Here at Parlour, we love and support everybody. Gay, straight, Bi, Cablinasian & Questioning—as long you bring bubbly and good vibes, we’re happy. In the spirit of one nation under champagne, we invite you to watch the documentary “Her Name Was Steven” this weekend. I took a look at the trailer today and will admit, I’m impressed with anyone who has the courage to undergo any type of major change in public, especially when sex & gender transitions are still foreign to so many, leading to often negative responses. In the case of Steven Stanton, he lost his job as the city manager of Largo, Florida after he announced that he would like to continue his career, and his life, as a woman. She is now Susan Stanton, and is finally sharing her story that put her in the middle of a media circus while she was in the middle of her coming out process, to the world and to her family. (more…)

“Yeah, I groped male staff but not sexually,” said Massa on Fox News’ controversial TV show “Glenn Beck” this week. “Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn’t breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday. It was ‘kill the old guy.’ You can take anything out of context.”
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Huh?
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Massa’s groping a staff member reminds me of the infamous Real World blanket scandal with David and Tami.
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Was it a tickle? Was the blanket pulled off intentionally? Did anyone else think this was funny?
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Massa is gross. Can NYC not have such weirdos represent us for once?

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Ever feel like you’re living in an alternate universe? Like you took the wrong pill and woke up in The Matrix Bizzaro World, where people lend more brainpower to speculating on who will win the Academy Award for Best Picture than they do to whether or not an extension of unemployment benefits will be approved (it was last night, despite Republican Senator Bunning’s one-man filibuster)? Or you realized that Jerry Springer and Maury Povich are still filming shows (seriously, I thought those were all repeats from when I was in high school, until the hubby and I got stuck watching a truly awful episode of “Jerry” about “love” triangles yesterday)?
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It’s this discombobulation that can sometimes make it difficult to care about what’s going on. I’m not talking about apathy rooted in laziness or ignorance, but rather an intermittent disenchantment with the system that can be damn near paralyzing. It’s the feeling that makes you delete the email from that grassroots advocacy group instead of signing the latest petition; the feeling that makes you throw your hands up on healthcare reform; the feeling that makes you think if everyone is really this stupid, then the system must be stupid, and fighting stupidheads will just make you look like a stupidhead.

I definitely have those days. Hell, just figuring out what to write about in this space can be an exercise in pushing myself to run right out of my own Forrest Gump-type leg braces. It’s hard to get excited enough about issues to write on them when I know that most folks won’t be moved to any type of action anyway. But I solider on like a good, um, soldier. So this week I’m challenging myself—and you—to take just one step towards the Bizarro World exit. (more…)

There are those who mistakenly believe that the election of President Barack Obama would be the great equalizer on all things racial in the United States.  That somehow, a black man holding the nation’s highest political office was the realization of two hopes, both the meritocratic American dream and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of integration.
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Instead, the visibility of President Obama and his family has only underscored how much race still matters in this country, even to the liberal folks who not only praise Obama’s speaking skills at any given moment, but can manage to forget that blackness for hours at a time. Perhaps, they have even managed to forget about humanity, which appears to be the case with Sean Bell.

On Feb. 16, 2010, federal authorities ruled that three NYPD officers would not face civil rights violation charges for the fatal shooting of Bell, 23, who was unarmed as 50 bullets riddled his body the night before his wedding.

Claiming insufficient evidence to file charges, the Justice Department stated, “Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence nor bad judgment is sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil-rights violation.” (more…)

“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it…” —President Obama
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Sounds innocuous, but ever since I heard President Obama say these words during his State of the Union speech, I’ve been unable to get them out of my head. The entire passage that surrounds this statement just begs for me to take issue with it, but one particular line—“if you abide by the law you should be protected by it”—keeps bubbling up in my brain like so much raw sewage.
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Why? I have an aversion to the suggestion that breaking a law negates your privileges rights and protections under U.S. law. On the silly end of the spectrum, that’s like saying that a jaywalker gives up his right to free speech, or that a chick who catches a traffic ticket can’t press charges if someone breaks into her apartment. But it has broad implications in real life: It’s the very idea that makes it okay to take away the voting rights of inmates and ex-offenders across the U.S.; to me, there’s nothing about committing a crime, large or small, that means you have no say in electing the people who create the laws that govern the land where you live. And people across the country use this idea to justify committing hate crimes against undocumented immigrants—hey, they’re in this country illegally, right? (more…)

Every since I went cheatin’ vegan back in June of 2008, I’ve been paying an immense amount of attention to everything that goes in my mouth (that’s what she said). I dropped meat and meat products from my diet (though I still eat fish in a pinch), and boy can I tell you that it’s exhausting to eat outside my home. I had no idea how many things have cream in them!

Why did I make the switch? It wasn’t out of some altruistic need to protect the animals; I had already read all the books and seen all the movies that were supposed to put me off eating things that died on the killing floor, and I’m writing this from my modern leather couch. I was really worried about how the food I was eating made me feel. The chicken made me sluggish, the dairy made me gassy and mucus-y, and who knows what the pesticides on all that non-organic fruit was doing to me. So I gave it all up for what I consider to be a more mindful way of eating, and no matter how many annoying questions I have to ask waiters, I stick with it, because I love how my body runs now.

But it’s still a lot of work. When people hear what I (don’t) eat, they say two things: “How do you get your protein?” (Mostly beans and whole grains, some soy and fish.) And “Man, that sounds hard!” The results of a new study show that mindful eating really is hard. (more…)