Dare to dream!

No, really, I dare to you to dream and then make it a reality! Never in a million years did I think that I would get some of the biggest and hottest LGBT-names in Finland to come to my little shindig, but they did and it was amazing!

You know, there's always room for improvement and we definitely have that in regards to attendance but as far as the program part of Forssa Pride 3 goes, I can't complain. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I had no doubt that Rakel would deliver, she's a pro at this. She's funny, she's articulate and she was the perfect hostess for the event. I listened carefully when Leena won her Miss Gay Finland crown and her speech after winning was something I could identify with. She wants to have an impact on the same things I do. The one part that I wasn't familiar with was Aleks, but I was really impressed with him. Not a lot of 19-year olds have to do that much self reflection nor are they ready to take on the task of changing peoples perception or fight for human rights. Aleks was very mature and his attitude of "you have to take bad with the good" was really impressive. You can't take everything personally and that's something we should all remember. On top of them bringing their A-game, they were all really lovely people and weren't bothered with all the "Can I get a picture with you" questions they heard throughout the night. I think Aleks with his recent stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house was the biggest hit of the night.

 Backstage beforehand.

 Showtime!

Me with the stars of the night.

The intellectual discussion was something that you don't really get in Forssa, at least not in public, and makes me think about all the things I'm missing. Also, makes me sad that not more people were interested in coming to hear them, because there was a lot of things that could have opened peoples eyes and really make them think about things and their own resources to impact a change, whether in their own lives, in Forssa or even more nationally. Listening to that discussion and also the questions that were posed, made me appreciate my own Gay Cafe group and the "more than a rainbow" group I go to at Pirkanmaan Seta.

On Sunday I heard people I don't personally know talking about Forssa Pride for the first time. I thought it was great, because I haven't heard anybody ever talking about anything LGBT related in Forssa before, and just few weeks ago I saw my first female couple holding hands in Forssa. What a sheltered life I've led so far!

I want to thank Green Whale for sponsoring this event and bar 54 for hosting us. I was also promised that there would be Forssa Pride 4, so I'll see you next Spring! Before that I'll be at Lahti Pride, Gay Cafe will be marching there and some of us were thinking about staying for the after party.

The irony

I think it's just swell how a year after (plus minus few days) I had to leave USA they passed marriage equality in the State of New York. Not that it would have helped me, but still. Then tomorrow, on the anniversary of being dumped it would be possible to get married in my home-state-away-from-home, New Jersey. And since DOMA is no longer in effect, this would actually help me.

I should probably send my application for the diversity visa lottery, because I'd probably get it too, now that it wouldn't matter at all anymore.

Is it really tomorrow?

I can't believe my little chat with Leena before Helsinki Pride Parade resulted in Leena, Aleks and Rakel coming to Forssa tomorrow to headline Forssa Pride! How crazy is that? One day you're imagining this little gay party and then year from it you have some of the biggest lgbt names from Finland coming to your party because you asked them! Asked! That's how easy it was.

I'm once again so happy and humbled and amazed what you can do when you dare to dream.

I'll see see you at Forssa Pride tomorrow!

Feedback feels good

I sometimes feel like I live in a vacuum and don't really see the impact that my actions have. One of the biggest reasons for me leading Gay Cafe and organizing Forssa Pride is to create a Community for people around the area. Sometimes, especially when I was doing everything by myself and no one would show up, I felt like I'm living in this bubble and no one else is around. Why am I doing this again? Only gay in the village

Then we get to Forssa Pride and people are having fun, telling me they've had some much fun and how grateful they are that I've organized it. Same with recurring people at Gay Cafe, or new ones coming in and telling me they had so much fun. It feels amazing to hear that what I've created is helping others.

Last time at Gay Cafe I had invited a friend to lead the discussion, we had a 4 page spread in a local news paper to open the discussion about lgbt people as customers in social services and health care and I invited directors of social services from the 5 local municipalities and none of them showed up and only one had the decency to decline the invitation. Then today I found out that one has also been an active volunteer at FSMS but couldn't even bother to decline or reach out. I feel slighted but at the same time I realize how much this is needed. I won't give up.

I also need to learn not to take these things personally. It's hard, because they're things I've come up with, things I KNOW need improving, things I am doing to improve them and no one is listening. No one is paying attention. We're not important enough. Once again, we are invisible, and I feel it's ME that's invisible. And because I feel invisible here, it's sometimes hard to believe in the positive feedback I get from outside Forssa from people who are doing these things in areas where they have a big organization behind them with like-minded people helping them.

I love what I'm doing, at its best it's so rewarding and at its worst it's so frustrating. And this isn't even anything I get paid to do. I must really love it or be totally bat shit crazy!

It's that time again

So, in case you didn't know, it's the time of the year again when Forssa Pride Party is fast approaching and Eino has, once again, made a fabulous poster for the party. It'll be all over Southern Finland in no time. He also made a badge model for it, which I turned into a t-shirt, which you can buy from here.

And here is the poster in all of its glory!

Our Facebook events page can be found here.

I hope to see many of you there, it's going to be amazing time! We are excited!

Best. week. ever!

That might be a recycled title for a post, but I don't care as I feel this has been the best week ever, and I doubt tomorrow will bring it down!

I had my 33rd birthday on Tuesday, which was also the first meeting of the fall season for Gay Cafe and we had a new person showing up who seems like will be returning.

After I came home from Gay Cafe, I had a message regarding the hosting job for Forssa Pride 3's program. All the people who I asked to participate, said yes, so as you might know, Miss Gay Finland 2013 Leena Luuri and Mr. Gay Finland 2013 Aleks Vehkala promised to do a discussion and Q&A-type of thing for Forssa Pride as well as participate in an extra Gay Cafe meeting we have that day! And, if you are in Finland, and have access to TV, you can check Aleks out in the new season of Celebrity Big Brother that started on Tuesday, just as I was announcing the stars for Forssa Pride! The hostess also said yes, but as I have yet to get a confirmation that I can use her name for promotional purposes, I will refrain from revealing it! Still, Happy Birthday to me!

On Friday I got my tax forms back. What was already a substantial amount of money (in my financial situation) became even bigger after my student loan payments and commuting costs for work were included. I feel like another shopping trip to the USA is in order!

And today, I got a phone call from the owner of a local jewelry company from whom I had asked their interest in sponsoring Forssa Pride 3. We have 3 guests coming from out of town whose travel and hotel costs need to be paid for. Green Whale Jewelry has booked and is paying for the hotel rooms!

I have said it before and I'll keep saying it till I'm blue in the face, I love this community so much! Organizing both Forssa Pride and Gay Cafe has really showed me what a community is and people's willingness to help always amazes me.

Tomorrow I will go get trained at SETA in Helsinki, so this week...be still my heart! Only way this week could get any better is if I find the love of my life tomorrow! :)

I hope to see some of you at Forssa Pride 3 and if you show up, come say hi!

Olympics in Sochi

For the last couple of weeks/months, the discussion on the Olympics in Sochi and the anti-LGBT laws in Russia have intensified.

It went from the International Olympic Committee announcing that athletes and fans would not be affected, to many Russian politicians saying it will, in fact, be in effect during the games, to IOC saying  it won't participate in politics etc.

In all likelihood, the games will be held in Russia, but I, for one, won't be watching. I would love it, if the games were transferred to another location, or if the athlete community would boycott it, or even countries at large. But I doubt it will happen.

The violence against lgbt people in Russia has intensified since the law was passed, and it seems like it is all the validation neo-nazis and other homophobes need to justify beating up innocent people for just being themselves.

It's not even about athletes being able to be themselves and feel proud about themselves. It will be very difficult to arrest international athletes without anyone noticing, or without it becoming a major news story and reflect badly on Russia. But who will defend the fans? Suspicion of gay propaganda is enough to arrest people, whether it's true or not. So who will make sure that the international fans will be treated right, or won't disappear in the dungeons of Russian prison system, or won't be beaten to death by locals defending this law? And what about the local LGBT community? How is any of this fair to them? The talk so far has been about the international community and ensuring their safety. Is it ok to beat and jail the locals then? And if a gay fan of an athlete is killed while there, was it worth for the athlete to participate, or to win? Is that olympic medal more valuable than the lives of others?

One of the arguments against boycotting has been that the athletes have trained for years for this. By all means then, the athletes have trained, they must compete. Go ahead Russia, carry on, beat and jail your gays and lesbians as long as the athletes won't be affected. LGBT athletes eligible to compete in these games, who decide to stay home won't really make much of a difference, since there are like 2 male athletes who are out. And there really is no way Johnny Weir will be mistaken as being straight. And his husband is Russian born...as a matter of fact, we share a family name. Maybe we are related?

I've also heard that you shouldn't mix sports and politics. Let the athletes compete and let the politicians do the politics and diplomacy. Once the games are over and done with in Russia, will the big countries remember the LGBT people in Russia? They'll be forgotten. So I will not have anything to do with the olympics as long as they are held in Russia. I will not support anything that would make it ok to put me in jail just because of who I am. I'm very disappointed with Obama as well, because he said USA will not boycott the games. He did elect to not go to Russia for a visit because of this, but still. Someone needs to step up.

I've been to Sochi back in 1991. I actually have two portraits of myself on my walls that were made by artist at a park in Sochi. They look totally different, but still are so me. I was few years younger in these, as you can see.

 The artist put the city and year in this one.

 This one was hard to take a picture of. Flash came up horrible, so this is not the clearest.

Few weeks ago, as part of my job, we do test fishing on 5 lakes this summer. Well, professional fishermen do it, I just go and take pictures. The purpose is to determine the state of the lakes fisheries as well as the water quality. There was a local news paper making a story about the first lake, so I thought it was the perfect gay propaganda photo op, especially since that macho LGBT hating president of Russia had just allegedly caught a "21kg" northern pike from somewhere in Siberia. I'd like to say that the fish I'm posing with is at least 23 kg, but I'd be lying, and we don't lie about my work so...it's just about 400g. Notice my Gay Cafe tee! Unfortunately my t-shirt did not make it to news paper article, but it was one of the most liked picture on Facebook I've posted.

So Russia and Putin, you can keep your olympics, you can keep your track and field World Championships and you can just go. to. hell. It's safe to say, we will not be meeting in the near future. If ever.