Well I had to cancel my Chicago trip because of health reasons, and I’ll be resting as much as possible. So I’ll not be able to attend too many events. After all, the Big 0 is coming soon, and I want to be around to enjoy it!

This week was our country’s celebration of Veterans Day. My father was in the army and my gay brother was in the Navy. I was not allowed to serve because I was known to be a homosexual. I don’t think we, as a nation, respect or treat our veterans and soldiers well. We in San Diego, living in a military city, should be very more appreciative of our veterans and soldiers. We all also know its time that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be repealed. It’s also time to bring our solders back home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently, I’ve received word that some individuals and independent GLBT community charity and nonprofit activists (they will not be associated with their organization in this project) are coming together to launch a “United Gay Way” rainbow stickers award to businesses that give back to the GLBT community in a major way. This sticker will be launched with a country wide educational campaign for all of us to know and recognize the sticker, which will let you know which businesses gives back to the community. I think this is a great idea.

Recently the Los Angeles City Council joined San Francisco and Santa Monica in giving preliminary approval to an ordinance that would ban the declawing of cats! A final vote is expected next week, and the last one was unanimous. Hey, I love my cat Nixon, and when I got him as a kitten, I declawed his front paws because I was told to because he was an “in door” cat. This is now very upsetting to know. I should have not done this to Nixon. I have asked Councilmember Todd Gloria to look into this matter so that our San Diegan cats can also be protected!

The perfect race for the next governor of California would be between Attorney General Jerry Brown and former Congressmember Tom Campbell. Both are pro-marriage equality, though one is a Democrat and the other is a Republican. Jerry Brown’s record on equality for all is outstanding and Tom Campbell has always had a solid equality record within the Grand Old Party.

The Imperial Court de San Diego is one of the oldest GLBT organizations in San Diego. Usually the election of the new emperor and empress is in August, but this has now changed to Jan. 23. This evening will be more about great entertainment and pageantry as changes have been made for this annual community event. There are four candidates for the two royal titles. The Imperial Court is like the Shiners or ELKS of our community. There are chapters of the Imperial Court in more than 68 cities across the USA, Canada and Mexico. For more information, visit www.imperialcourtsandiego.com.

So many of us are really happy that when the San Diego Men’s Chorus (SDMC) and the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego voted to merge that their new name included the word ‘gay’ in it. Both groups are outstanding, but not everyone knew when the SDMC performed they were from our community. Respected gay activist Herb King, who is no longer with us, always championed that our singing groups should have the word ‘gay’ in their names, and I agree. The last joint concert of the two groups is Dec. 12. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 619-570-1100.

Let me tell you that everyone needs to be careful, not only movie stars and singers, about being taped while having sex. I just saw a sex-tape of a prominent and well known gay man who didn’t even know it was being taken! Do you remember the one taken by a video phone of Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black? Well this is a similar situation. This young man told me he has done this a lot of times with the person not knowing. So keep your eyes open out there, and no, I can’t tell you who the local VIP is.