayor’s race into a real street fight. Weiner has the perfect personality for the campaign …….he’s loud, obnoxious and arrogant….and most of the country views new Yorkers the same way. Weiner didn’t break any laws, he didn’t steal…he did however, hurt himself and his family, and he let down his constituents.

 

If South Carolina can send Sanford back to Congress can New York send Weiner to Gracie mansion?

 

 

 

 

 

African-American to play professional baseball we come to another first…. Jason Collins became the first openly gay male athlete who is still active in a major American team sport. Collins’s announcement was greeted with an outpouring of support from teammates, league executives and major National Basketball Association stars, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade among them. This was such an event that President Obama called him to congratulate Jason.

 

Hopefully Jason’s coming out will impact positive change because it’s another step towards reaching the place where kids afraid to be honest with the world on who they are. Every time a national figure comes out, especially in fields where gay men and women are not especially known to be present, that kid realizes that there are others out there like them who have succeeded and are comfortable with themselves.

 

 

But hey folks there wasn’t this kind of hoopla in 1981 when Martina and Billie Jean came out….or in 2002 for my friend Sue Wicks ….and last week when the WNBA’s first pick Brittney Griner came out seconds after she was drafted it was barely noticed. Jason is years behind the women that had courage to come out and be who the are. Just another example of the disparity between men and women.