tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32212296517002787792024-02-18T19:50:27.500-08:00Tom's OSUMy personal notes on interesting things I've read<br><small>Thomas Kraemer copyright (c) 2006-2018<br>Celebrating ten years of blogging</small>Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comBlogger410125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-45882354612703584352017-12-28T12:47:00.002-08:002018-01-06T14:00:41.716-08:00Year 2017 in review - 12 years of blogging -- not yet too blind to blog!<p> <!-- START OF POST Rev. 2 includes my last GT letter at end -->
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimfuZnDGBYPJW54etLen9md4MLPmBYR-GdjItCQRwwDOSlQxf53NAAd1QEVz2qazkvfd6bM_mz3FMV2Dy8Fa_zxWB1gEXXGVHbEmEXy9I7Z3snFe9MninEklUbNeH0lHEFGMCudVrc2HB7/s1600/TomSelfie2017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimfuZnDGBYPJW54etLen9md4MLPmBYR-GdjItCQRwwDOSlQxf53NAAd1QEVz2qazkvfd6bM_mz3FMV2Dy8Fa_zxWB1gEXXGVHbEmEXy9I7Z3snFe9MninEklUbNeH0lHEFGMCudVrc2HB7/s200/TomSelfie2017.JPG" alt="Thomas Kraemer selfie photo 2017" width="168" height="200" data-original-width="480" data-original-height="573" /></a></div>
PHOTO: I was too embarrassed to ask for help with taking my annual, year-in-review selfie photo of myself. I need help because of my worsening low vision blindness that has made it nearly impossible to use even a simple camera, therefore let me apologize in advance for my photo above that I took of myself in Dec. 2017, which I assume is poorly lit and composed. The reason I was too embarrassed to ask for help with taking it is because friends of mine love to rib me by proclaiming that blogging, by itself, is narcissistic enough without a photo. My excuse for including a selfie photo is primarily to give my friends and family forwarning of how I look, especially as my hair goes gray and falls out, so that they will recognize me the next time we meet. Today, I love to rib my friends back, including those who are real Trump-tards, that real narcissists have moved away from blogging to using social media, such as sending Facebook messages or Tweeting on Twitter, just like the commonly narcissistic celebrities do it along with their favorite celbrity President Donald Trump. In all seriousness, I have never blogged as a way to socialize or for the fame and fortune of it, but I have blogged only as an easy way to create my own digital notebook in the cloud of interesting things I've read online. By writing my notes as Blog posts, on the Google Blogger website, allows me to search my notes with Google, which has amazed me by the things Google can find that I wrote years ago, but had forgotten about. A Google engineer told me why they support my blog for free is because it provides free content to Google and it enables Google to provide better search results for everyone by seeing what real people are reading,writing and linking to in blog posts. I've never put advertising in my blog, which Google will share the advertising revenue with you, but I do the work to produce free content for Google, and in return they store and search my blog for free, which seems like a fair trade to me. The biggest advantage to writing notes in my Blog about interesting things I've read is that I can include hyperlinks to the original pages, as well as full citations to the original paper documents, which can be used to refind things years later when link rot has occurred due to webpages being moved or taken down. A friend of mine has thanked me for doing this because both he and I have used these full citations to find things years after I had posted a blog page with working hyperlinks, which had been later broken. (Of course, he is probably biased because he is a retired professional librarian -- I am similarly sure that my high school teacher, who taught me about the importance of reference notes, would also appreciate it!)</p><p>
My recent post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/12/i-hope-to-resume-writing-new-blog-posts.html">I hope to resume writing new blog posts (12/15/17)</A>, explains why I am so glad to be writing this post in review of last year. In my annual review blog post last year, I asked if I was too blind to blog due to my worsening low vision blindness and paralysis. (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/12/year-2016-in-review-11-years-of.html">Year 2016 in review - 11 years of blogging - Am I too blind to blog? (12/24/16)</A>) Fortunately, my vision recovered enough to allow me to use the standard low vision accessibility tools that are built-in to the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and operating system, along with some other accessibility aids needed to compensate for my disability. I first talked about building in accessibility to MS Windows, for HP customers, directly to the Microsoft Founder Bill Gates in the 1980's, which he embraced, and so more recently, I was happy to hear directly from the current Microsoft CEO Sayta Nadella, who explained his personal commitment to providing accessiblity to Microsoft products, given his personal experience raising his two "differently abled" children he has at home. </p><p>
Unfortunately, as my vision and other physical abilities weaken, even all of these Microsoft tools are not enough, for example, I am unable to see the colored grammar and spell checking flags in MS Word, despite trying out all of the various accessibility settings, and therefore I am unable to proof read my work as I touch type, and so many spelling errors and typos have been creeping into my posts, which I would like to apologize for not being able to proofread and fix very fast. </p><p>
Despite all of my current physical limitations, I am still grateful to God that I have survived the AIDS epidemic, despite having been living and working in the San Francisco Silicon Valley during the 1980's when the AIDS virus was first discovered, but Republicans, including the U.S. President Ronald Reagan, were politically exploiting AIDS as a reason to discriminate against all gay people, ironically including Lesbian women who later proved to have suffered a virtually zero HIV infection rate. I am similarly grateful to have survived the anti-Communist and anti-gay witch hunts of the 1950's led by the U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy, which help to inspire the modern homophile and gay liberation movements. After McCarthy, I witnessed the movement of Southern Democrats to the Republican Party because they were upset with the Democrats for passing the Civil Rights act and forcing the racial integration of schools in the South. I watched as these new Republicans added their anti-gay agenda to the Republican Party Platform, and almost succeed in passing an ammendment to the U.S Constitution that would have made same-sex marriage illegal nationwide, by trumping state marriage laws in favor of same-sex marriage. </p><p>
Despite all of my past experiences with bigotry and discrimination, I remain confident today that social justice will always trump bigotry in the future, even though I might not be around to see complete justice in my lifetime because things might even go worse for a while as President Trump and his Republican legislators stuff the U.S. justice system with too many so-called "social conservatives," who are anti-gay theocrats or plutocrats who support only the governmental interests of religion of business. </p><p>
My favorite news story from last year was published in the OSU student newspaper (see photo and linkes below) because it lifted my spirits when I saw how a small group of gay OSU students were able to start a fraternity in the Greek system on campus -- a system that historically has been violent toward gay men, especially when I was in college nearly half a century ago when I would have loved to have been part of a friendly gay frat on campus. Instead, I was forced to put up with being physically harassed by a college varsity soccer player and fraternity brother, who I was told was doing nothing wrong, at least according to University administrators who blamed me for being openly gay, which "caused" this soccer player to be disgusted by me and cause him to lash out against me in self-defense. This story is just one example of why I have hope for the future, despite the fact that there may be setbacks due to Presidnet Trump and the Republican Party leadership of America back toward social injustice. </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaHgVRsUHdmjAl8zhxj9uW9X1iLCEJn14ub4RVmTycviXucvuHBCFLSvphbADiLp6JdFFwaRTRZDszXXU5ZXzRp5vS1zoIt6i9iCa1vHy3nEB8hMO-GeAxJ_bvVzKMclUrIxPr85WxGfl/s1600/OSUdeltaLamdaPhiChrisHandsRyanLopezKBVRSplitScreen.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img alt="Gay Delta Lamda Phi frat frat boys Chris Hands and Ryan Lopez at Oregon State University are interviewed by Cory Zimmerman on a student TV station computer game show circa Aug. 16, 2017" border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaHgVRsUHdmjAl8zhxj9uW9X1iLCEJn14ub4RVmTycviXucvuHBCFLSvphbADiLp6JdFFwaRTRZDszXXU5ZXzRp5vS1zoIt6i9iCa1vHy3nEB8hMO-GeAxJ_bvVzKMclUrIxPr85WxGfl/s1600/OSUdeltaLamdaPhiChrisHandsRyanLopezKBVRSplitScreen.JPG" width="400" /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The Oregon State University student-run KBVR TV station (the station's call letters were chosen to match the school's Beaver mascot), is broadcast in Corvallis both online and via the local Comcast Cable TV system and it recently ran a TV show hosted by a gay OSU student Cory Zimmerman that discusses computer gaming, and in one show he interviews two of his gay fraternity brothers, Chris Hands and Ryan Lopez (shown above) who are all are part of a recently colonized gay fraternity <b>Δ Λ Φ</b> (a.k.a. Delta Lambda Phi). See previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/10/osu-student-tv-show-by-gay-delta-lamda.html">OSU student TV show by gay Delta Lamda Phi frat boys (10/25/17)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/11/osu-gay-frat-organized-by-student-cory.html">OSU gay frat Δ Λ Φ organized by student Cory Zimmerman (11/3/16)</A> -- note this is the same OSU student I previously wrote about -- see previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/11/osu-i-am-gay-writing-class-essay.html">OSU 'I am gay' writing class essay printed as paid advertisement in student newspaper (11/24/15)</A> </p><p>
I was also glad to see the further development of gay research archives at the University of Minnesota (see below): </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpMztT0fhpi6N52r65y3LP0E73sD7hrItaS7lqrU0f9Ka5VDjQnxJ-kSxp0rCUc6iRVsnLV95mC0z-9MSE91GFhIpFbt1VNPsO-jOUZmB3z0bupAqKrJ59Ctl9nHcpIABxYPO3CWynpftA/s1600/MagnusHirschfeldtretterletter200701jan07page1cover.JPG"><img alt="Headline 'Tretter Collection makes purchase of Magnus Hirschfeld Li family estate' Jan. 2007 p. 1 cover" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5700186161292726994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpMztT0fhpi6N52r65y3LP0E73sD7hrItaS7lqrU0f9Ka5VDjQnxJ-kSxp0rCUc6iRVsnLV95mC0z-9MSE91GFhIpFbt1VNPsO-jOUZmB3z0bupAqKrJ59Ctl9nHcpIABxYPO3CWynpftA/s400/MagnusHirschfeldtretterletter200701jan07page1cover.JPG" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 308px; height: 400px;" /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: cover of newsletter story by <A HREF="http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/tretter/tretterletterjan07.pdf">Jean-Nickolaus Tretter, "Tretter Collection Makes Purchase of Magnus Hirschfeld Li Family Estate," Tretter Letter, Jan. 2007, p. 1,3 (PDF)</A>. See the home page of <A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter">The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at the University of Minnesota Elmer L. Andersen Library</A>. Also see <A HREF="http://www.hirschfeld.in-berlin.de/v_mhg_en.html">The Magnus Hirschfeld Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.schwulesmuseum.de/">Schwules Museum, Germany</A>. Also see previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/01/magnus-hirschfeld-jack-baker-university.html">Magnus Hirschfeld, Jack Baker, University of Minnesota and Oregon State University gay connection (1/21/12)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/12/pbs-minnesota-lgbt-history-oregon-lt.html">PBS Minnesota LGBT history, Oregon Lt. Col. Pam Mindt donor to U of Minnesota Tretter Collection (12/21/16)</A> Also see <A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter">University of Minnesota Tretter Collection</A> -- <A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter">"The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies," University of Minnesota Libraries, Elmer L. Andersen Library www.lib.umn.edu/tretter accessed Dec. 16, 2017</A> that includes <A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter">"Finding Aids - Search the Collections"</A> such as <A HREF="http://purl.umn.edu/141772">McConnell - Michael McConnell Files, 1965-2014</A> and <A HREF="http://purl.umn.edu/157297">Endean - Steve Endean Papers, 1972-2006</A>. The <A HREF="http://purl.umn.edu/198536">Schwules Museum, 1948-2004, undated</A> that was created by Jean-Nickolaus Tretter. The <A HREF="http://purl.umn.edu/140100">Spear - Senator Allan Spear Papers, 1937-2010</A> are of a state Senator that I dated once. I hope to post in the future about the recent retirement of a key archivist of this University of Minnesota collection. I've blogged before about the <A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter">University of Minnesota Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies,</A> and their publication <A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter/tretter-letter">"The Tretter Letter "</A>. I just reveived the latest issue (<A HREF="https://www.lib.umn.edu/pdf/tretter/TretterLetterJan2018.pdf">Jan. 2018, Vol.13, No. 1 received Dec. 14, 2017 (PDF) not yet posted as of Dec.24, 2017</A>) that reported the University of Minnesota archivist Lisa Vecoli retires and Andrea Jenkins leaves the archives this year.</p><p>
Below is a list of links to some of my key blog posts from last year. </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/01/osu-queer-archives-request-for-my.html">OSU Queer Archives request for my participation (1/28/17)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/07/osu-queer-archives-collaborates-with.html">OSU Queer Archives collaborates with German Professor Bradley Boovy (7/7/17)</A> - oral histories with Oregon State University Dr. Bradley Boovy, Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and journal paper by Natalia Fern ndez, Bradley Boovy, "Co-Founding a Queer Archives: a collaboration between an archivist and a professor," "Archival Practice," Vol 3 (2016)
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/03/george-weinberg-who-coined-homophobia.html">George Weinberg who coined 'homophobia' died at age 87 (3/25/18)</A> - I was honored to know Frank Kameny, Jack Nichols, and Dr. George Weinberg, whose books and papers I read when they were first publisehd in the 1970's
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-osu-diversity-officer-charlene.html">New OSU diversity officer Charlene Alexander (4/5/17)</A> -- Alexander, who also will hold vice president status, comes to OSU from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where she served for the past four years as associate provost for diversity and director of the university's diversity office. A 20-year faculty member and administrator at Ball State . . .
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/05/baker-mcconnell-marriage-in-advocate.html">Baker-McConnell marriage in 'The Advocate' 50th anniversary issue (5/22/17)</A> -- two men who inspired me at the University of Minnesota with their gay marriage equality activism
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/08/i-was-able-to-see-solar-eclipse-despite.html">I was able to see Solar eclipse despite low vsiion blindness (8/22/17)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/09/intersectional-feminism-and-building.html">Intersectional feminism and building renaming fads come to OSU (9/16/17)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/09/gay-married-mormon-osu-phd-is-hired-by.html">Gay married Mormon OSU PhD is hired by Intel and featured in mailing to donors (9/29/17)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/12/stop-presses-gay-newspaper-kills-its.html">Stop the presses! Gay newspaper kills its print edition in Portland, Oregon (12/18/17)</A>
</UL></p><p>
See my annual reviews of my blog posts from previous years: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/12/year-2016-in-review-11-years-of.html">Year 2016 in review - 11 years of blogging - Am I too blind to blog? (12/24/16)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/year-2015-in-review-ten-years-of.html">Year 2015 in review - ten years of blogging (12/30/15)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2014/12/year-2014-in-review-nine-years-of.html">Year 2014 in review - nine years of blogging (12/27/14)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/12/year-2013-in-review-8-years-of-blogging.html">Year 2013 in review - 8 years of blogging (12/11/13)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/12/year-2012-in-review-7-years-of-blogging.html">Year 2012 in review - 7 years of blogging (12/23/12)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2011/12/year-2006-2011-in-review-6-years-of.html">Year 2006-2011 in review - 6 years of blogging (12/1/11)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/12/year-2010-in-review-5-years-of-blogging.html">Year 2010 in review - 5 years of blogging (12/27/10)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2009/12/year-2009-in-review.html">Year 2009 in review (12/30/09)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/04/four-years-of-blogging.html">Four years of blogging (4/10/10)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2009/04/three-years-of-blogging.html">Three years of blogging (4/14/09)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2008/12/year-2008-in-review.html">Year 2008 in review (12/28/08)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2008/04/two-years-of-blogging.html">Two years of blogging (4/12/08)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2007/12/year-2007-in-review.html">Year 2007 in review (12/29/07)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2007/04/one-year-of-blogging.html">One year of blogging (4/18/07)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2006/12/oregon-state-university-2006-in-review.html">Oregon State University 2006 in review (12/27/06)</A>
</UL> </p><p>
UPDATE Jan. 6, 2018 - due to my low vision blindness, instead of risking writing a new blog post, I decided it would be easier to add to this blog post the following, which might be my last letter to the editor of my local newspaper because I am having great difficulty using a computer today. </p><p>
My local newspaper printed the story by <A HREF="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california/articles/2017-12-29/will-we-get-a-smiling-poop-emoji-well-theres-a-process">Associated Press New York, "The growing emoji language," Gazette-Times, "The growing emoji language," Dec. 30. 2017, p. B5 </A> (also hosted at <A HREF="http://hosted2.ap.org/ARLID/d0732c86f9b44a428fc30e935ef90fcf/Article_2017-12-29-US-TEC--Picking%20New%20Emojis/id-b5920c02d65c49af831fc7df5c73f696">BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer, "Will we get a smiling poop emoji? Well, there's a process," ap.org posted Dec. 29, 2017</A>) to which my local nesapepr printed my reply: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-hp-osu-had-role-in-developing-emojis/article_b3c813a4-27f4-55dc-9bbe-8296cda71d83.html"><p>
The Associated Press story, "The Growing Emoji Language" (Gazette-Times, Dec. 30, page B5) correctly linked emojis to Japanese cellphone makers in 1999, but it did not mention how "emoji" icons were inspired by the prior art of "smileys" that were first used in the 1970s by early computer researchers, including a few at Oregon State University and Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis, Oregon, to solve the problem of text messages on early computer networks being misinterpreted because facial expressions were not being transmitted. </p><p>
I still own a paperback book, "Smileys," published in 1993, showing hundreds of examples of what the authors say, "... some call 'emoticons,' which presumably means icons expressing emotions." </p><p>
The first smiley looked like a smiling face when turned sideways, and it could be typed out using three standard characters, a colon, hyphen and parenthesis, on a standard computer monitor or printer, including the even older electro-mechanical typewriter interfaces. </p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-hp-osu-had-role-in-developing-emojis/article_b3c813a4-27f4-55dc-9bbe-8296cda71d83.html">Thomas Kraemer, "OSU had role in emoji rollout," Gazette-Times, Jan. 5, 2018, p. A8 gazettetimes.com posted Jan. 4, 2018</A>)</p>
</blockquote> (Also <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/search/?k=%22thomas%20kraemer%22">Search for previous Gazette-Times Letters to the editor by Thomas Kraemer</A>)</p><p>
The book I mentioned in my letter <A HREF="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781565920415.do">Dale Dougherty, "Smileys compiled by David W. Sanderson," O'Reilly and Associates, 1993</A> was published by a famous computer industry technical writer and it appears to have had many different editions printed aover a number of years that had different copyright dates. </p><p>
END OF UPDATE Jan. 6, 2018
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-59281525003853285972017-12-22T11:27:00.001-08:002017-12-28T09:07:56.549-08:00Comic page homophobe honors George Weinberg who coined homophobia<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyN8Dpm2DRt9FymKhJXQHgUpIhhzuLpBcur6auQeEo62_nisOq3LXziB3iOQGs2TpBZI1rquWjnlXQ91KP2UmLAQGf9sfzTvUOTrKuGbB4-b6Tn67_CrrC9tmeDtaP6Qb6UGijIGI9mp0I/s1600/ComicPageHomophobeGT20171222pB9.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyN8Dpm2DRt9FymKhJXQHgUpIhhzuLpBcur6auQeEo62_nisOq3LXziB3iOQGs2TpBZI1rquWjnlXQ91KP2UmLAQGf9sfzTvUOTrKuGbB4-b6Tn67_CrrC9tmeDtaP6Qb6UGijIGI9mp0I/s1600/ComicPageHomophobeGT20171222pB9.jpg" alt="homophobe comic GT 12/22/2017 p. B9" WIDTH=400 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: "I'm a homophobe," declares a character in the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine," to explain why he fears going home for the holidays. It was published on the comic page of the Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper, Dec. 22, 2017, p. B9, just in time for Christmas. It might just be a coincidence, but this comic strip is a nice honor to George Weinberg, who coined the word "homophobia" nearly half a ccentury ago. (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/03/george-weinberg-who-coined-homophobia.html">George Weinberg who coined 'homophobia' died at age 87 (3/25/17)</A>) </p><p>
<a href="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/159/2740/1600/jacknicholskamenyweinberg.jpg"><img alt="Frank Kameny, Jack Nichols and George Weinberg riding on Heritage of Pride float" border="0" src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/159/2740/320/jacknicholskamenyweinberg.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a> </P><P>
PHOTO: I had the honor of getting to know all of these famous gay rights activists nearly a decdae ago, who are seen above (left to right) Dr. Frank Kameny, Jack Nichols, and Dr. George Weinberg being honored as Grand Marshalls of New York City's 2004 Heritage of Pride Parade. George Weinberg, who is the scholar that coined the word 'homophobia,' died this year at the age of 87. (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/03/george-weinberg-who-coined-homophobia.html">George Weinberg who coined 'homophobia' died at age 87 (3/25/17)</A>) - Photo courtesy of Randy Wicker.
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-57665391730145967212017-12-18T12:34:00.000-08:002017-12-18T13:09:45.766-08:00Stop the presses! Gay newspaper kills its print edition in Portland, Oregon<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidz3-eML-X5zJYSpph158AZTSJJtDkDPGaridbXF4MYJomrcY4KTTV66BA_A9WTDR_1S-OZcuww46IK8A0ly2THDIscp9x5teTb51RKyCcMpdcfK5b62FvOzwQi2oLBgqXsEgHPYbU4wAv/s1600/JustOutIsBackJen2012cover.JPG"><img alt="Cover of 'Just Out' June 2012 magazine" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5749493263055650146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidz3-eML-X5zJYSpph158AZTSJJtDkDPGaridbXF4MYJomrcY4KTTV66BA_A9WTDR_1S-OZcuww46IK8A0ly2THDIscp9x5teTb51RKyCcMpdcfK5b62FvOzwQi2oLBgqXsEgHPYbU4wAv/s320/JustOutIsBackJen2012cover.JPG" alt="Just Out Jun. 2012 cover" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 320px;" /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: after going out of business, Portland, Oregon's longtime gay newspaper came back to life with the <A HREF="http://www.justout.com/magazine/2012-2/2012-06/">June 2012 issue of "Just Out" in a glossy magazine format</A>. (See <A HREF="http://www.justout.com/blog_archive/jo_news/just-out-hits-the-stands/"> JO Editor, "Just Out Hits the Stands," justout.com blog posted on May 31, 2012 </A>) and see previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/06/just-out-is-back-june-2012.html">Just Out is back June 2012 (6/2/12)</A>, where I note, "Reports of the death of gay newspapers due to the internet have been greatly exaggerated." </p><p>
Gay newspapers were critically important to the gay rights movement of the twentieth-century, because around the time of the 1969 Stonewall riot, nearly all publications avoided any mention of homosexuality for the legitimate fear of being ostracized or in some cases legally censored by a court of law for publishing obscene subject matter -- U.S. Supreme Court decisions that are still in effect today say "obscene material" is not protected by the Free Speech Rights granted to citizens by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Fortunately, several other landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions allowed gay newspapers to publish serious articles concerning gay politics, science and medicine, provided they were not "lacking of any socially redeeming purpose."</p><p>
In the early 1970's, decades before the Internet and the World Wide Web were invented, my first experience with gay newspapers came when my University of Minnesota dormitory Resident Assistant or RA, who happened to be gay, showed me where gay newspapers were sold in a large magazine store in downtown Minneapolis. This is where I first saw the New York City "Gay" newspaper, which was published by the famous activists Jack Nichols and Lige Clark. It is also where I bought my first copy of "The Advocate" newspaper, from Los Angeles, which helped organize gay people across America and it is still being published today as a glossy magazine and an online Web site. </p><p>
When I was a poor college student in 1973, I was able to scrape together enough money for a subscription to "The Advocate" newspaper, which as a standard practice at the time was mailed to my dorm room in a "plain brown envelope" to avoid censorship or harassment of the recipients, who were often not fully out of the closet. </p><p>
Yes, it had serious articles about gay politics and science, but the section everybody actually read was "the Advocate Classified" ads, which were printed in a separate pull out section so that you could show the serious articles to your mother. (This section was later printed as a separate glossy magazine, which allowed it to publish more risque color advertisements for gay 8mm movie films, later xxx-rated video tapes or DVD films, and also sex workers who technically were advertising illegal services.) </p><p>
The reason the classified ad section of "The Advocate" newspaper was so popular in the 1970's was because it included classified ads from real people across America who were seeking pen pals or contact with other gay people in their hometown. Similar ads in local gay newspapers were also a major source of revenue for thier publishers. Today, internet social media sites, such as Facebook, have replaced the need for this function. </p><p>
Until the invention of the World Wide Web in the early 1990's, I still received, in a plain-brown envelope, the printed copies of the Portland, Oregon gay newspaper, "Just Out." (It later became PQ or Proud Queer Monthly). When "Just Out" started posting their articles and a PDF copy of the printed paper online, I started reading it mostly online because it was a hassle to pick up a printed copy in cities distant from Corvallis. Consequently, I was not overly surprised by the publisher's announcement that PQ would no longer be available in a printed form and available only online in the cloud: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.pqmonthly.com/brilliant-media-digital-transition/26405"><p>
<i>"Brilliant Media LLC is excited to announce that Proud Queer Monthly and El Hispanic News will both be fully transitioning to web as of November 2017. El Hispanic News has been printed and distributed in the Pacific Northwest since 1981, and Proud Queer Monthly was added to the Brilliant Media family in 2012. </p><p>
"We are proud of our legacy in the world of printed media, and it is with great affection and respect that we say goodbye to our print run; but, like many other publications in today's media climate, we have decided the time has come to prioritize the vast opportunities digital content offers over the tradition of ink and paper. . . ."</i></p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.pqmonthly.com/brilliant-media-digital-transition/26405">Staff, "Brilliant Media Announces Digital Transition," PQ Monthly posted Dec. 7, 2017</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
I vividly recall how after the World Wide Web was invented in the early 1990's that the dream was to go all paperless with print publications. However, since then I have seen the dream shift to a more nuanced one, where the printed newspaper and magazine formats are still used, but to publish only the material that can take advantage of each type of media -- paper or the cloud. In fact PQ as part of their going digital plan announced it will still be publishing paper books with their best content. </p><p>
I was also amused to read about the electrical engineering college background of the owner of Portland's gay newspaper, because it explains why I have always loved her logical analysis of things: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.pqmonthly.com/from-the-owner/26409"><p>
<i>"Owner Melanie Davis talks about the history and future of Brilliant Media LLC -- as Proud Queer makes its transition to web: When I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1992 from Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend Portland State University, my objective was clear-secure a job and get my electrical engineering degree. While searching for a job I distinctly recall my grandmother Clara Padilla Andrews (former Secretary of State of New Mexico), who had moved here with my grandfather after her term ended, sharing with me that a local bilingual newspaper called El Hispanic News needed a sales person. I connected with Juan Pratts who founded the publication in 1981, and he hired me on the spot. </p><p>
"Back then, we were printing black and white with few pages in a tabloid format. It was Juan's goal to grow into a four-color broadsheet printing format, because in his words, "then our community will be taken seriously." Back then industry dictated who was a "real newspaper" . . . </p><p>
"For some years El Hispanic News produced and published the "Official Pride Guide" for (gay) Pride NW, making sure to include in our marketing budget funds to insert the Pride Guide into other racially diverse publications like The Asian Reporter and The Portland Observer. This made the Pride Guide wildly successful, and many mainstream Portland publications are still vying each year to outbid each other to produce the "Official Pride Guide" for Pride NW. . . and took the opportunity to launch PQ (Proud Queer) Monthly, a publication whose mission is to ensure "Every Letter & Every Color is Represented," in February of 2012. . . . </p><p>
"I am thrilled to say that with the support of our readers and advertisers, effective immediately El Hispanic News, PQ (Proud Queer), and Tankside will be 100% digital. Secondly, we are also happy to announce we are in the process of publishing annual books that will reflect each media outlet's best content. Each book published will have a revenue sharing model built into it that will directly benefit each contributor. As you all know, I am a firm believer that the road to equality is equity!"</i></p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.pqmonthly.com/from-the-owner/26409">Melanie Davis, Owner, Brilliant Media LLC, "From the Owner," pqmonthly.com posted Thursday, December 7, ?2017</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-45096754745398625972017-12-15T11:40:00.001-08:002017-12-15T11:40:25.609-08:00I hope to resume writing new blog postsNote from Thomas Kraemer: "I hope to resume writing new blog posts for my personal 'Tom's OSU blog' page after I recover from some additional death of neural cells in a dispersed area of of my brain (as observable in a MRI brain scan of the posterior cerebral artery or PCA region). The brain death is being caused by indeterminable reasons and doesn't have any established cures or treatments, but it has physically disabled me further and worsened my low vision blindness to a point where Web surfing and writing blog pages has become almost impossible to do, even when using the good accessibility features built into the Windows Operating system and in some standard Windows internet browsers." Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-42812658614557467502017-10-25T11:21:00.000-07:002017-10-25T11:21:39.254-07:00OSU student TV show by gay Delta Lamda Phi frat boys<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaHgVRsUHdmjAl8zhxj9uW9X1iLCEJn14ub4RVmTycviXucvuHBCFLSvphbADiLp6JdFFwaRTRZDszXXU5ZXzRp5vS1zoIt6i9iCa1vHy3nEB8hMO-GeAxJ_bvVzKMclUrIxPr85WxGfl/s1600/OSUdeltaLamdaPhiChrisHandsRyanLopezKBVRSplitScreen.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaHgVRsUHdmjAl8zhxj9uW9X1iLCEJn14ub4RVmTycviXucvuHBCFLSvphbADiLp6JdFFwaRTRZDszXXU5ZXzRp5vS1zoIt6i9iCa1vHy3nEB8hMO-GeAxJ_bvVzKMclUrIxPr85WxGfl/s1600/OSUdeltaLamdaPhiChrisHandsRyanLopezKBVRSplitScreen.JPG" alt="Gay Delta Lamda Phi frat frat boys Chris Hands and Ryan Lopez at Oregon State University are interviewed by Cory Zimmerman on a student TV station computer game show circa Aug. 16, 2017" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=287 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The Oregon State University student-run KBVR TV station (the station's call letters were chosen to match the school's Beaver mascot), is broadcast in Corvallis both online and via the local Comcast Cable TV system, recently ran a TV show hosted by a gay OSU student Cory Zimmerman that discusses computer gaming, and he interviews two of his gay fraternity brothers, Chris Hands and Ryan Lopez (shown above) who are all are part of a recently colonized gay fraternity <b>Δ Λ Φ</b> (a.k.a. Delta Lambda Phi) that says it "focuses on creating a space for men of all sexual orientations and gender expressions to have the traditional Greek experience on campus." During the TV show, the frat brothers emphasize that just because they are chartered as a "male-only" fraternity in order to fit within the traditional Greek system on campus, they would be happy to consider accepting frat brothers of any biological sex or intersex, who sincerely identified as being male or did not want to identify as being one of the traditional binary gender categories. I know well a gay FTM (female-to-male) person who would have loved to have been part of a gay male frat in college, but was rejected from many male-only college educational classes because colleges routinely rejected admittance to all-male classes, based on the student's female birth certificate, depite the fact that the student had lived life as a man since birth. Amusingly, during the interview, one fraternity brother remarked how his frat brother next to him was such an "old" man to be 24-years old, compared to the typical 18-years-old college freshman. They also joke about how the video game "Daddies" they were reviewing has a name and content with nothing about gays or sex in it, but they still found it funny because they fantasized about the stereotype of a hot masculine top daddy as often seen in gay porno videos. Their discussion made me laugh because my first relationship with a man occurred with a guy who was 26-years old, when I was merely 18, and at the time I thought this "older" man was so old and mature, and he inspired me to match his maturity, but today when I see anybody below 50 years old they look very much like an immature baby who I would never have any interest in having a relationship with! The boys also describe thier love of drag performances, which gay history shows has always been poular with gan men. When I came out in the Stonewall era, drag was not appreciated by many younger activists, who dismissed it as being an artifact of an older generation of gay men from a former era when gay men were forced to stay in the closet. They also rejected it because they wanted to make the political point that gay man are like all men and therefore deserve equal rights, without being treated as second-class citizens like women were treated unequally in 1969 before Stonewall and the Women's Liberation Movement was successful. Today, both men and women have achieved equal rights, and the theatrical art of drag is still popular amongst most gay men today. I am finally able to appreciate it! For more about this gay OSU frat, see <A HREF="http://studentlife.oregonstate.edu/chapter-profile/delta-lambda-phi">OSU Office of Student Life, Center for Fraternity And Sorority Life Web page, "Delta Lambda Phi," studentlife.oregonstate.edu accessed Oct. 21, 2017</A> and <A HREF="http://www.dlp.org/oregonstate/">OSU DLP website</A> plus their <A HREF="https://www.facebook.com/osu.dlp/">DLP Facebook page</A> for social media contact with the <A HREF="https://www.facebook.com/osu.dlp/">Delta Lambda Phi Colony - Oregon Facebook page</A>. Also, my see previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/11/osu-gay-frat-organized-by-student-cory.html">OSU gay frat <b>Δ Λ Φ</b> organized by student Cory Zimmerman (11/3/16)</A></p><p>
I accidently ran across the above gay student TV show while channel surfing cable TV one day, but I was also able to find it on the student's Youtube channel version they mentioned during the show -- see below: </p><p>
<iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eg-gjrNtS0E?rel=0?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p>
VIDEO: <A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg-gjrNtS0E">"Delta Lambda Phi Plays Dream Daddy || LGBTQ Representation," OSU KBVR TV youtube.com posted Aug. 16, 2017</A>. This OSU student run KBVR TV station program is available on Comcast Cable TV and online. The show's description says, "Join us as we sit down with Chris Hands and Ryan Lopez from the LGBTQ+ fraternity here at Oregon State University -- we talk about gay representation in games and pop culture while we play Dream Daddy." Delta Lambda Phi is the gay fraternity at OSU. </p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-67202521782851533502017-10-23T10:23:00.001-07:002017-10-23T10:23:29.493-07:00OSU Queer History Month 2017 and OSU library copy of my history<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
An Oregon State University student newspaper story by <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/osu-celebrates-queer-history-month/article_69552780-b208-11e7-9e94-33f5b091c33c.html">Sydney Sullivan, "OSU celebrates Queer History Month," OSU Barometer, posted online Oct. 16, 2017</A>, says, "According to Cynthia Konrad, director of the Pride Center, Queer History month has been celebrated since the mid-1990s and was built around National Coming Out Day, which occurs on Oct. 11.. . . The events this year at OSU will be hosted by and in collaboration with numerous groups including, LGBTQ+ Multicultural Support Network, the Ettihad Cultural Center, the Women's Center, the OSU Queer Archives, the Rainbow Continuum student organization and the Pride Center, according to Konrad. . . Queer History Month should also be set apart from Pride month, according to Lucielle S. Balls, a community organizer, drag legend and queen of the beaver 2012. . ." I will have more to say on the history of student drag performances in a future post. (Also see previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/10/osu-students-support-drag-gay-marriage.html">OSU students support drag, gay marriage and anti-gay newspapers (10/25/12)</A>) </p><p>
The student newspaper story also says, "Natalia Fernandez, curator and archivist of the Oregon Multicultural Archives and OSU Queer Archives, works with the OSU archives towards conserving queer history for future generations." She also says, "The OSU Queer Archives is one small part of the broader history of Oregon and of queer history in the United States. Our vision is for OSQA to highlight the stories within the university and its local communities and to also be a reflection of statewide and national issues and themes." Since its establishment in the fall of 2014, OSQA has strived to highlight LGBTQ+ stories already within the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center. The OSQA oral history collection alone has over two dozen interviews and counting. (I'll have more to say about the OSU Oral History Collection in a future post.) </p><p>
Due to my worsening low vision blindness and disability, I have been unable to meet with <A HREF="http://directory.oregonstate.edu/?type=showfull&osuuid=87202078181">Cynthia L. Konrad, director of the OSU Pride Center</A>, as I have done with previous OSU Pride Center directors, however, I recently was able to send her an email request to update the two history pages on the OSU Pride Center website, so that they will both link directly to the OSU Library page that has a link to a PDF copy of my OSU history, instead of these two pages pointing offsite to a webpage that might change or even disappear in the future. Specifically, the two pages are <A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/pc">dce.oregonstate.edu/pc -- "Our History"</A> and <A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/pc/history">dce.oregonstate.edu/pc/history -- "Welcome to the Pride Center! About Us"</A> -- only one of the pages links directly to the OSU Library page below: </p><p>
<A HREF="http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/43450">Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," printed to PDF from OutHistory.org in 2010 permanently stored by the OSU Scholars Archives @ OSU </A></p><p>
My history documents the first gay student group at OSU to be formally recognized by OSU administrators, which was formed in 1976 and has been continuously running under different names since then. It focuses on the history of queer students and staff located on the Corvallis Campus of OSU, but it also mentions activities in Corvallis and elsewhere to provide a historical context. It is not meant to be a history of Corvallis as some people have mistakenly thought by reading the short histories on two OSU history pages above. </p><p>
See previous posts: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/11/osu-scholars-archive-has-pdf-of-osu-gay.html">OSU Scholars Archive has PDF of OSU gay history from OutHistory dot org (11/2/13)</A> -- see permanent OSU library page <A HREF="http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/43450">Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," printed to PDF from OutHistory.org in 2010 permanently stored by the OSU Scholars Archives @ OSU </A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/10/osu-queer-history-month-hits-front-page.html">OSU Queer History Month hits front page of student newspaper (10/8/15)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/05/osu-pride-week-can-you-queer-me-now-2015.html">OSU Pride Week 'Can You Queer Me Now?' 2015 (5/8/15)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/05/student-produces-video-history-of-osu.html">Student produces video history of OSU LGBT community (5/16/15)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2006/09/osu-queer-history-month-speech.html">OSU queer history month speech (9/20/06)</A>
</UL></p><p>
The <A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University Cultural Resource Centers (dce.oregonstate.edu accessed Oct. 23 2017)</A> list the following Centers: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/apcc">OSU Asian & Pacific Cultural Center </A>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/cccc">OSU Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/ecc">OSU Ettihad Cultural Center</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/bcc">OSU Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/nal">OSU Native American Longhouse Eena Haws</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/pc">OSU Pride Center</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://dce.oregonstate.edu/wc">OSU Women's Center</A>
</UL></p><p>
Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-78171035814954330672017-10-17T13:20:00.001-07:002017-10-18T11:09:26.987-07:00Voters should be wary OSU enrollment can decline as well as grow<p> <!-- START OF POST REVISED 10/18/17 ADDED PHOTOS AND LINIKS -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAcKLR0Xi0gXSEy_2CnEQpkONMHUPjCvMAEjwL0oWetj5lUsLt9XFi1FCpheDCGnUASXMfK4oq4AiYtiGgGL0_xjHizo09_HNsNVcDaZsVie_1WG5iRle221CQ29BUm2dF-ggnnU_oaG7/s1600-h/HPpredicts700jobsCorvallisGazetteTimes19740808p2.JPG"><img alt="headline 'H-P executive predicts 700 new jobs' Gazette-Times Aug. 8, 1974, p. 2" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312072383747825890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAcKLR0Xi0gXSEy_2CnEQpkONMHUPjCvMAEjwL0oWetj5lUsLt9XFi1FCpheDCGnUASXMfK4oq4AiYtiGgGL0_xjHizo09_HNsNVcDaZsVie_1WG5iRle221CQ29BUm2dF-ggnnU_oaG7/s400/HPpredicts700jobsCorvallisGazetteTimes19740808p2.JPG" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 172px;" /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: Hewlett-Packard's plans to build a handheld computer research lab and calculator manufacturing plant in Corvallis is described in a newspaper article by John Atkins, "H-P executive predicts 700 new jobs," Gazette-Times Aug. 8, 1974, p. 2. (See previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/06/dont-cali-fornicate-oregon-and-hp.html">Don't Cali-fornicate Oregon and HP annexation history (6/14/12)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/03/apple-demolishes-old-hp-site-in-silicon.html">Apple demolishes old HP site in Silicon Valley to build 'spaceship' headquarters (3/17/16)</A>) </p><p>
The local newspaper story by reporter <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/economic-development-board-backs-annexations-review/article_784ce820-b8d7-5e97-8f86-4238d4a634de.html">James Day, "Corvallis annexation policies discussed," Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oct. 10, 2017, p. A3 gazettetimes.com posted Oct. 9, 2017 as "Economic development board backs annexations review"</A>, prompted me to write the following letter to the editor on the history of annexation laws in Corvallis, which is the small college town where the main campus of Oregon State University is located: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-corvallis-faces-issues-with-growth/article_0e8e1cf2-cb11-585b-9aef-4367534a72c7.html"><p>
Some of the proposed changes to the requirement all annexations to Corvallis be approved by voters could reestablish the problems that made taxpayers angry enough to demand it in 1976. </p><p>
After World War II, Corvallis quickly doubled in size and real estate developers were allowed to profit greatly, while sticking taxpayers with the bill for inadequate public services, such as sewer, water and streets. </p><p>
It all came to a head in 1975 when Hewlett-Packard built a research lab and manufacturing plant in Corvallis, ironically just a few years before growth stalled out during President Reagan's administration due to high interest rates and declining enrollment at OSU after the Baby Boom Generation graduated. </p><p>
The recent doubling in OSU enrollment has again led to growth problems in Corvallis, such as the lack of affordable houses, but voters should be wary that enrollment could drop again in the future, and the problems associated with unoccupied dwellings are even worse. </p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-corvallis-faces-issues-with-growth/article_0e8e1cf2-cb11-585b-9aef-4367534a72c7.html">Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis faces growth issues," Gazette-Times, Oct. 17, 2017, p. A8 gazettetimes.com posted online as "Corvallis faces issues with growth"</A> also see <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/search/?k=%22thomas%20kraemer%22">Link to previous Thomas Kraemer GT Letters</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
Over four decades ago, I recall my OSU graduate school thesis advisor, who had lived in Corvallis since the 1940's, complaining about the problems with growth in Corvallis after World War II, and how other citizens actively supported the 1976 annexation law that required all new annexations be approved by voters. In fact, an old boys club of real estate investors were stymied by the new law and they were forced to pay for the costs of growth instead of the public. Even though the City of Corvallis has doubled in population over the last 40 years, developers have been forced to plan their new subdivisions to be compatible with the the city's growth plan. This has led to a much nicer city. The decline in OSU enrollment at OSU in the 1980's led to unoccupied dwellings. I saw how absentee landlords would often leave them to rot or attract sketchy tenants who probably raised the crime rate in sleepy Corvallis. Adding to these problems was a downsizing of Hewlett-Packard before personal computers and inkjet printers sales took off in the late 1980's.
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-76772441557821581052017-10-16T10:58:00.000-07:002017-10-16T10:58:00.062-07:00Businessweek prints first gay marriage in Germany<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFgWqhHKtDJ7sd2YwRqPBkIAUcv6OKZ91zwfi6ZfIbN0C5pu1KD_8hy5CL5Y-nph9G8nwCKgc2InO0S4TJN9eqAXpWFHQRygJ7FQeE-mtOrn14xaBe2EentB4WpXlFFC9h7WvTr24RoqZ/s1600/BusinessweekSameSex2017109p9gayMarriage.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFgWqhHKtDJ7sd2YwRqPBkIAUcv6OKZ91zwfi6ZfIbN0C5pu1KD_8hy5CL5Y-nph9G8nwCKgc2InO0S4TJN9eqAXpWFHQRygJ7FQeE-mtOrn14xaBe2EentB4WpXlFFC9h7WvTr24RoqZ/s1600/BusinessweekSameSex2017109p9gayMarriage.jpg" alt=" first gay marriage in Germany printed in Businessweek magazine Oct. 9, 2017, p. 9" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=198 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The first same-sex marriage legally recognized by Germany was included in a miscellaneous list of news items from Europe in the print edition of Businessweek magazine dated Oct. 9, 2017, p. 9, which I could not find posted in their free online <A HREF="http://www.businessweek.com/">businessweek.com</A> site. See story by <A HREF="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-equalmarriage/first-i-do-as-same-sex-marriage-comes-to-germany-idUSKCN1C50TE">Reuters Staff, "First "I do" as same-sex marriage comes to Germany," reuters.com posted Sep. 30, 2017</A>, which says, "Same-sex couple Karl Kreil and Bodo Mende get married at a civil registry office, becoming Germany's first married gay couple after German parliament approved marriage equality in a historic vote this past summer, in Berlin, Germany October 1, 2017."
</p><p>
See previous posts: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-by-michael-mcconnell-on-his.html">Book by Michael McConnell on his marriage to Jack Baker that led to the first Supreme Court case on gay marriage (12/29/15)</A> -- America's first gay marriage that started a global movement
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/08/james-burton-nichols-recalls-invention.html">James Burton Nichols recalls invention of polyester and nylon at DuPont by Elmer Kraemer and Wallace Carothers (8/15/15)</A> -- i am sure that my German Grandfather would have supported same-sex marriage because it was the "logical" to his scientist brain.
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/01/osu-foundation-magnus-hirschfeld-fund.html">OSU Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld Fund Agreement (1/4/12)</A> -- a research fund I started in honor of a German pioneer in gay studies and also in memory of my German grandfather.
</UL> </p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-57498666091134105882017-10-11T12:49:00.000-07:002017-10-11T12:49:29.494-07:00Jack Baker & Michael McConnell in ad for LGBT History Month shown on cable TV<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaXuZ-DDKS8D-sXFu3EEUpfmLuVhuCtJ3YhMF-jk5t018FeWGCzOjwOLWDCWVHBdjE2em_Qgcb0cl_5SK3thVS0nMWJrS0dELAQYHOcQlZ7duIv1lPLAT86VVml8X58DHEfKiq6MXXDhSE/s1600/BakerMcConnellComcastLGBThistoryAd.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaXuZ-DDKS8D-sXFu3EEUpfmLuVhuCtJ3YhMF-jk5t018FeWGCzOjwOLWDCWVHBdjE2em_Qgcb0cl_5SK3thVS0nMWJrS0dELAQYHOcQlZ7duIv1lPLAT86VVml8X58DHEfKiq6MXXDhSE/s1600/BakerMcConnellComcastLGBThistoryAd.JPG" alt="Jack Baker and Michael McConnell Comcast TV ad for LGBT History Month Oct. 2017" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=266 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: still frame of a TV commercial shown during a Corvallis Comcast Cable TV local ad insert during the "Rachael Maddow Show" on MSNBC at 6:53PM PT Oct. 9, 2017 that listed gay marriage pioneers <A HREF="https://lgbthistorymonth.com/jack-baker-michael-mcconnell">Jack Baker & Michael McConnell</A> as part of a promotion for<A HREF="https://lgbthistorymonth.com/background">LGBT History Month</A> by <A HREF="http://www.equalityforum.com/">"Equality Forum" equalityforum.com</A>, which says it ". . . is a national and international LGBT civil rights organization with an educational focus -- Equality Forum coordinates <A HREF="https://lgbthistorymonth.com/background">LGBT History Month</A>, produces documentary films, undertakes high-impact initiatives and presents the largest annual national and international LGBT civil rights summit. . ." (See <A HREF="https://lgbthistorymonth.com/background">"About LGBT History Month," lgbthistorymonth.com accessed Oct. 10, 2017</A> and <A HREF="https://lgbthistorymonth.com/jack-baker-michael-mcconnell">"Jack Baker & Michael McConnell," lgbthistorymonth.com accessed Oct. 10, 2017</A>) It is unclear if this ad was run coincidentally, or not, during Maddow's show (Maddow is a lesbian) and if it was run by Comcast as a public service, or if somebody else asked for it or paid Comcast to run it. </p><p>
See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-by-michael-mcconnell-on-his.html">Book by Michael McConnell on his marriage to Jack Baker that led to the first Supreme Court case on gay marriage (12/29/15)</A>.
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-71268228056094725112017-10-10T11:02:00.001-07:002017-10-10T11:02:05.805-07:00Obamacare repeal fails and penalty remains for not having health insurance<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
The failure of Republicans to repeal Obamacare prompted me to write the following letter to the editor of my local newspaper, and it was coincidentally printed the day after a 60 Minutes" show aired making the same point as me that the Obamacare penalty remains in force:</p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-broken-promises-on-obamacare/article_5ec4f18d-3e48-5bf4-8079-454e32e9ddb2.html"><p>
When taxes come due April 15, I bet many taxpayers will be extremely upset after finding out they owe thousands of dollars in tax penalties to the Internal Revenue Service because they did not sign up for Obamacare this year, based on the false promises it would be repealed by President Trump and Republican legislators. </p><p>
In my experience, the IRS is legally bound to follow the Obamacare law until either Congress or a tax court ruling changes it. </p><p>
Yes, I heard firsthand Trump verbally promise to issue an Executive Order, but my tax advisor is unable to find a legally issued copy, nor obtain a statement from the IRS how they will enforce the Obamacare penalty. </p><p>
President Obama and Democrats are equally guilty of making false promises, for example, an age 60-65 years old family member was not allowed to keep a $136 per month Lifewise health plan, as promised by Obama, but worse, in order to keep seeing a longtime Corvallis doctor, as also promised, the cheapest Obamacare plan costs an unaffordable $659 per month for 2017, or $579 by changing to a Salem doctor. </p><p>
I am sick of Obamacare boosters telling me I am wrong by disingenuously quoting only the much cheaper Obamacare rates available only to younger people. </p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-broken-promises-on-obamacare/article_5ec4f18d-3e48-5bf4-8079-454e32e9ddb2.html">Thomas Kraemer, "Letter: Broken promises on Obamacare," Gazette-Times, gazettetimes.com posted Oct. 9, 2017</A> (also see <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/search/?k=%22thomas%20kraemer%22">Link to previous Thomas Kraemer Gazette-Times Letters</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/12/oregon-obamacare-final-rates-and.html">Oregon Obamacare final rates and Republican's Health Savings Accounts proposal is not insurance (12/19/16)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/10/obamacare-rates-in-oregon-hurt-many.html">Obamacare rates in Oregon hurt many voters just in time for the Presidential election (10/8/16)</A>, in which I quoted a good letter to the editor by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-the-root-problem-with-insurance/article_4df84e97-331b-50d9-8a14-338ffbfaa906.html">Kim Wilson, "Letter: The root problem with insurance," Gazette-Times, Oct. 11, 2016, p. A7 gazettetimes.com posted Oct. 8, 2016</A>, who mentioned the proposed Obamacare rates and made the case that the demand for healthcare is inelastic, because everyone wants to live at all costs, and the supply of healthcare is limited, therefore basic economic theories predict the cost should go towards infinity. </p><p>
An interesting idea for healthcare financing was described in an opinion column by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/columnists/as-i-see-it-make-health-care-a-regulated-utility/article_86c38238-63a6-5b4d-b773-8d4c4164b9b7.html">Paul F. deLespinasse, "As I See It: Make health care a regulated utility," Gazette-Times, Sep. 28, 2017, p. A6</A> (also published online as <A HREF="http://www.newsmax.com/PaulFdeLespinasse/cbo-fda-pharma/2017/09/26/id/815915/">Paul F. deLespinasse, "Time to Regulate the Med-Pharma Complex Like a Utility," newsmax.com posted Sep. 26, 2017</A>). </p><p>
I agree with his premise that regulation would be one way to control heathcare costs, but this would not solve the problem of how would society ration healthcare, which is a politically incorrect way to say it because it sounds so mean and ugly, but ultimately essential because there is an inelastic demand for healthcare -- if someone had a pill to cure me, then I owuld be willing to pay anything for it. </p><p>
As an investor in utility companies, I fully appreciate why utilities are regulated monopolies, however what is different with health care from the demand for utility services is the fact that a person does not have an infinite demand for electricity. However, most people have an infinite demand for medical care that would save their life, because most people would be willing to pay anything to live longer. </p><p>
The author of the above opinion piece is today a Corvallis resident, <A HREF="http://www.newsmax.com/Insiders/PaulFdeLespinasse/bio-456/">Paul F. deLespinasse (see his "Biography," newsmax.com accessed Sep. 29, 2017)</A>, who was a Professor at <A HREF="http://adrian.edu/">Adrian College</A>, located in Michigan and a private, co-educational college of liberal arts and sciences related to the United Methodist Church. He writes regular opinion pieves for my local newspaper. </p><p>
Another letter by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-profits-shouldn-t-drive-health-care/article_abec8dd3-ca05-55df-b8d2-55e99f4f4c7a.html">Nadine Sandbo, "Letter: Profits shouldn't drive health care," Gazette-Times, Oct. 1, 2017</A>, makes the point "Prevention is not the focus, profits are," which I agree with, but don't think more prevention would solve the problem of inelastic demand.
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-35809563228659662602017-09-29T13:03:00.001-07:002017-09-29T13:22:46.864-07:00Gay married Mormon OSU PhD is hired by Intel and featured in mailing to donors<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeF8MESKd_RV7E8IptUEQxGT1ORVxDKdOY4GVWXH0brTtvpzkmHI_bXRtYsfcAM-8ehHs2uBt2xogK8a_4VShd5PP2a5ZXQMnbi2I_L-OBM_K17qyiQushDAhfc0a68cvE0t7IdjvdJpgA/s1600/GayOSUmormonPhDhiredByIntel.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeF8MESKd_RV7E8IptUEQxGT1ORVxDKdOY4GVWXH0brTtvpzkmHI_bXRtYsfcAM-8ehHs2uBt2xogK8a_4VShd5PP2a5ZXQMnbi2I_L-OBM_K17qyiQushDAhfc0a68cvE0t7IdjvdJpgA/s1600/GayOSUmormonPhDhiredByIntel.JPG" alt="article 'Surviving Graduate School' profiling OSU Ph.D. graduate Gustavo Albuquerque in The Oregon State Engineer received 9/28/17 undated and unnumbered on p. 26-27 of 40 pages plus cover" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=328 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: A gay married, Mormon, Ph.D. graduate of Oregon State University is featured in a magazine article by <A HREF="http://engineering.oregonstate.edu/oregon-state-engineer">anoymous. "Surviving Graduate School," The Oregon State Engineer publication of Oregon State University College of Engineering (no photo captions, no page numbers or dates and online copy not yet available)</A>. It was mailed to OSU alumni and donors and I received a copy of it in the U.S. Mail on September 28, 2017 inside of an expensive clear envelope, printed on 48 unnumbered pages of a paper size bigger than the standard 8-1/2 x 11 inches and printed on a very expensive heavy stock of paper, but curiously it did not have a date of publication nor a copyright date! On pages 26-29 (counted unnumbered pages not including the covers) was the anonymously written article, "Surviving graduate school," about a recent OSU Ph.D. graduate, <A HREF="https://www.linkedin.com/in/albuquerquegustavo">Gustavo Albuquerque Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, now with Intel Hillsboro, Oregon Semiconductors (See his linkedin.com that I accessed Sep. 29, 2017)</A>. He summarizes his research work as developing "Continuous microwave-assisted synthesis of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) . . using this patented method. . ." </p><p>
Having followed the rise of gay marriage since the days of Jack Baker's pioneering case he brought to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1972, I was surprised to see an out, Mormon OSU Ph.D. student, who now works for Intel in Oregon, and who is in a same-sex marriage, be featured as part of a marketing publication for Oregon State University donations. It is an example of the progress same-sex marrage had made in the last few decades. </p><p>
See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-by-michael-mcconnell-on-his.html">Book by Michael McConnell on his marriage to Jack Baker that led to the first Supreme Court case on gay marriage (12/29/15)</A></p><p>
<A HREF="http://engineering.oregonstate.edu/faculty-and-staff">"Faculty and Staff," Oregon State University College of Engineering engineering.oregonstate.edu accessed Sep. 29, 2017</A></p><p>
<A HREF="http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/people"> Electrical Engineering and Computer Science</A></p><p>
<A HREF="http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/people/faculty-directory">OSU EECS Faculty Directory</A></p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-59226486632572892552017-09-16T12:00:00.000-07:002017-10-04T09:25:12.432-07:00Intersectional feminism and building renaming fads come to OSU<p> <!-- START OF POST REViSED 9/18/17 to add Barometer photo
CORRECTION ADDED 10/4/17 Paul F. deLespinasse is not P.M . deLaubenfels
-->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbhkHKgm1Ou5Z1vwIbPtmDN6GSfYJfuJX2fFTw3MLe3Lf-CBawg85JXLJ09OcvYaRPvTwBgShiRsHyu8PPw-rFU-EJL8Y0bq4HXv4V8xQI-2WmfK4miIz-xuSSoOj_utpWLDRUooYkzUK5/s1600/Barometer20170915p10-11-14-15.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbhkHKgm1Ou5Z1vwIbPtmDN6GSfYJfuJX2fFTw3MLe3Lf-CBawg85JXLJ09OcvYaRPvTwBgShiRsHyu8PPw-rFU-EJL8Y0bq4HXv4V8xQI-2WmfK4miIz-xuSSoOj_utpWLDRUooYkzUK5/s1600/Barometer20170915p10-11-14-15.JPG" width=400 alt="Barometer Sept. 15, 2017 p. 10-11 and p. 14-5 Cultural Centers Women's and Pride"
/></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The Oregon State University student newspaper's welcome back move-in issue for Fall, 2017 featured a two page spread of a map (center) highlighting the OSU Cultural Centers, such as the OSU Pride Center for LGBT students and Women's Center (Daily Barometer, Sept. 15, 2017 p. 10-11) plus the stories by <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/women-s-center-works-with-all-gender-identities/article_c6e3f1f2-99ca-11e7-b1cf-e3588785ff1f.html">Avalon Kelly News, "Women's Center works with all gender identities," OSU Ddaily Barometer, Sep. 15, 2017, p. 14</A> and <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/pride-center-provides-safe-spaces/article_d3f3673c-99c6-11e7-82b9-4f687f766faf.html">Melinda Myers, "Pride Center provides safe spaces," OSU Daily Barometer, Sept. 15, 2017, p. 15</A>. </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37F2FIOEEufN_KSR1b1MdXNQW_KxmKK3O7TAFbcPCx13cZw7YZBX-26hQPOdHyhnaRxdjzmaoCYbF-MRSon6MSdpVXooZgozxADbEfjjpsFmQ5VtV-SwAt7tS9gHRc4BvNylaDXo2uBE/s1600-h/OSUengineeringBennyBeaverSlideRuleTsquareDecal1975.jpg"><img alt="Oregon State University Engineering Benny Beaver decal (10 cents) was sold circa 1975 and it was ''' to apply to a car window shows Benny carrying a slide rule and T-square, which are both obsolete engineering tools." border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293137750002174562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37F2FIOEEufN_KSR1b1MdXNQW_KxmKK3O7TAFbcPCx13cZw7YZBX-26hQPOdHyhnaRxdjzmaoCYbF-MRSon6MSdpVXooZgozxADbEfjjpsFmQ5VtV-SwAt7tS9gHRc4BvNylaDXo2uBE/s400/OSUengineeringBennyBeaverSlideRuleTsquareDecal1975.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 275px; height: 400px;" /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: Oregon State University Engineering Benny Beaver mascot decal was a fad nearly half of a century ago when it was sold for ten cents to be applied on a student's car window. See previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/06/artist-of-osu-benny-beaver-engineer.html">Artist of OSU Benny Beaver engineer mascot decal used it for other schools (6/6/15)</A>, <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2009/01/slide-rules-t-squares-obsolete.html">Slide rules, T-squares -- obsolete engineering tools (1/19/09)</A>, and <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2006/12/osu-benny-beaver-engineering-decal.html">OSU Benny Beaver Engineering Decal (12/9/06)</A> </p><p>
Anybody who has been around academia for decades has witnessed firsthand examples of how a few college fads will spread across across the nation, and sometimes even around the world, because the fad captures the imagination of students. Some fads prove to last and make permanent changes, such as the fad for "gay liberation," which slowly evolved to establish equal rights for LGBT people, but other fads will fade away and replaced by new fashions. </p><p>
Two recent nationwide college fads that have risen in popularity at Oregon State University include the concept of "intersectional feminism" and researching campus building names to expose the unenlightened past of the people the buildings were named after, and then citing this research to request that university leaders change the names of the buildings named after racists or slave owners, etc. </p><p>
The annual Fall welcome to OSU move-in issue of the student newspaper featured a series of stories describing campus resources, such as the OSU Pride Center for gay community members in the story by <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/pride-center-provides-safe-spaces/article_d3f3673c-99c6-11e7-82b9-4f687f766faf.html">Melinda Myers, "Pride Center provides safe spaces," OSU Daily Barometer, Sept. 15, 2017, p. 15</A>. She reports, "The Oregon State University Pride Center is a campus safe space intended for the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual) community. . . The Pride Center is a physical space, staffed by students, that provides connection to resources, community, and support for LGBTQ+ people and education for non-LGBTQ+ who want to be better allies" </p><p>
Logically adjacent to the OSU Pride Center story, in the same Fall Term, welcome to OSU, issue of the student newspaper, is another story by <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/women-s-center-works-with-all-gender-identities/article_c6e3f1f2-99ca-11e7-b1cf-e3588785ff1f.html">Avalon Kelly News, "Women's Center works with all gender identities," OSU Ddaily Barometer, Sep. 15, 2017, p. 14</A>. This story quotes Whitney Archer the associate director of Diversity and Cultural Engagement, and assistant director of the Women's Center, saying, "While our name is the Women's Center, we work with students from all gender identities and we strive to focus our work on gender justice through a lens of intersectional feminism." Also quoted in the story is Miriam Wojtas, a student leadership liaison at the Women's Center, saying that their mission is "continually fostering community that is intersectional - that way it serves as many folks as possible." </p><p>
I have only casually followed the concept of intersectional feminism and my recent Google search led to an article by <A HREF="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/19/feminism-intersectionality-racism-sexism-class/96633750/">Alia E. Dastagir, "What is intersectional feminism? A look at the term you may be hearing a lot," usatoday.com posted Jan. 19, 2017</A>, which lists how feminist scholars explain the meaning of intersectionality in their own words. </p><p>
I first heard about intersectionality while reading the blog posts of a gay scholar, <A HREF="http://dyneslines.blogspot.com/2017/09/identity.html">Wayne Dynes, "Identity," dyneslines.blogspot.com posted Sep. 11, 2017</A> who noteed how "The concept of identity politics is evoking current controversy . . . now it is thought that, we can be host to a basket of autonomous identities. That way the demon of intersectionality lies." </p><p>
In an earlier blog post, <A HREF="http://dyneslines.blogspot.com/2013/07/looking-back-at-my-career-realistically.html">Wayne Dynes, "Looking back at my career realistically,"dyneslines.blogspot.com posted Jul. 21, 2013</A>, Dynes commented, "The general understanding of these matters is being fundamentally transformed by two factors: intersectionality and the trans perspective." </p><p>
Another earlier post by Professor Emeritus <A HREF="http://dyneslines.blogspot.com/2017/07/vagaries-of-word-queer.html">Wayne Dynes, "Vagaries of the word queer," dyneslines.blogspot.com posted Jul. 16, 2017</A>, declares the "queer" word to be obsolete and says, ". . . Queer Theory is collapsing, together with its postmodern cousins in the academy. No one that I know of speaks of queer rights or queer marriage. So the q word has not, despite the aspirations of some observers, become the overall label of choice. That function has been assumed by LGBT - not in my view the ideal solution, but it has in fact become the answer." However, after some analysis he notes, ". . . there is still a use for the queer label. In the current assimilationist climate there is a danger that our heritage (if I may use the term) of outlaw/outsider affirmation will be swept away. . . the word queer should still be employed for this, dare I say, heroic affirmation of the outsider tradition. But the q word is contraindicated as a generic term, and those of us who object to its hegemonic deployment are justified: it does not apply to us." Prof. Dynes was a participant of the homophile movement as well as a witness to the Stonewall era. (See his biography <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_R._Dynes">"Wayne R. Dynes" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia accessed Ju. 17, 2017</A>) (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/07/wayne-dynes-declares-queer-word.html">Wayne Dynes declares 'queer' word obsolete plus Dan Savage on 'straight' truth (7/19/17)</A>) </p><p>
Another recent nationwide campus fad, which is for student activists to research the origins campus building names, has come to Oregon State University in a manner similar to what has happened at other campuses, and it has led student activists to demand that the names of some buildings be changed because the person they were named after was a slave owner or racist, etc. While I see nothing wrong with doing this type of research to expose the racist past of OSU, I also think the activist students could make a more lasting contribution than just demanding the renaming of a building -- a name that could be changed again in the future if a large donation is made, such as what happened when the OSU football stadium was renamed "Reser Stadium" after a $40,000,000 donation was received from the founder of the Reser food company named after himself. </p><p>
The professional Corvallis, Oregon newspaper, which is printed in the college town where Oregon State University is located, reported the reluctance of the Oregon State University President to change OSU building names because it would be insensitive to history (See the newspaper story by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/osu-announces-series-of-meetings-to-evaluate-building-names/article_960f01ca-563f-5a64-81c3-3b2ef9b0892a.html">Anthony Rimel, "OSU announces series of meetings to evaluate building names," gazettetimes.com posted Aug. 31, 2017</A>). The OSU buildings being reviewed include: Arnold Dining Center, which is named for a former Confederate soldier who became an OSU president; Avery Lodge, named for Joseph Avery, a Corvallis founder who the university said owned a pro-slavery newspaper; Benton Hall, which the university said was named for Benton County, which itself was named for white supremacist U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton; and Gill Coliseum, named for longtime basketball coach Amory "Slats" Gill, who student protesters have claimed refused to integrate his team. (A university historian has said there is no evidence Gill refused to integrate, but he only had one black player for part of a season.) </p><p>
The University's administration leadership page says more on the subject: <A HREF="http://leadership.oregonstate.edu/building-and-place-names">"Building and Place Names" Oregon State University, leadership.oregonstate.edu accessed Aug. 31, 2017</A>, and also the regular page of OSU President Ed Ray quotes that is printed in every issue of the OSU alumni magazine mailed out to hundreds of thousands OSU Alumni members three times per year: <A HREF="https://adminlb.imodules.com/controls/file_library/file_download.aspx?sid=359&gid=1001&pgid=22&cid=73&catid=60&fileid=721&mid=161156&moid=73&groupchain=1.1001&name=08_edsaid_636389386090148647.pdf">Ed Said: Talk about renaming buildings is part of a crucial conversation. accessed Sep. 7, 2017 (PDF)</A> printed as <A HREF="https://adminlb.imodules.com/controls/file_library/file_download.aspx?sid=359&gid=1001&pgid=22&cid=73&catid=60&fileid=721&mid=161156&moid=73&groupchain=1.1001&name=08_edsaid_636389386090148647.pdf">"Ed Said: Talk about renaming buildings is part of a crucial conversation" Oregon Stater, Fall 2017, p. 8 (PDF)</A> inside of the OSU alumni magazine issue of <A HREF="http://www.osualum.com/s/359/16/interior.aspx?sid=359&gid=1001&pgid=6643">"Oregon Stater," Fall 2017 Vol. 102, No. 3, p. 8</A>. OSU President Ed Ray asks, ". . . what do you do? Do you put up a plaque with some background information that acknowledges the past . . ." and he also states, ". . .it's important in these cases to be more cognizant of history, to not always just erase a name and forget about it, but to put up plaques and share narratives, so we don't forget." </p><p>
I agree with the OSU President's plaque suggestion, while I also believe that more can and should be done in a way to make a longer lasting contribution than to just "rename it and forget about it," as President Ray cautions, because who knows, it could be renamed again in the future, especially if a big donation was made, such as what happened after a a $40,000,000 donation was made by the founder of a food company who wanted the old OSU Parker football stadium to be renamed to "Reser" after himself. </p><p>
Given these real possibilities, I have urged student activists to consider doing something that will be of a more lasting of contribution, which I also submitted as a letter to the editor of the OSU student newspaper: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.google.com"><p>
Oregon State University will hold a series of meetings in September and October to evaluate four historic campus building names, which perhaps are named after racists or former slave owners. </p><p>
I do not support renaming any building based only on contemporary cultural standards, even as somebody who was directly inspired in the 1960's by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to join his fight for racial equality and in 1970 by Jack Baker at the University of Minnesota to support gay marriage equality. </p><p>
Although admittedly not an exact analogy, many OSU buildings were named after anti-gay individuals, and in response, with the help of a former OSU Pride Center director, plus OSU students and alumni, I wrote a history, <A HREF="http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/43450">"Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004" (link http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/43450 in the OSU Scholars Archive)</A>. </p><p>
It documents a gay OSU football player arrested for violating an anti-gay Oregon law a century ago, and it describes how OSU students first came out as being gay in the 1970's, before evolving toward using LGBT for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, while also taking back the derogatory usage of the word "queer" for homosexual. </p><p>
While I applaud the recent research work of student activists, I believe they should leave the names alone and seize this opportunity to make a more lasting contribution by creating educational programs that teach about OSU's unenlightened past, which could be given during orientation sessions, campus tours, and in relevant classes at OSU. </p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.google.com">Thomas Kraemer, "INSERT LETTER HEADLINE," OSU Barometer, submitted and not publised as of Sep. 16, 2017</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p></p><p>
The local professional newspaper has also printed reactions to OSU building name changes on their letters to the editor page, including one by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-report-the-facts-about-osu-names/article_9d129b5b-6b9f-5618-b547-421454d1bfb1.html">Susan C. Hayes, "Letter: Report the facts about OSU names," gazettetimes.com posted Sep. 5, 3027</A> who states that ". . . Benton Hall . . . was named for the citizens of Benton County . . . It was the community's commitment by the citizens in 1885 to raise the $25,000 required by the Legislature to erect a building on the college farm that secured the state agricultural college for Corvallis. That building was originally called the Administration Building and, in 1947, renamed Benton Hall in honor of this citizen effort." </p><p>
Another published letter to the editor is by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-don-t-change-osu-campus-names/article_e772455d-25ec-5267-a69b-b4fb019df9e1.html">P.M. deLaubenfels, "Letter: Don't change OSU campus names," Gazette-Times Sep. 8, 2017, p. A8 gazettetimes.com posted Sep 6, 2017</A> who asks, "Should Thomas Jefferson be dumped because he had slaves?" The letter writer P.M. deLaubenfels is a conservative who has an active Google Blogger page -- <A HREF="http://www.gusquibble.blogspot.com/">"Thinking About Music, Bicycling, Politics. . . .and a Little Science" gusquibble.blogspot.com blog by Paul F. deLespinasse</A> -- (CORRECTION CLARIFICATION ADDED 10/4/17 Paul F. deLespinasse is not P.M . deLaubenfels) <A HREF="https://sites.google.com/site/superpublius/">Paul F. deLespinasse Web site at sites.google.com/site/superpublius/</A>. He notes his age of 77 years in his post: <A HREF="http://gusquibble.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-new-status-regular-columnist-at.html">Paul F. deLespinasse, "My new status, regular columnist at NewsMax," gusquibble.blogspot.com posted May 14. 2017</A>, which links to <A HREF="http://www.newsmax.com/Blogs/PaulFdeLespinasse/id-456/">Paul F. deLespinasse "Talking About Politics" Blog newsmax.com/Blogs/PaulFdeLespinasse/id-456/</A> and his other conservative writings. Dr. deLaubenfels is a retired emeritus professor from a small college in Michichagan, affiliated with the Methodist Church, who currently lives in Corvallis. </p><p>
Unfortunately, all of the arguments against changing any buildings that are named after racists, including my reasons for not renaming any building, can be twisted by true racists as being support for their racists position, which is why I think it is important to make sure that OSU's unenlightened past is not forgotten so that OSU can continue to improve social justice by not forgetting its past. </p><p>
See previous posts </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2014/06/osu-social-justice-walking-tour.html">OSU Social Justice Walking Tour includes W. Dorr Legg story (6/8/14)</A>
<LI>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/11/osu-scholars-archive-has-pdf-of-osu-gay.html">OSU Scholars Archive has PDF of OSU gay history from OutHistory dot org (11/2/13)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/06/supreme-court-gay-marriage-decision.html">Supreme Court gay marriage decision vindicates Jack Baker and W. Dorr Legg 50 years later (627/13)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/05/arthur-leonard-on-oregon-marriage-ban.html">Arthur Leonard on Oregon Marriage Ban and Minnesota passes gay marriage (5/15/13))</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-by-michael-mcconnell-on-his.html">Book by Michael McConnell on his marriage to Jack Baker that led to the first Supreme Court case on gay marriage (12/39/15) revised Sep. 7, 2017</A>, that includes a link to the personal blog page post by Michael McConnell and <LI><A HREF="http://box8661.blogspot.com/2017/04/birthplace-of-right-to-marry.html#!/2017/04/birthplace-of-right-to-marry.html">Jack Baker, Esq.), "Birthplace of a right to marry University of Minnesota (U of M), Minneapolis, East Bank campus," box8661.blogspot.com posted Jun. 30, 2017</A>, which gives an excellant summary of the complicated legal issues they are still fighting after the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding gay marriage.
</UL></p><p>
A side note about the usage of the word "queer" as an identity. Many OSU students had adopted the "queer" identity by the 1990's and the controversy over it has largely vanished and it has become so common it has been declared dead in the blog post by Professor Emeritus <A HREF="http://dyneslines.blogspot.com/2017/07/vagaries-of-word-queer.html">Wayne Dynes, "Vagaries of the word queer," dyneslines.blogspot.com posted Jul. 16, 2017</A>, who essentially declares the "queer" word to be obsolete and says, ". . . Queer Theory is collapsing, together with its postmodern cousins in the academy. No one that I know of speaks of queer rights or queer marriage. So the q word has not, despite the aspirations of some observers, become the overall label of choice. That function has been assumed by LGBT - not in my view the ideal solution, but it has in fact become the answer." However, after some analysis he notes, ". . . there is still a use for the queer label. In the current assimilationist climate there is a danger that our heritage (if I may use the term) of outlaw/outsider affirmation will be swept away. . . the word queer should still be employed for this, dare I say, heroic affirmation of the outsider tradition. But the q word is contraindicated as a generic term, and those of us who object to its hegemonic deployment are justified: it does not apply to us." Prof. Dynes was a participant of the homophile movement as well as a witness to the Stonewall era. (See his biography <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_R._Dynes">"Wayne R. Dynes" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia accessed Ju. 17, 2017</A>) (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/07/wayne-dynes-declares-queer-word.html">Wayne Dynes declares 'queer' word obsolete plus Dan Savage on 'straight' truth (7/19/17)</A>)
</p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-2373237341171481392017-09-05T15:42:00.001-07:002017-09-05T15:42:22.911-07:00Michael Petrelis quits Blogger and moves to social network on Facebook and Twitter<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
The San Francisco gay activist Michael Petrelis announced that he quit posting on his Google Blogger blog page and has moved to social networking on Facebook and Twitter, just like our U.S. President (no insult intended!) See the post by <A HREF="http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2017/08/its-been-ages-since-i-posted-to-my-blog.html">Michael Petrelis, "It's been ages since I posted to my blog . . ," mpetrelis.blogspot.com posted August 22, 2017</A> where he links to his new social media hangouts at: </p><p>
<A HREF="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012046629752">Michael Petrelis Facebook page "Silence=Death" facebook.com accessed Sep. 2, 2017</A> </p><p>
and </p><p>
<A HREF="https://twitter.com/MichaelPetrelis">Michael Petrelis @MichaelPetrelis Twitter feed "Act & fight back! Proud queer advocate," San Francisco, CA twitter.com Joined January 2013 accessed Sep. 2, 2017</A> Still acting up! </p><p>
I've linked to the Google Blogger blog posts by Michael Petrelis before, for example, see previous post <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2009/03/michael-petrelis-female-condoms-peg-es.html">Michael Petrelis, female condoms, PEG-ES enemas for gay men 3/14/09)</A> that links to the post by blogger <A HREF="http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2009/03/anal-condom-is-no-pain-in-ass-fda.html">Michael Petrelis, "Anal Condom is No Pain in the Ass; FDA Approval Omits Sodomy," posted Mar. 13, 2009</A>. Michael Petrelis was one of the first activists to push for adoption of other safer sex methods than just the original campaign of "use a condom every time." </p><p>
With my low vision blindness, I have been unable to do much exploring in the current gay bar that is in fashion --- Facebook and Twitter --- in the social netowrking and social media area, but I have used Facebook for conversation with close family members, but never tried twitter because I am too verbose! However, if I was younger and in better health, I can easily imagine why I would be using both of them. </p><p>
Over a decade ago, I was contacted by the Google Blogger developers, who were all excited about the then new and then still emerging social networking and social network applications, and they made some major enhancements to Blogger to make it more "social," but apparently these features are too complicated to be visible to casual users. In any case, I never was that interested because today I have had to narrow my social circles on purpose because I physically am unable to keep up the basic daily activities of living, to use the technical jargon medical doctors have taught me! Instead, I've turned my blog page into an low vision assistive device where I can use it take ntoes and search then using the low vision accessiblity features of Microsoft Windows. I am not blogging for the fame or fortune of it, and so I am happy with the fact that only a few of my best friends and family read my blog, although I've had a few controversial posts that have drawn big traffic according to Google Blogger stats. </p><p>
For background information, see: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Petrelis">"Michael Petrelis," wikipedia.org accessed Sep. 8, 2017</A>
<LI><A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Rofes">"Eric Rofes" wikipedia.org accessed Sep. 4, 2017</A>
</UL>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-28341705431539723832017-08-22T14:07:00.002-07:002017-09-02T09:47:11.111-07:00I was able to see Solar eclipse despite low vsiion blindness <p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11GnhKewKVwknhzEPx_fPJWhUTaK-_dak-p_drtCf8tTBm-pXXHhxYvpcNfSRNckYCHljjaXGT8skn-9r0vVyVFKXx5ONNFT56rOCVzMUabQeDKf8FQMs1p4B4p7JZClGO0EBZt7UhvmF/s1600/GTsolarEclipse20170822pA1.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img alt="Time lapse of solar eclipse on front page of G-T Aug. 22, 2017, p. A1" border="0" height="295" width=400 src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11GnhKewKVwknhzEPx_fPJWhUTaK-_dak-p_drtCf8tTBm-pXXHhxYvpcNfSRNckYCHljjaXGT8skn-9r0vVyVFKXx5ONNFT56rOCVzMUabQeDKf8FQMs1p4B4p7JZClGO0EBZt7UhvmF/s1600/GTsolarEclipse20170822pA1.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: the Aug. 21, 2017 solar eclipse as shown in a front page time lapse photo by Anibal Cortiz, "Shadow and Sun. Mid-valley thrills to spectacular solar show," Gazette-Times, Aug. 22, 2017, p. A1 -- I was able to see it despite my low vision blindness as it passed over Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon at 10:16AM, a time which is shown at the center of the photo. The shape of the moon as it passes by over the sun can be seen in the minutes before and after the total eclipse, as is shown to the left and right in the photo. These shapes and path in the sky matched what I saw through the special eclipse glasses I bought for the occasion. See the Corvallis professionsl newspaper story by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/on-osu-campus-hundreds-cheer-totality/article_4edc0c6b-a981-59e3-bea0-67b933a8aba8.html">Anthony Rimel, "On OSU campus, hundreds cheer totality," Gazette-Times, Aug. 22, 2017, p. A5</A> and editor <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/print-specific/column/editorial-eclipse-lived-up-to-its-billing/article_33785d98-2ca2-5891-9794-b593fc4da839.html">Mike McInally, "Editorial: Eclipse lived up to its billing," Gazette-Times, Aug. 22, 2017, p. B5 gazettetimes.com posted Aug. 21 updated Aug. 22, 2017</A>. Also, see previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/08/glasses-for-total-solar-eclipse-aug-21.html">Glasses for total solar eclipse Aug. 21 and OSU student newspaper story (8/8/17)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/06/total-solar-eclipse-will-pass-over.html">Total solar eclipse will pass over Corvallis and OSU (6/11/17)</A>. </p><p>
Also, see the OSU student newspaper account of the solar eclipse by <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/totality-perfect/article_06551adc-8c42-11e7-8979-53c6ace113b1.html">Sydney Sullivan, "'Totality' perfect, City, State, university officials reflect on eclipse expectations vs. reality," OSU 'The Baro,' Aug. 28, 2017, p. 4 dailybarometer.com or orangemedianetwork.com posted Aug. 28, 2017</A></p><p>
See previous posts: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/08/i-was-able-to-see-solar-eclipse-despite.html">I was able to see Solar eclipse despite low vsiion blindness (8/22/17) updated Sep. 2, 2017</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/08/glasses-for-total-solar-eclipse-aug-21.html">Glasses for total solar eclipse Aug. 21 and OSU student newspaper story (8/8/17)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/06/total-solar-eclipse-will-pass-over.html">Total solar eclipse will pass over Corvallis and OSU (6/11/17)</A>
</UL>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-2110721826822634472017-08-16T09:41:00.001-07:002017-08-17T10:04:25.650-07:00Google engineer fired after suggesting biological reasons for fewer women in engineering
<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqcGIvHXuhATmbAoYvKZ32xxiTU2cTueXt7YGLeuHpS7GsT3JWSAWKtTTspVmZ9orYcszvxN0zLbbueEEzNtpY011MRWQTQS8KlOcKbi5aV9q1vFovzIVhtbZWr3vhavnzPaZaaNXXMcb/s1600/EmilyChangeJamesDamoreBloombergTechnology2017.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqcGIvHXuhATmbAoYvKZ32xxiTU2cTueXt7YGLeuHpS7GsT3JWSAWKtTTspVmZ9orYcszvxN0zLbbueEEzNtpY011MRWQTQS8KlOcKbi5aV9q1vFovzIVhtbZWr3vhavnzPaZaaNXXMcb/s1600/EmilyChangeJamesDamoreBloombergTechnology2017.JPG" alt="Emily Chang interviews 'James Damore on his dismissal from Google,' Bloomberg Technology Aug. 10, 2017 2-3 PM Comcast Cable Channel 743" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=261 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The question of why there are fewer women in software engineering than men is discussed by former Google engineer James Damore, who had been fired after writing an essay suggesting biological reasons, in an interview of him by a respected San Francisco Silicon Valley Bloomberg TV reporter: <A HREF="https://youtu.be/s4WoeOkj2Ng">Emily Chang interview of former Google Engineer James Damore "Bloomberg Technology," as watched on Bloomberg TV Corvallis Comcast cable channel 743 2-3PM Aug. 10, 2017 -- online as, "Fired Engineer James Damore: I Feel Google Betrayed Me," (8:40) youtube.com posted Aug. 9, 2017</A></p><p>
Sex discrimination against the employment of females in historically male dominated fields, such as engineering, has been an issue for decades that both universities and companies have tried to eliminate. Despite all of the successes, over the last fifty years, in increasing the number of women in engineering, there are still a significantly fewer number of females than males graduating with a degree in engineering or working in engineering. The above story of how this issue has surfaced at Google, prompted me to write the following letter to the editor of the professional newspaper in my college town of Oregon State University, which has a large shool of engineering:</p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-improve-processes-don-t-discriminate/article_15cfa60c-43f4-5d12-8f50-7f931b39e4f2.html"><p>
The respected San Francisco Silicon Valley Bloomberg TV reporter Emily Chang recently interviewed a former Google engineer, James Damore, who was fired after writing an essay suggesting there are fewer female engineers due to biological reasons. </p><p>
Damore insists he is not spreading alt-right propaganda and he intelligently raises the valid, but controversial, question asking how much does nature vs. nurture lead to the fact today that fewer women than men work in science, technology, engineering or math. </p><p>
Damore believes that even though nature causes most men and women to be born with obvious physical differences, most people can do any occupation, including ones traditionally dominated by one sex, given the necessary nurture. </p><p>
In reaction, the female Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that changing the underrepresentation of females is limited by the fact that only 16 percent of software engineering graduates are female at the universities where Facebook recruits new hires, which is a lower percentage than it was a decade ago. </p><p>
Even if genetic reasons are discovered in the future for the lower percentage of females in S.T.E.M., it should be used only to improve educational and recruitment processes, instead of as an excuse to discriminate. </p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-improve-processes-don-t-discriminate/article_15cfa60c-43f4-5d12-8f50-7f931b39e4f2.html">Thomas Kraemer, "It's no excuse for discrimination," Gazette-Times, Aug. 17, 2017, p. A6 and posted as "Letter: Improve processes, don't discriminate" gazettetimes.com posted Aug. 14, 2017 updated Aug. 15-17, 2017</A> also see <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/search/?k=%22thomas%20kraemer%22">Link to previous Thomas Kraemer GT Letters</A>)</p></blockquote></p><p>
The real reason behind this firing of an employee by Coogle will probably never be made public due to employment privacy laws that make it risky for companies to disclose too much detail. In my decades of management experience at Silicon Valley technology companies I have seen many cases where the real reason is not what the employee publically claims the firing was due to, but the real reason for a firing was due to the employee being unable to work productively with other people. However, the "group think" and political correctness that the fired Google engineer complains about is also real in my experience, and I have seen this lead to so-called "affirmative action" hiring programs that fail to pick the best candidate for the job. In my opinion, affirmative action, defined as intentionally discriminating in hiring to make up for past discrimination, can be useful, but it should be done only with a court order asking a compnay to do it after the company has been found guilty of illegally discriminating in the past. This doesn't mean that companies should do nothing. For example, instead of discriminating intentionally to hire more women, the compnaies I worked for would proactively recruit new hires at universities with a larger population of minority students, such as Howard University, or with active programs encouraging women to major in engineering. I found that this often resulted in finding some really good engineering talent that was being overlooked by other companies who would hire students only from the universities where they had recruited at in the past. </p><p>
For more background see, <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Chang_(journalist)">"Emily Chang (journalist)" wikipedia.org accessed Aug. 11, 2017</A>, who hosts the cable TV program <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomberg_Technology">"'Bloomberg Technology,'" wikipedia.org accessed Aug. 11, 2017</A>, and <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Sandberg">"Sheryl Sandberg" wikipedia.org accessed Aug. 11, 2017</A>, who is chief operating officer (COO) of Facebook. In 1987, Sandberg enrolled at Harvard College. She graduated in 1991 summa cum laude Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree in economics. </p><p>
<iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s4WoeOkj2Ng?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </p><p>
VIDEO: <A HREF="https://youtu.be/s4WoeOkj2Ng">Emily Chang, "Fired Engineer James Damore: I Feel Google Betrayed Me," (8:40) youtube.com posted Aug. 9, 2017</A>. Former Google Engineer James Damore has caused an uproar in Silicon Valley. This after he authored an internal 10-page memo asserting there are biological causes behind gender inequality in the tech industry. Damore, says he is "exploring all possible legal remedies," and that problems with the company's culture prompted him to write the memo. Bloomberg's Emily Chang caught up with Damore for broadcast exclusive. She started by asking about his reaction to Google letting him go. </p><p>
See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/07/trump-harms-military-readiness-with.html">Trump harms military readiness with misogynistic transgender ban (7/27/17)</A>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-92065363381220694052017-08-08T09:40:00.001-07:002017-08-08T11:17:42.370-07:00Glasses for total solar eclipse Aug. 21 and OSU student newspaper story<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5yCQumrkhJly6GS9qINRiJl6s7zQXgTz_2wsIU0SpoWegmMO6XVGS7uYNFvTVLxBdkOqfK-k0Sq3DfFhvND8edQofbEcZnOLd63k_tEs61U9ho-OSJhHNbOyEYxyU87qcOiLrluNs8pB/s1600/SolarEclipseGlassesOSUbarometer201707p1.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5yCQumrkhJly6GS9qINRiJl6s7zQXgTz_2wsIU0SpoWegmMO6XVGS7uYNFvTVLxBdkOqfK-k0Sq3DfFhvND8edQofbEcZnOLd63k_tEs61U9ho-OSJhHNbOyEYxyU87qcOiLrluNs8pB/s1600/SolarEclipseGlassesOSUbarometer201707p1.JPG" alt="solar eclipse glasses OSU student newspaper Jul. 2017 p. 1" width=400 height=455 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: the perhaps (instructions don't say if these are) folded backward cardboard and plastic framed glasses, required for viewing the solar eclipse Aug. 21, which I bought at a Corvallis Fred Meyer grocery store for $1.99 each on Jul. 28, 2017. The glasses are manufactured by <A HREF="https://exploreone.com/pages/about-us">Explore Scientific, LLC exploreone.com or explorescientificusa.com</A> spearheaded by founder and President, Scott Roberts, who has spent over 30 years in the astronomy optics industry. The sales page for the <A HREF="https://exploreone.com/collections/solar-eclipse-sun-catcher/products/solar-eclipse-sun-catcher-sunglasses">Sun Catcher Sunglasses (2-Pack) $ 2.49 exploreone.com accessed Aug. 6, 2017</A> includes links to an article by <A HREF="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0390/6029/files/Solar-Eclipse-Booklet_Web.pdf">Professor Michael D. Reynolds, "An Eclipse Primer," Free (PDF) www.explorescientificusa.com</A> and a test report documenting the safety of these glasses per the standarad set by the <A HREF="https://www.iso.org/standard/59289.html">International Organization for Standardization, "ISO 12312-2:2015, Eye and face protection -- Sunglasses and related eyewear -- Part 2: Filters for direct observation of the sun," iso.org Publication date : 2015-06 accessed Aug. 6, 2017</A>. Also, shown is the cover of the student newspaper that included articles by <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/one-million-people-to-visit-oregon-for-celestial-spectacle/article_5f6a43d6-759a-11e7-9402-db4236066249.html">Erin Dose and Sydney Sullivan, "Solar Eclipse Aug. 21, 2017," Oregon State University "The Baro," July 2017 cover story, p. 3, 8-9 dailybarometer.com July 31, 2017 posted online as "One million people to visit Oregon for celestial spectacle"</A> and <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/eclipse-impacts-on-personal-level/article_ff2656dc-759d-11e7-91f3-eb62cdb3bf59.html">Sydney Sullivan, "Eclipse impacts on personal level," Oregon State University "The Baro," July 2017 cover story, p. 9 posted dailybarometer.com July 31, 2017</A>. (A <A HREF="https://issuu.com/daily.barometer/docs/baro_31june2017_final">Facsimile of the printed newspaper dated Jun. 31, 2017 edition for Aug. is available at issuu.com</A>) </p><p>
The <A HREF="http://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/">main NASA site for this eclipse, "Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 Aug 21" eclipse2017.nasa.gov</A> includes links to the <A HREF="https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html">NASA Interactive Google Map</A> that has been temporarily moved to the <A HREF="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-maps">NASA, "Eclipse Maps" eclipse2017.nasa.gov accessed Aug. 7, 3027</A> due to high demand, at the link <A HREF="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/interactive_map/index.html">NASA Eclipse Interactive Map</A>. A simple JPEG <A HREF="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/or.jpg">NASA map of Oregon Eclipse</A> is also also available. NASA's calculation says my location at Oregon State University will start seing the partial eclipse Aug. 21 at 16:04:55.2 and start of the total eclipse at 17:16:54.1 ending at 17:18:38.6 in the morning. </p><p>
The professional Corvallis newspaper also published a story by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/eclipse-damage-doctors-can-t-help/article_7ff98ee0-a90f-53bc-b2bf-fa5e83bc2c03.html">JENNIFER MOODY Albany Democrat-Herald, "Eclipse damage: Doctors can't help," gazettetimes.com posted Aug. 7, 3-17</A> with a quote from a doctor about the eye safety concern and the ISO standard mentioned above. It also mentions that "According to NASA, the moon's shadow will start creeping over the sun about 9 a.m. that Monday. Totality will hit the coast about 10:15 and in the mid-valley area a minute or two later." The editorial page included a photo of hardboard glasses to illustrate an opinion piece warning by the editor <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-beware-fake-glasses-for-eclipse-viewing/article_6605d2ba-513a-5806-865a-4404248e23b8.html">Mike McInally, "Editorial: Beware fake glasses for eclipse viewing," gazettetimes.com posted Aug. 6, 2017</A>. </p><p>
The student newspaper story said: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/one-million-people-to-visit-oregon-for-celestial-spectacle/article_5f6a43d6-759a-11e7-9402-db4236066249.html"><p>
<i>. . . according to Randall Milstein, an astronomy professor at OSU and an astronomer-in-residence for the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium. . . . while there is an eclipse somewhere in the world approximately every 18 months, a total solar eclipse has not crossed the entirety of the contiguous United States since 1918. . . </p><p>
In Corvallis, the eclipse will start at 9:05 a.m. and end at 11:37 a.m. The moment of totality will occur at 10:16 a.m. and last for one minute and 35 seconds . . . </p><p>
Another large event coinciding with the eclipse is 'OSU150 Space Grant Festival: A Total Eclipse Experience,' the first of many events that will occur over the course of the 2017-2018 academic year in celebration of OSU's sesquicentennial. Attendees will have the option of renting residence hall rooms for the weekend of the eclipse. One-person rooms in Wilson Hall, Callahan Hall, McNary Hall and Finley Hall are available for $265 for the weekend, while two-person rooms are priced at $375. Family-option rooms offered in Tebeau Hall, the International Living-Learning Center and Halsell Hall have already sold out, according to the festival's website. . .</i></p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/one-million-people-to-visit-oregon-for-celestial-spectacle/article_5f6a43d6-759a-11e7-9402-db4236066249.html">Erin Dose and Sydney Sullivan, "Solar Eclipse Aug. 21, 2017," Oregon State University "The Baro," July 2017 cover story, p. 3, 8-9 dailybarometer.com July 31, 2017 posted online as "One million people to visit Oregon for celestial spectacle"</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
Another student newspaper story said: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/eclipse-impacts-on-personal-level/article_ff2656dc-759d-11e7-91f3-eb62cdb3bf59.html"><p>
<i>Richard Watson, who serves on the board of directors for an amateur astronomer's club associated with the local Corvallis community, the Heart of the Valley Astronomers, has sought out four solar eclipses in his lifetime, traveling as far as Cabo San Lucas to see these spectacles. However, for the upcoming eclipse he will not have to leave his own home. . . </p><p>
Tom Carrico, the head of the Heart of the Valley Astronomers, is helping the Corvallis community to prepare for these brief seconds of totality happening in August. </p><p>
Though retired from human resources a couple of years ago, planning for the solar eclipse has become more than just a part-time job. According to Carrico, lessons that the Heart of the Valley Astronomers teach at the Corvallis public library have been selling out in a matter of minutes.
. . . </p><p>
In 1979, Randall Milstein, an astronomy professor at OSU, said he was able to witness a partial solar eclipse happen over the mainland United States while he was living in Michigan. </p><p>
"That's the one thing I remember from seeing, not even a total eclipse, a partial eclipse in 1979, was that it was dead quiet. Everything just stopped. And that struck me as the most eerie thing," Milstein said.
. . . </p><p>
Like Carrico and Bradshaw, Milstein is putting on workshops throughout Corvallis and other cities around the path of totality in order to remind everyone this event can be very life-altering. According to Milstein, his workshops are intended to remind people totality will only be in Corvallis for a minute and 40 seconds and it will not be repeated. </p><p>
"There are people who witness a solar eclipse and laugh, other people will sob, or literally fall backwards on the ground and just sit there with their mouth open. Some people will sing or hum, or there will be just dead silence," Milstein said.</i></p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/eclipse-impacts-on-personal-level/article_ff2656dc-759d-11e7-91f3-eb62cdb3bf59.html">Sydney Sullivan, "Eclipse impacts on personal level," Oregon State University "The Baro," July 2017 cover story, p. 9 dailybarometer.com July 31, 2017 posted online as</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
Corvallis was on the edge of a total solar eclipse on February 26, 1979 and I recall watching it from upstairs in Hewlett-Packard's building 4 -- the first of two buildings completed at that time. There were no other buildings or large trees to block my view, and the open office plan allowed me to look south toward Eugene to see bright sunlight while turning my head to see the the windows turn dark on the north side of the building. All of my coworkers briefly paused to watch before going back to doing the engineering research and development work for handheld programmable computers (i.e. business and scientific calculators) plus HP's first personal computer and thermal printer. </p><p>
I hope to see the Aug. 21st total eclipse in Corvallis, provided neither rain nor my low vision blindness prevents me from using the protective eyeglasses I bought for $1.99 at a grocery store on Kings Blvd. </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvAIs_R9egTs_AdgbFmyX1kmlsSzdlbiqacPrJUrr4VBdigus-cBkrOZ5KwEaCiarM-HHjQexz6u8BSLEP1T_7aw03SMJJSa0IuRbq7W47mEefqFe2b78r0YRRZyA_xFjpQHrv0yntYdHm/s1600/EclipseCorvallisGT20170521pA1.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img alt="Solar eclipse path Corvallis GT May 21, 2017, p. A1" border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvAIs_R9egTs_AdgbFmyX1kmlsSzdlbiqacPrJUrr4VBdigus-cBkrOZ5KwEaCiarM-HHjQexz6u8BSLEP1T_7aw03SMJJSa0IuRbq7W47mEefqFe2b78r0YRRZyA_xFjpQHrv0yntYdHm/s1600/EclipseCorvallisGT20170521pA1.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The path and time of the total solar eclipse over that will be seen over Oregon State University and Corvallis, Oregon was printed in a graphic for the newspaper story by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/albany/news/local/summer-of-the-eclipse/article_9bce1075-4cb1-5d92-b152-7aed9561a33a.html">Bennet Hall, "Summer of the eclipse," Gazette-Times, Sun. May 21, 2017, p. A1, A4</A>. Corvallis is set for Aug. 21, 2017 at 10:16AM lasting about 1 iminute and 40 seconds. The last eclipse in Corvallis occurred on Feb. 26, 1979. See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/06/total-solar-eclipse-will-pass-over.html">Total solar eclipse will pass over Corvallis and OSU (6/11/17)</A> </p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-75302910909368556952017-07-27T11:04:00.000-07:002017-07-27T11:04:43.577-07:00Trump harms military readiness with misogynistic transgender ban<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNf1W5WV7PM8VAcrvBbHeQS7nBCp38YxWzrV7FUyWT4HbhqcdVBLQYDiuosJM_Vs8cPlMblOwdyDcgBJAv-mXY06pJu_vbikknwn3ff5VZ0pscH8l6Cnlk74cuWfDTOdhpnjhcnwT6FJNv/s1600/TrumpTransBan700clubCBNnews201707261237pm.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNf1W5WV7PM8VAcrvBbHeQS7nBCp38YxWzrV7FUyWT4HbhqcdVBLQYDiuosJM_Vs8cPlMblOwdyDcgBJAv-mXY06pJu_vbikknwn3ff5VZ0pscH8l6Cnlk74cuWfDTOdhpnjhcnwT6FJNv/s1600/TrumpTransBan700clubCBNnews201707261237pm.JPG" alt="Trump's transgender ban on 700 Club CBN news Jul. 26, 2017 10:37AM PT" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=316 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: President Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military is favorably reported by the Christian Broadcasting Network News a.k.a. CBN "700 Club" TV show hosted by the anti-gay Rev. Pat Robertson, which I watched at 12:37PM Jul. 26, 2017 on over-the-air Eugene, Oregon KLSR-TV Channel 34-1 via Comcast Cable Channel 705. This show was originally shown at 10:37AM PT on the Corvallis Comcast Cable TV Channel 739 Freeform (formerly named the CBN and Family Channel) that was started decades ago by Rev. Robertson, and also broadcast for free on the over-the-air Eugene KMTR-TV Channel 16-1 at 11:37PM (simulcast on Comcast cable channel 703). Rev. Pat Robertson apparently has a contract to air his show on the Christian cable TV channel he founded and he apparently pays local TV stations to broadcast his program via their free, over-the-air TV channels because disclaimers are displayed at the start of the program saying it may or may not reflect the views of the station. </p><p>
When I woke up on Jul. 26, the live TV news broadcast I was watching showed the first of several tweets President Trump was sending, which dramatically teased the next tweet he had not yet written, and so the TV anchors joked how this provided viewers with a great motivation to stick around through the commercial break in order to find out out what Trump was going to say in his next tweet. The anchors also all gave their joke guesses as to what it would be. </p><p>
A few minutes later, Trump finished his follow-up tweeting and it was quickly reported as a "breaking news" story on my local Corvallis newspaper's Website in an AP story by the <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/trump-bars-transgender-people-from-us-military/article_c5fb531a-3aa7-5688-9d1f-9156d3eb5b97.html">Associated Press, "Trump bars transgender people from US military," gazettetimes.com posted Jul. 26, 2017 accessed 11:00AM</A> (The next day print edition front page AP story was by Robert Burns, "Trump prohibits transgender troops -- Tweet catches Pentagon off-guard; decision draws denunciations," Gazette-times, Jul. 27, 2017, p. A1-A2). </p><p>
This news story prompted me to write the following letter to the editor: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-trump-s-ban-harms-the-us-military/article_e9fec843-adf9-5246-8b62-1f577c601ac2.html"><p>
President Trump's Jul. 26 ban on transgender individuals serving in the military is essentially a ban on all women serving in the military, according to my heterosexual, cisgender female cousin who served as one of the first female officers in the U.S. military several decades ago, while also raising a family of children in an opposite-sex marriage to a man. </p><p>
My cousin's father, a U.S. Marines General, was appalled by how many men in the military angrily discriminated against his daughter because they thought only "real men" could be warriors. </p><p>
Trump is harming military readiness by discriminating against all women, when he welcomes gay military men, but not women, to serve. </p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-trump-s-ban-harms-the-us-military/article_e9fec843-adf9-5246-8b62-1f577c601ac2.html">Thomas Kraemer, "Letter: Trump's ban harms the US military," Gazette-Times, Jul. 27, 2017, p. A8</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
Also see the following links: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-announces-ban-on-transgender-individuals-serving-in-military.html">Barnini Chakraborty, "Trump announces ban on transgender individuals serving in military - President tweets that military cannot be burdened with medical costs, disruption," foxnews.com posted Jul. 26, 2017</A>.
<LI><A HREF="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trumps-cruel-military-ban-on-transgender-people-is-an-attempt-to-save-his-base_us_5978905ae4b0a8a40e8417f3">Michelangelo Signorile, "Trump's Cruel Military Ban On Transgender People Is An Attempt To Save His Base. Trump will throw the most vulnerable people under the bus when he feels threatened," huffingtonpost.com posted Jul. 26, 2017</A> - "So, to give the base something to chew on, he decided to throw them transgender people. It's an issue that has been percolating for months, driven by Vice President Mike Pence."
<LI><A HREF="http://americablog.com/2017/07/trump-bans-transgender-troops-divert-attention-growing-sessions-scandal.html">John Aravosis, "Trump bans transgender troops to divert attention from growing Sessions," americablog.com posted Jul. 26, 2017</A> - "Why did Trump do this? To divert conservative attention from his growing war with Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- conservatives love Sessions, and are increasingly angry at Trump for trying to force Sessions to resign -- and to help Republicans at the ballot box in 2018. Donald Trump is now using the American Armed Forces for politics."
<LI><A HREF="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/george-takei-trump-transgender-military-ban_us_59789c75e4b0a8a40e843b70">Cavan Sieczkowski, "George Takei Offers Blistering Takedown Of Trump's Trans Military Ban," huffingtonpost.com posted Jul. 26, 2017</A>
<LI><A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender">"cisgender" wikipedia.org accessed Jul. 26, 2017</A> notes that the word "Cisgender (often abbreviated to simply cis) is a term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. Cisgender may also be defined as those who have "a gender identity or perform a gender role society considers appropriate for one's sex." It is the opposite of the term transgender. . . . Cisgender was also added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, defined as 'designating a person whose sense of personal identity corresponds to the sex and gender assigned to him or her at birth (in contrast with transgender).'"
</UL> </p><p>
The editor also printed the letter by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/opinion/letters/letter-cheering-crowds-lead-to-chills/article_44d631e0-6174-5f58-9dbc-f0c22a829192.html">Michael Beachley, "Letter: Cheering crowds lead to chills," gazettetimes.com posted Jul. 26, 201</A> who notes how he watched "Donald Trump speaking to the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree about the evils of a free press, encouraging them to boo Barack Obama and other political opponents. They were cheering." This made him recal his trip "Nuremberg a couple weeks ago I went to the Nazi Documentation Center and saw a film of Adolf Hitler speaking to the Hitlerjugend, the Hitler Youth, encouraging them in undermining the values of the traditional structures of German society. They were cheering." </p><p>
As an aside note, I noticed at the bottom of the letters page it had a search function that listed all of my past letters: <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/search/?k=%22thomas%20kraemer%22">Search gazettetimes.com "Thomas Kraemer"</A> -- on Jul. 27 it returned 73 results, including the letter above. I also noticed that the email address of opinion@gtconnect.com for letter submission was no longer on the page, but it had a link to <A HREF="https://www.gazettetimes.com/forms/online_services/letter/">Submit letter to the editor form gazettetimes.com</A> that had a form you could use, and it gave the option to "send us an e-mail at news@gazettetimes.com" -- an email address that is very similar to the Albany Democrat-Herald email address for their sister newspaper. </p><p>
On the loosely related subject of President Trump trying to get his attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, I wonder if this is a fake attack on Sessions just to make it look like he doesn't trust Sessions, so that when Congress forces Trump to keep Sessions and Sessions's investigations exonerate Trump from any crime, it will look like it is believable instead of a conclusion fabricated by a Trump loyalists, which was the concern of many when Sessions was picked by Trump for the job. </p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-50595801103111654142017-07-23T13:02:00.000-07:002017-07-23T13:02:39.241-07:00Pride March in small town across river from OSU<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBffWIFZkUKX8tw_cEYogOhiBITNHF_6tHv7459yCWfJOUeXbS3pZ8KEbyCYzp005mKJ3rpelOpbOLB_MPeLxW87D7NHOHxH4qTx9eaQ2K6XtPK6htFgLZym37p60mcyDlg8JM3UFu1Lmj/s1600/AlbanyPrideGTsunday20170723pA1.JPG" data-original-width="1197" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBffWIFZkUKX8tw_cEYogOhiBITNHF_6tHv7459yCWfJOUeXbS3pZ8KEbyCYzp005mKJ3rpelOpbOLB_MPeLxW87D7NHOHxH4qTx9eaQ2K6XtPK6htFgLZym37p60mcyDlg8JM3UFu1Lmj/s1600/AlbanyPrideGTsunday20170723pA1.JPG" alt="Pride story front page Midvalley Sunday G-Tp. A1" width=400 height=284 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: Front page newspaper story by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/albany/news/local/albany-s-first-pride-march-attracts-enthusiastic-crowd/article_656edfc0-821c-5526-aca1-0474c662015e.html">Neil Zawicki, "Message: 'We are all equal' Pride March in downtown Albany attracts a crowd," Mid-Valley Sunday Gazette-Times Democrat-Herald, p. A1,A6 posted online Jul. 22, 2017 as "Albany's first Pride March attracts robust crowd"</A> reports on the Pride March in the small town of Albany, Oregon that is across the river from Corvallis and Oregon State University. Historically, Albany has been a very conservative rural town with many blue collar citizens employed in logging and lumber mills, which is in contrast to Corvallis's population of college students and professors who are more analytically minded, although not as liberal as a typical college town. Also see video by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/albany/video-pride-in-albany/youtube_e3a101df-8c45-51db-b147-22826238af6d.html">Jessica Habjan, "Video: Pride In Albany," gazettetimes.com posted Jul 22, 2017</A>. </p><p>
One speaker at the march noted how far Linn County (where Albany, Oregon is located) has come from the days when an ordinance was passed that took away the rights of homosexuals. (The specific ordinance is not mentioned in the newspaper, but I guess the speaker may be talking about the anti-gay measures successfully passed by Oregon anti-gay groups, which have not been repealed and are still on the books, such as Oregon's ban on same-sex marriages that has been overruled by the U.S. Supremer Court decision.) </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/albany/news/local/albany-s-first-pride-march-attracts-enthusiastic-crowd/article_656edfc0-821c-5526-aca1-0474c662015e.html"><p>
<i>"There were 550 confirmed marchers Saturday at Albany's first Pride March, an organized demonstration meant as a show of support and unity for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. . . </p><p>
Keith Kolkow organized the Albany event . . which began in front of the Albany City Hall. . . . </p><p>
Notable in the crowd were at least a dozen representatives from the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Corvallis. Congregation member Ann Hawkins said Christianity and LGBT rights are one in the same. . . </p><p>
The march comes on the heels of a contentious July 12 city council meeting . . . </p><p>
"I think the council meeting last week went a long way to energize people," said march co-organizer Jerred Taylor. . . </p><p>
The march kicked off, moving north up Broadalbin Street, with drums and rattling cow bells and marchers chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia's got to go!" </p><p>
As the procession made its way west along First Avenue, the marchers stretched for two blocks, with the marchers shouting "Black, white, gay, straight -- love does not discriminate!" . . . </p><p>
One person shouted from his car, "Damn faggots! Marching for what!?" but an Albany Police officer emerged from his patrol vehicle to encourage the heckler to move along, which he did. . . </p><p>
Albany City Councilor Ray Kopczynski also marched. . ."</i>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/albany/news/local/albany-s-first-pride-march-attracts-enthusiastic-crowd/article_656edfc0-821c-5526-aca1-0474c662015e.html">Neil Zawicki, "Message: 'We are all equal' Pride March in downtown Albany attracts a crowd," Mid-Valley Sunday Gazette-Times Democrat-Herald, p. A1,A6 posted online Jul. 22, 2017 as "Albany's first Pride March attracts robust crowd"</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-54467008578623312432017-07-19T13:05:00.002-07:002017-07-19T14:27:14.939-07:00Wayne Dynes declares 'queer' word obsolete plus Dan Savage on 'straight' truth <p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMGVMzd_pR3dg5n0sqGyKd82JcaMXVac4ueKGpK-08PfubwNWhz_d3jZSyld-F7kx7u47ALR7_rLXlusg1AHCGiorIo5LaWQ7rZtHi6MjPylCayffT6FNpSi89Jjb1uscfuaC1l0vc1IYJ/s1600/QRCpassesUnanimouslyBarometer20010315p1frontpage.JPG"><img alt="OSU Queer Resource Center headline 'QRC passes unanimously,' OSU Barometer, Mar. 15, 2001, p. 1" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530234702231194370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMGVMzd_pR3dg5n0sqGyKd82JcaMXVac4ueKGpK-08PfubwNWhz_d3jZSyld-F7kx7u47ALR7_rLXlusg1AHCGiorIo5LaWQ7rZtHi6MjPylCayffT6FNpSi89Jjb1uscfuaC1l0vc1IYJ/s400/QRCpassesUnanimouslyBarometer20010315p1frontpage.JPG" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: At Oregon State University, queer activism peaked with the creation of the "OSU Queer Resource Center" or QRC as reported in a front page student newspaper story "QRC passes unanimously," OSU Barometer, Mar. 15, 2001, p. 1. The QRC would later become the present-day OSU Pride Center for LGBTQQII+ students. During the 1990's self-described "queer activists" took back the word "queer" from its former use as a pejorative term for homosexuals by proudly identifying themselves as being "queer," instead of using the word "gay," as had become the popular fashion after the Stonewall riot in 1969. The identity of "queer" was promoted as being inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities, similar to how the "gay" identity was embraced by both gay men and gay women after Stonewall, until misogynistic behavior by gay male activists caused many women to adopt their historical lesbian identity. A prior generation of homosexual activists, including the former OSU Professor W. Dorr Legg, had a similar goal of inclusivity when they had adopted the identity of "homophile" during the 1950's and 1960's. Prof. Legg saw "homophile" also as a more correct English construction because it did not mix Greek and Latin, plus it communicated that "sex" was not as central to their identity, as mainstream society thought it was. The student newspaper story, shown above, said Christian Matheis voted as part of the ASOSU student fee committee to fund the OSU Queer Resource Center. Matheis was an early leader of the QRC. (See previous posts <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/10/osu-queer-resource-center-documentary.html">OSU Queer Resource Center documentary video review (10/20/10)</A> and <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2011/06/osu-qrc-advocate-christian-matheis-says.html">OSU QRC advocate Christian Matheis says farewell in 5,000 words (6/3/11)</A>) </p><p>
I recalled the noble goals of queer activists in the 1990's and how it touched Oregon State University after reading the blog post essay by Professor Emeritus <A HREF="http://dyneslines.blogspot.com/2017/07/vagaries-of-word-queer.html">Wayne Dynes, "Vagaries of the word queer," dyneslines.blogspot.com posted Jul. 16, 2017</A>, who essentially declares the "queer" word to be obsolete and says, ". . . Queer Theory is collapsing, together with its postmodern cousins in the academy. No one that I know of speaks of queer rights or queer marriage. So the q word has not, despite the aspirations of some observers, become the overall label of choice. That function has been assumed by LGBT - not in my view the ideal solution, but it has in fact become the answer." However, after some analysis he notes, ". . . there is still a use for the queer label. In the current assimilationist climate there is a danger that our heritage (if I may use the term) of outlaw/outsider affirmation will be swept away. . . the word queer should still be employed for this, dare I say, heroic affirmation of the outsider tradition. But the q word is contraindicated as a generic term, and those of us who object to its hegemonic deployment are justified: it does not apply to us." Prof. Dynes was a participant of the homophile movement as well as a witness to the Stonewall era. (See his biography <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_R._Dynes">"Wayne R. Dynes" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia accessed Ju. 17, 2017</A>) </p><p>
In my personal opinion, I see nothing wrong with the evolving fashions for how those with a minority sexual orientation or gender identity choose to identify themselves. In fact this is why I specified it in this generic way for my research endowment with the <a href="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/01/osu-foundation-magnus-hirschfeld-fund.html">OSU Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld Fund for research concerning humans or animals with a minority sexual orientation or gender identity</a>. I fully expect it will change again in the future as new generations learn and adapt to new information and fashions. </p><p>
For example, after decades of studying sex and gender roles, it was only recently that I noticed how the space of sexual orientation and gender identity can be theorectically modeled with either discrete and or continuous variables in a three-dimensional space. </p><p>
What made me think of this concept was the answer written by a popular Seattle sex advice columnist and gay man, <A HREF="http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/07/11/25278742/savage-love-letter-of-the-day-100-straight-guys-who-also-love-sucking-dick">Dan Savage, "Savage Love: Savage Love Letter of the Day: 100% Straight Guys Who Also Love Sucking Dick," thestranger.com posted Jul. 11, 2017</A>. In an answer to a reader's question, Savage notes, "self-identification isn't always congruent with behavior and behavior isn't always congruent with desire and blah blah blah. Think prisons, pirate ships, and boardings schools --think situational homosexuality. . . A few more wrenches to throw in the werks: There are straight guys who don't have dicks, DICKS. A straight guy with a dick could find himself in a relationship with a guy with a vagina. (Guy with dick marries woman with vagina, woman transitions to male, couple remains married. Voila: a 100 percent straight guy is having sex on the regular with another dude.)"</p><p>
I had also thought of the double standards Savage mentioned in his previous post, but the new thing that I specifically thought of while reading Savage's current answer is that there is an axis of gender or biological sex, which can described with the discrete categories, such as male, female, intersex, or described with continuous variables (e.g. 25 percent male, 75% female.) Also, there is another axis of sexual identity or sexual orientation, which can be described with the discrete categories of heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, or with a continuous variable. Finally, there is a third axis of sexual behavior, which Savage points out can be incongruent with your identity without requiring the excuse of being in a situation where you feel it is your only option. For example, sexual behavior can be described with the discrete categories of heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, which may or may not be the same as your sexual orientation or identity. </p><p>
Any college freshman student taking a combinatorial mathematics class can easily calculate the number of possibilties for any given model. The simplest case is the one most people think of, which is you are either straight or gay, and either male or female, while your sexual behavior matches your sexual orientation. In this simple model, all humans could be categorized as one of four possibilities -- a person could be straight and either male or female. Or a person could be gay and either male or female. </p><p>
If you expand this simple model to include the axis of either homosexual behavior or heterosexual behavior, then the number of catgegories increases by a factor of 2 to be equal to 8 total possibilities. One example would be a heterosexual male who identifies as being a heterosexual, but has sex with his male friends like the person mentioned in Savage's column. As you add in all of the other possibilities, the number of combinations literally expands exponentially, and if you include continuous variables, such as being a percentage part male and part female, then there are an infinite number of possibilities. </p><p>
Like I said, I have no problem with each person choosing their own identity, and I fully expect the fashions will change over time for how people identify themselves. However, I hope to live long enough to see if and how these changes in identity fashion will take place over the next few decades. I am curious too, what will be the impetus for these changes? </p><p>
Finally, a side note to Prof. Wayne Dynes of a still current current usage of the word "queer" by by the <A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa">"OSU Queer Archives (OSQA) that document LGBTQ+ histories at Oregon State, Corvallis, and Benton County"</A>, including the <A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa/oralhistoryvideos">OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection (OH 34)</A>. (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/07/osu-queer-archives-collaborates-with.html">OSU Queer Archives collaborates with German Professor Bradley Boovy (7/7/17)</A>). In my opinion, even though I would not have used the word "queer for this archive, it does cover the breadth of Archive well and I can't imagine it causing confusion in the future, even though it could become quaint as the term "homophile" in the future.
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-63498666942505806002017-07-15T13:47:00.000-07:002017-07-17T13:01:16.920-07:00OSU alumna Tim Weber talks on HP 3-D printers<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPCadD2Kf7JhBkYcx8fzl-7JUtYQ0lKy4t7CjlnAx4vDB5wYdUMsiWAvvDdj3sCzywTVsG35v_XESowKOb509H76Q7blhLTH6sr3qJHfr5s-aXFX3MRAULvDCY1Z1UOYryep2nVsNcIXu/s1600/TimWeber3DprinterGT20170715pA1.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPCadD2Kf7JhBkYcx8fzl-7JUtYQ0lKy4t7CjlnAx4vDB5wYdUMsiWAvvDdj3sCzywTVsG35v_XESowKOb509H76Q7blhLTH6sr3qJHfr5s-aXFX3MRAULvDCY1Z1UOYryep2nVsNcIXu/s1600/TimWeber3DprinterGT20170715pA1.jpg" alt="Tim Weber HP 3-D printer talk GT 7/15/17 p. A1" width=400 height=277 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: OSU alumna Tim Weber of HP Inc. in Corvallis, Oregon talks about HP 3-D printers, in his keynote address at a local technology festival for da Vinci Days, as shown in the local newspaper article by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/the-d-printing-revolution-tim-weber-discusses-technology-in-whiteside/article_4d06f511-33d5-5fc0-aee9-1d0ab107429a.html">Jim Day, "The 3D printing revolution underway: HP expert discusses technology in Whiteside talk," Gazette-Times, Jul. 15, 2017, p. A1-A2 posted online Jul. 14, 2017 as "The 3D printing revolution: Tim Weber discusses technology in Whiteside talk"</A>. For more information see the trade publication article by <A HREF="http://www.computerworld.com/article/3195006/3d-printing/hp-to-scale-up-its-3d-printer-business-for-use-in-mass-manufacturing.html">Lucas Mearian, Senior Reporter, Computerworld, "manufacturing: HP said it has 30 reseller partners in North American and Europe," computerworld.com posted May 8, 2017</A> that says, "After announcing its first revenue from sales, HP Inc. today said it is now focused on scaling up its Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing business that it believes will rival standard manufacturing technologies, such as injection molding. . . . HP claims its Multi Jet Fusion 3D printers will enable mass production of parts through additive manufacturing (3D printing), instead of rapid prototyping, for which the technology is typically used. The new printers are unlikely to be used to produce millions or billions of production parts. Think, instead, in terms of hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of parts, HP said. The printer works by first depositing powder (about 100 microns thick, or the thickness of a standard sheet of paper) onto a print bed using a print bar that looks like a scanning bar on a typical 2D printer. The print bar has 30,000 nozzles spraying 350 million fusing agent droplets per second in specific patterns as it moves back and forth across a print platform." Also see, official HP site, <A HREF="http://www8.hp.com/us/en/printers/3d-printers.html">"Introducing the HP Jet Fusion 3D printing solution - New 3D printing technology for a new era in manufacturing," hp.com accessed Jul. 17, 2017 linked to from top Google search for "HP 3-D printer open platfrom standards"</A>. </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/the-d-printing-revolution-tim-weber-discusses-technology-in-whiteside/article_4d06f511-33d5-5fc0-aee9-1d0ab107429a.html"><p>
<i>
Local boy made good Timothy Weber gave Corvallis a taste of the future Friday night with a 40-minute talk on 3D printing to kick off the summer da Vinci Days program. </p><p>
Weber, a Corvallis native who received his doctorate in engineering from Oregon State University, called himself "head nerd" of HP Inc.'s 3D printing team. . . </p><p>
Weber emphasized that HP "is not a materials company," and that it is working with high-wattage international partners such as BMW, Nike, BASF and Siemens on an open-platform basis that all but assuredly will accelerate the pace of innovation -- and change.</p><p>
About two-thirds of the way into the lecture Weber lost this reporter, when he launched into a discussion of HP's multijet fusion technology. It didn't get any better when he moved on to fabrication of functional polymer nanocomposites. </p><p>
Then he reeled it back in when he started talking about the things 3D printers will be able to do with color, elasticity and texture. His example was an automobile tire whose tread would be color-coordinated. When you see red peeking through the tires, you know it's time to head to the tire store. No more pulling quarters out of your pocket to measure tread depth! . . </i></p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/the-d-printing-revolution-tim-weber-discusses-technology-in-whiteside/article_4d06f511-33d5-5fc0-aee9-1d0ab107429a.html">Jim Day, "The 3D printing revolution underway: HP expert discusses technology in Whiteside talk," Gazette-Times, Jul. 15, 2017, p. A1-A2</A> posted online Jul. 14, 2017 as "The 3D printing revolution: Tim Weber discusses technology in Whiteside talk")</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
Tim Weber, after graduating with his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University, joined my group at HP in the 1990's where I shared with him my knowledge of the HP Way that I had learned from experience over the prior two decades. Everyone who dealt with Weber saw him as being very smart and capable. It has been heartening to hear of his progress in the 3-D printer product arena. An interesting coincident is that the HP Corvallis Site was first envisioned and ordered built in the 1970's by a 1954 graduate of OSU John Young, to house the rapidly growing HP handheld programmable calculator business, which soon built HP's first portable personal computers. The first Corvallis HP building was occupied shortly before John Young became the first non-founder of HP to be named the President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (the original HP was recently split into four companies, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Agilent Technologies, and Keysight Technologies.) </p><p>
As a natural outrowth of the portable calculator and computer businesses, in the 1970's HP invented the first battery operable inkjet printers, which grew rapidly in sales after personal computers became common and the demand for printing rose exponentially. See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/02/history-of-hp-inkjet-printers-in.html">History of HP inkjet printers in American Heritage Invention & Technology (2/19/12)</A> to read the original article text for my magazine article. My personal copy, a scanned PDF that is intended only for fair use under the copyright law is at this link: <A HREF="http://members.peak.org/~kat/date/2001/hpinkjet.pdf">Thomas Kraemer, "Printing Enters the Jet Age, How today's computer printers came to eject microscopic dots with amazing precision," American Heritage Invention & Technology, Spring 2001, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 18-27 (PDF)</A> </p><p>
In my previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/12/year-2016-in-review-11-years-of.html">Year 2016 in review - 11 years of blogging - Am I too blind to blog? *12/24/16)</A> I also quote from related newspaper articles of interest by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/business/local/future-of--d-printing-topic-of-forum/article_3ef4ecba-4176-57c6-8e25-6af2c148ef3c.html">Staff, "Future of 3-D printing is topic of forum," Gazette-Times, Nov. 1, 2016, p. A2</A> and a follow-up article by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/business/local/hp-exec-says-company-s--d-printers-will-lead/article_0a59e90c-6dec-551a-b383-4f76eefbaee4.html">Anthony Rimel, "HP Plans 3-D printers for manufacturing," Gazette-Times, Nov. 3, 2016, p. A2, online as, "HP exec says company's 3-D printers will lead to new industrial revolution," posted Nov. 3, 2016</A> that mentions Tim Weber, global head of 3-D materials and advanced applications for HP Inc. talking about. Clearly, he has adopted the HP founder's strategy that avoided dependence on the retail market, like inkjet printers ended up in, by focusing on 3-D printers and materials for manufacturers. </p><p>
Also, my previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2016/07/hp-3-d-printers-praised-by-jim-cramer.html">HP 3-D printers praised by Jim Cramer CNBC Wall Street reporter (7/24/16)</A> links to my letter to the editor (<A HREF="http://democratherald.com/news/opinion/mailbag/mailbag-high-hopes-for-h-p-july/article_dd5cae22-12cc-5bb1-a73d-5b4bddc4a527.html">Thomas Kraemer, "High hopes for HP," Corvallis Gazette times Mid-Valley Sunday edition, July. 24, 2016, p. A10</A>) and it preceded two related newspaper articles of interest by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/business/local/future-of--d-printing-topic-of-forum/article_3ef4ecba-4176-57c6-8e25-6af2c148ef3c.html">Staff, "Future of 3-D printing is topic of forum," Gazette-Times, Nov. 1, 2016, p. A2</A> and a follow-up article by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/business/local/hp-exec-says-company-s--d-printers-will-lead/article_0a59e90c-6dec-551a-b383-4f76eefbaee4.html">Anthony Rimel, "HP Plans 3-D printers for manufacturing," Gazette-Times, Nov. 3, 2016, p. A2, online as, "HP exec says company's 3-D printers will lead to new industrial revolution," posted Nov. 3, 2016</A> that mentions Tim Weber, global head of 3-D materials and advanced applications for HP Inc. talking about. Clearly, he has adopted the HP founder's strategy that avoided dependence on the retail market, like inkjet printers ended up in, by focusing on 3-D printers and materials for manufacturers. Tim's PhD in Mechanical Engineering makes this a perfect cap to his career. </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAcKLR0Xi0gXSEy_2CnEQpkONMHUPjCvMAEjwL0oWetj5lUsLt9XFi1FCpheDCGnUASXMfK4oq4AiYtiGgGL0_xjHizo09_HNsNVcDaZsVie_1WG5iRle221CQ29BUm2dF-ggnnU_oaG7/s1600-h/HPpredicts700jobsCorvallisGazetteTimes19740808p2.JPG"><img alt="headline 'H-P executive predicts 700 new jobs' Gazette-Times Aug. 8, 1974, p. 2" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312072383747825890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAcKLR0Xi0gXSEy_2CnEQpkONMHUPjCvMAEjwL0oWetj5lUsLt9XFi1FCpheDCGnUASXMfK4oq4AiYtiGgGL0_xjHizo09_HNsNVcDaZsVie_1WG5iRle221CQ29BUm2dF-ggnnU_oaG7/s400/HPpredicts700jobsCorvallisGazetteTimes19740808p2.JPG" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 172px;" /></a> </p><p></p><p>
PHOTO: Given that the first non-founder CEO of Hewlett-Packard, John Young, graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1954, and given his strategy was to locate HP divisions near universities to help recruit engineering talent, it made sense to move the Hewlett-Packard calculator factory and research lab to Corvallis, Oregon in 1975, which was first reported in the local Corvallis newspaper story by John Atkins, "H-P executive predicts 700 new jobs," Gazette-Times Aug. 8, 1974, p. 2. (See previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/09/hp-breakup-making-bill-and-dave-spin-in.html">HP breakup making Bill and Dave spin in their graves (8/11/15)</A> , <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/06/dont-cali-fornicate-oregon-and-hp.html">Don't Cali-fornicate Oregon and HP annexation history (6/14/12)</A> and <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2009/03/hp-and-corvallis-newspaper-history.html">HP and Corvallis newspaper history (3/11/09)</A> about the move of the Hewlett-Packard calculator division to Corvallis in 1975) </p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-91703384687856148672017-07-11T15:42:00.001-07:002017-07-11T15:42:28.224-07:00Homophile magazines in 1960's 'Perversion for Profit' film about U.S. Supreme Court obscenity rulings<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgORQT4_m6KvGVoHsQaXScmxPMTgCm88M7QYtsUA6I6vcWgTHT6RVawQJ8NSytRbHedF3Pq0PGZnMEBYTmo7bEmfjI0AjrpZKXcPcUWUNhlpksvPhQkdSFR9zIb4Q3BuJVrgAjoSqLfMzCK/s1600/PerversionForProfitONEmay1961cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgORQT4_m6KvGVoHsQaXScmxPMTgCm88M7QYtsUA6I6vcWgTHT6RVawQJ8NSytRbHedF3Pq0PGZnMEBYTmo7bEmfjI0AjrpZKXcPcUWUNhlpksvPhQkdSFR9zIb4Q3BuJVrgAjoSqLfMzCK/s1600/PerversionForProfitONEmay1961cover.JPG" alt="Homophile magazine ONE May 1961 cover headline 'Homosexual Viewpoint'" width=400 height=206 /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: The former OSU Professor W. Dorr Legg's homophile magazine ONE May 1961 cover headline 'Homosexual Viewpoint' as shown in the 1960's movie <A HREF="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/732161/Perversion-For-Profit/">"Perversion For Profit"(1965), tcm.com watched on Turner Classic Movie cable channel Jul. 9. 2017 2:30-3:00am PT</A> </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QaKqz5ZCDfj1-yjMjAOepMteEGmat-ukFkwwoWYteUWG7CwdzKamC_J4H6nN1FdIcD_U8T_NAjB-mmF0YBAxeYaOnj7aar5XEcJ4WfyXWI9u9BmbY8HSHRUriMfpms3Jsbi8hYFMtJ5z/s1600/PerversionForProfitMattachineReviewApril1961.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QaKqz5ZCDfj1-yjMjAOepMteEGmat-ukFkwwoWYteUWG7CwdzKamC_J4H6nN1FdIcD_U8T_NAjB-mmF0YBAxeYaOnj7aar5XEcJ4WfyXWI9u9BmbY8HSHRUriMfpms3Jsbi8hYFMtJ5z/s1600/PerversionForProfitMattachineReviewApril1961.JPG" data-original-width="837" alt="homophile magazine 'Mattchine Review' April 1961 cover shown next to homosexual porno magazines 'Physique Spectacular' and 'Man Alive' showing men posing provocatively'" width=400 height=376 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: The homophile magazine 'Mattachine Review' April 1961 cover is shown next to homosexual "pornography" magazines 'Physique Spectacular' and 'Man Alive' with men posing provocatively' on the cover are also shown in the movie <A HREF="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/732161/Perversion-For-Profit/">"Perversion For Profit"(1965), tcm.com watched on Turner Classic Movie cable channel Jul. 9. 2017 2:30-3:00am PT</A> </p><p>
<iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ZTgTHH3Bm8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p>
VIDEO: The homophile publications hhat are shown above in this post were featured in this 1960's film, made by Charles Keating and Citizens for Decent Literature, Inc. For background information, see <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perversion_for_Profit">"Perversion for Profit," wikipedia.org accessed Jul. 11, 2017</A>. This so-called "homosexual pornography" is shown in the film as examples of obscenity that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled is not protected as free speech under the U.S. Constitution. While the Supreme Court has ruled that obscenity is not protected free speech, in fact, the former OSU Professor W. Dorr Legg's homophile journal "ONE" had had its free speech rights of publication upheld in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling shortly before this film was made. The film epitomizes the common anti-gay prejudices of the 1960's, for example, by conflating the ideas that homosexuals preyed on young men, turning them gay, and that homosexuals are part of a Communist plot to take over America. From: <A HREF="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZTgTHH3Bm8">"Perversion for Profit_ Citizens for Decent Literature Film (1965)," youtube.com (30:57) posted Aug 16, 2012</A>) </p><p>
I finally got to watch the "Perversion for Profit" movie as shown on the "Turner Classic Movies" cable TV channel a few days ago. I knew that it had been created by an anti-pornography crusader who later became the head of President Richard Nixon's "Commission on Pornography." However, I had not heard about how much it focused on "homosexual obscenity" as the still frames shown above indicate. (See <A HREF="http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/732161/Perversion-For-Profit/">"Perversion For Profit"(1965), tcm.com</A> and <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perversion_for_Profit">"Perversion for Profit," wikipedia.org accessed Ju. 11, 2017</A>) </p><p>
The producer of the film Charles Keating (December 4, 1923 - March 31, 2014) from the late 1950s through the 1970s, was a noted anti-pornography activist, founding the organization Citizens for Decent Literature and serving as a member on the 1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon's President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. He also stole billions of dollars from taxpayers by exploiting the loosened regulations on Savings and Loans in the 1980's that was championed by Republicans and President Ronald Reagan. (See <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Keating">Charles Keating From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</A>)</p><p>
The film's narrator, George Putnam (July 14, 1914 - September 12, 2008) was a famous L.A. TV news anchor. Putnam was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota. His radio career began on his 20th birthday in 1934 at WDGY in Minneapolis. (See <A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Putnam_(newsman)">George Putnam (newsman) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</A>) </p><p>
I have not been able to determine what religious organizations were behind this. The Catholic Church was publically anti-pornography and anti-gay like many other churches back then. I am sure the film was made in reaction to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings on obscenity that were being issued during this era. </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpp1h9r_dOEwM0p6XSxpSS8jN1hk8DZpyvkVZgL50-t768-N8JZY2M69Uf05NlTNUYONfBmpaL3gEXTvG393wQ48UvvXcKVZ1G0BxCQnOnh7L2FOEH_4uae-UWxVDbTGPRA_2JNsXNkY/s1600-h/ONEhomosexualMarriage195308cover.jpg"><img alt="ONE Magazine Aug. 1953 'Homosexual marriage?' cover headline" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156923856672275970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpp1h9r_dOEwM0p6XSxpSS8jN1hk8DZpyvkVZgL50-t768-N8JZY2M69Uf05NlTNUYONfBmpaL3gEXTvG393wQ48UvvXcKVZ1G0BxCQnOnh7L2FOEH_4uae-UWxVDbTGPRA_2JNsXNkY/s320/ONEhomosexualMarriage195308cover.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a>
PHOTO: ONE Magazine was ahead of its time when it mentioned the idea of "homosexual marriage" in 1953 long before "gay marriage" or same-sex marriage became a cause of some gay liberationists. Former Oregon State University Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture W. Dorr Legg was one of the major contributors to the ONE homophile magazine and he was a conservative who probably saw gay marriage as being a conservative value. (See my previous post <A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/07/w-dorr-legg-osu-archives-records-1935.html">W. Dorr Legg OSU archives records 1935-1942 (7/21/10)</A> and <A HREF="http://gaytoday.com/reviews/081103re.asp">James T. Sears, PhD, "1953: When ONE Magazine, Headlined 'Homosexual Marriage,'" GayToday.com posted Aug. 11, 2003</A>). </p><p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8vp6SLuEcK4DXS5S99e1THlDPbLaX54qQNLNNXK1y2EK0rYdVK0S5akCIf0I3zorJyFxcZhAEwrjZdsGNcFZjwS6t56lBZ1jEJ-ZtOUleG0SAZpOSJvxrWGf_MRviBE88yae5Cry4e3P/s1600/WdorrLeggSignatureOSUpersonnelFile19420625.jpg"><img alt="1942 Letter signed by Oregon State University Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture W. Dorr Legg stored in the personnel files stored in the OSU archives, Corvallis, Oregon" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500126668889783746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8vp6SLuEcK4DXS5S99e1THlDPbLaX54qQNLNNXK1y2EK0rYdVK0S5akCIf0I3zorJyFxcZhAEwrjZdsGNcFZjwS6t56lBZ1jEJ-ZtOUleG0SAZpOSJvxrWGf_MRviBE88yae5Cry4e3P/s400/WdorrLeggSignatureOSUpersonnelFile19420625.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 362px; height: 400px;" /></a> </p><p>
PHOTO: Letter signed by Oregon State University Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture W. Dorr Legg from the original paper in OSU personnel files that are now stored on microfiche in the OSU Archives, Corvallis, Oregon. The letter, dated 1942, was requesting a sabbatical leave to allow Dorr to spread his "Christian Science" religious beliefs to soldiers at Camp Adair north of Corvallis, Oregon during World War II. Legg was a cofounder of the 1950s homophile political movement for homosexuals and the present-day Loc Cabin Republicans. See my previous posts: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/07/w-dorr-legg-osu-archives-records-1935.html">W. Dorr Legg OSU archives records 1935-1942 (7/31/10)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/07/fbi-files-on-gay-osu-professor-1956.html">FBI files on gay OSU professor 1956 (7/7/10)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2010/08/osu-w-dorr-legg-homosexual-marriage.html">OSU W. Dorr Legg homosexual marriage 1953 vs. CA Prop 8 2010 (8/22/10)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2006/09/gay-oregon-professor-1935.html">Gay Oregon Professor 1935 (9/16/06)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/06/osu-professor-recognized-equality.html">OSU professor recognized equality hypocrisy decades ago (6/5/12)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Corvallis%2C_Oregon_State_University_gay_activism_1969-2004">Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," OutHistory.org posted June 2010</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/06/osu-professor-recognized-equality.html">OSU professor recognized equality hypocrisy decades ago (6/5/12)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/02/osu-gay-marriage-and-corvallis-creeper.html">OSU gay marriage and the Corvallis Creeper (2/9/13)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2009/06/churches-self-destruct-over-gay.html">Churches self-destruct over gay marriage (6/18/09)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://thomaskraemer.blogspot.com/2008/11/protection-of-religion-amendment-gt.html">Protection of Religion Amendment - GT letter (11/23/08)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2012/06/slippery-slope-argument-against.html">Slippery slope argument against marriage equality is predictable (6/22/12)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/01/sam-champion-gay-marriage-2012-vs-1970.html">Sam Champion gay marriage 2012 vs. 1970 Jack Baker (1/9/13)</A>
</UL>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-66195708856071326302017-07-07T14:32:00.002-07:002017-07-07T15:34:06.838-07:00OSU Queer Archives collaborates with German Professor Bradley Boovy<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDfsUFxOivk4tDv-5a90MQENY5Iz5x3KKDFhp-5zPwkOIjzCBwh2a6hPsGsgbymHJkbGjvDGJ-zk7f_Mc3l4zS9wxbo4u7rRjm0u9tm2kawtHWah9f88EK9v03fHdCGEQPzdWU5zSTFCI/s1600/BradleyBoovyOralHistoryOSUqueerArchives.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLDfsUFxOivk4tDv-5a90MQENY5Iz5x3KKDFhp-5zPwkOIjzCBwh2a6hPsGsgbymHJkbGjvDGJ-zk7f_Mc3l4zS9wxbo4u7rRjm0u9tm2kawtHWah9f88EK9v03fHdCGEQPzdWU5zSTFCI/s1600/BradleyBoovyOralHistoryOSUqueerArchives.jpg" alt="OSU German Professor Bradley Boovy helps archivist for OSU Queer Archives create oral history videos" width=400 height=242 /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: Still frame of Oregon State University Dr. Bradley Boovy, Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as accessed Jul. 3, 2017 from the video player provided for the <A HREF="https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_bgp35wy8">OSU Queer Archives Oral History VIDEO: Item 11: Bradley Boovy, June 6, 2017</A>. (Video is part of the <A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa">"OSU Queer Archives (OSQA) home page - Archival collections and materials in the university's archives that document LGBTQ+ histories at Oregon State, Corvallis, and Benton County"</A> including the <A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa/oralhistoryvideos">OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection (OH 34), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon. OSU Queer Archives (OSQA): ORAL HISTORIES & Videos</A>. (Note: the provided video player does not seem to be accessible to Microsoft Internet Explorer browser users like me who are low vision blind and using some standard accessibility settings because the player controls, such as the play button, are not visible, as seen in the still frame above. I was still able to play this video, but only because I could guess at where to hit the button to play or pause the video.)</p><p>
I am not trained in the library sciences, but I found it interesting to read the journal paper by <A HREF="http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ap/article/view/1365">Natalia Fernández, Bradley Boovy, "Co-Founding a Queer Archives: a collaboration between an archivist and a professor," "Archival Practice," Vol 3 (2016)</A> (also <A HREF="http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ap/article/view/1365/1061">HTML</A> and <A HREF="http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ap/article/view/1365/1062">PDF</A>) This journal describes itself as "A peer-reviewed, open-access journal published biannually, Archival Practice provides a scholarly forum for discussion of real-world application of archival theories and practices in the modern archival repository. This may include archival acquisitions, processing, reference, outreach, preservation, or management in any archival setting." </p><p>
A new phrase to me that was used in their paper was "intersectional community activism" as one of its core missions. This is clearly a cutting gedge concept because a <A HREF="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=define:%22intersectional+community+activism%22&spf=1499455824153">Google define:"intersectional community activism"</A> links first to the OSU Queer Archives, but a less restrictive search suggests it is "is intentional in exploring social concerns through multiple dimensions of identity" and links to a page discussing "Intersectional Community Organizing for Social Justice" as well as the book "Enacting Intersectionality in Student Affairs: New Directions" by Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe. This might be a good topic for a future post, if I learn more about it. </p><p>
Links related to the OSU Queer Archives: </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa">"OSU Queer Archives (OSQA): HOME - Archival collections and materials in the university's archives that document LGBTQ+ histories at Oregon State, Corvallis, and Benton County," oregonstate.edu accessed Jun. 6, 2017</A> -- the tab at top of page goes to the following page:
<LI><A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa/oralhistoryvideos">"OSU Queer Archives (OSQA): ORAL HISTORIES & VIDEOS - Archival collections and materials in the university's archives that document LGBTQ+ histories at Oregon State, Corvallis, and Benton County," oregonstate.edu accessed Jun. 6, 2017</A>. For a complete list of oral history interviews see the OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection, 2015-2016 (OH 34)
<LI>Finding aids 2934 goes to <A HREF="http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/findingaids/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=2934">"OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection, 2015-2017," oregonstate.edu accessed Jun. 6, 2017</A>
<LI>Browse through all the OSQA videos available by doing an <A HREF="https://media.oregonstate.edu/tag/tagid/oh34osqa">OSU media "Search for tag: 'oh34osqa'" oregonstate.edu accessed Jun. 6, 2017</A> to produce a list with still photos
<LI>Access through OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) via the finding aid <A HREF="http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/findingaids/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=2934">Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) finding aid ID: OH 034"OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection, 2015-2017" oregonstate.edu accessed Jun. 6, 2017</A> to produce a text list of OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection (OH 34), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon. (Preferred Citation is: OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection (OH 34), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.)
</UL></p><p>
On Jun. 11, 2017, I emailed the second part of my oral interview answers to the OSU Queer Archives, which after it is posted in the Archives I plan to post a link to it from my blog page. Unfortunately, I was unable to do a video interview due to my low vision blindness and partial paralysis -- just visiting a doctor is hard for me to do today -- but I am still able to touch type my answers, albeit very slowly, over a couple of weeks of time. (See my previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/01/osu-queer-archives-request-for-my.html">OSU Queer Archives request for my participation (1/28/17)</A>) </p><p>
See previous posts and related links </p><p>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/05/student-produces-video-history-of-osu.html">Student produces video history of OSU LGBT community (5/16/15)</A> - Oregon State University student Kiah McConnell displays her thesis poster, concerning OSU LBGT community history, May 14, 2015 -- See video at about 28:40 minutes: <A HREF="https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_11xga8p3">From Natalia Fernández, "OSU LGBTQ+ Community Film by Kiah McConnell, 2015," Oregon State Queer Archives oregonstate.edu accessed Oct. 14, 2015</A>. The documentary shows the first gay student meeting notice printed in the student newspaper in 1976 (at about 26:39 minutes)
<LI><A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/10/osu-queer-history-month-hits-front-page.html">OSU Queer History Month hits front page of student newspaper (10/8/15)</A> See <A HREF="http://wpmu.library.oregonstate.edu/oregon-multicultural-archives/2015/05/09/osqa/">Natalia Fernández, "OSQA ~ The OSU Queer Archives," Oregon Multicultural Archives Blog posted May 9, 2015</A> that says, "film was created by Queer Archives intern Kiah McConnell. . ." Also see <A HREF="http://wpmu.library.oregonstate.edu/oregon-multicultural-archives/">Oregon Multicultural Archives Blog</A> and video posted by <A HREF="https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_11xga8p3">Natalia Fernández, "OSU LGBTQ+ Community Film by Kiah McConnell, 2015," OSU Queer Archvies posted 2015 (40:00)</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/users/qwo-li-driskill">Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in WGSS; Queer Studies Minors Qwo Li Driskill</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://directory.oregonstate.edu/?type=search&cn=Vanessa+Alexandra+Vanderzee">Vanessa Alexandra Vanderzee Oregon State University The Valley Library Women, Gender, and Sexuality</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://directory.oregonstate.edu/?type=search&cn=Natalia+Fernandez">Natalia Fernández, Oregon State University Librarian-Oregon Multicultural OSU Queer Archives</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://directory.oregonstate.edu/?type=search&cn=Bradley+Boovy">Dr. Bradley Boovy Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/osqa/oralhistoryvideos">"OSU Queer Archives (OSQA): ORAL HISTORIES & VIDEOS: Archival collections and materials in the university's archives that document LGBTQ+ histories at Oregon State, Corvallis, and Benton County," oregonstate.edu/osqa/ accessed Mar. 12, 2017</A> - In spring term of 2016, the OSU Queer Archives (OSQA) collaborated with the history class HST 368 Lesbian and Gay Movements in Modern America with Professor Mina Carson. Carson, along with OSQA co-founders Natalia Fernández, Curator and Archivist of the Oregon Multicultural Archives, and Professor Bradley Boovy, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, developed an oral history project for the students.
<LI><A HREF="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:http://library.oregonstate.edu+Thomas+Kraemer&spf=1499461309217">Google search site:http://library.oregonstate.edu Thomas Kraemer</A>
</UL> </p><p>
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-24643236695089565112017-07-01T14:09:00.000-07:002017-07-01T14:09:17.696-07:00Baker-McConnell ask court to require County legally record their 1971 marriage<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcdgHWlgtJ7dhwe8xpKdkn2ebhCCZCHFYEZ5jbXAHR0FObEBWUsdDlbPr22vTzD9EhIa2SG1d4ehCnOcDuj3VlS43ZBW7e-OgwE2a32Nsc0bUCniYoA5QCR2cUP8v5wmaK8XSJwtKyPIc/s1600/BakerAdvocate201706p81.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img alt="Baker-McConnell marriage in 'The Advocate' 50th anniversary issue June/July 2017, p. 81" border="0" height="291px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcdgHWlgtJ7dhwe8xpKdkn2ebhCCZCHFYEZ5jbXAHR0FObEBWUsdDlbPr22vTzD9EhIa2SG1d4ehCnOcDuj3VlS43ZBW7e-OgwE2a32Nsc0bUCniYoA5QCR2cUP8v5wmaK8XSJwtKyPIc/s1600/BakerAdvocate201706p81.JPG" width="400px" /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: Cover of "The Advocate" magazine print edition (left) included inside (right) a photo of Jack Baker and Michael McConnell being legally married in 1970 as part of the article by <A HREF="http://www.advocate.com/advocate50/2017/5/03/marriage-equality-was-won-widowers">Jacob Anderson-Minshall, "Marriage Equality Was Won by Widowers - the love stories behind the landmark cases both ended tragically," The Advocate, Jun.-Jul. 2017, p.80-81 advocate.com posted 5/3/2017</A>. (Note: This was a special 50th anniversary edition of "The Advocate") As a law student, Baker took his marriage equality case to the U.S. Supreme Court (Baker v. Nelson 1972) where the court's decision essentially said that marriage is decided by State laws and not Federal laws. Baker believes his marriage is still valid because Minnesota State law did not prohibit same-sex marriage at that time, and so he has initiated legal proceedings to establish that fact. (See previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/05/baker-mcconnell-marriage-in-advocate.html">Baker-McConnell marriage in 'The Advocate' 50th anniversary issue (5/22/17)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-by-michael-mcconnell-on-his.html">Book by Michael McConnell on his marriage to Jack Baker that led to the first Supreme Court case on gay marriage (12/29/15)</A>) </p><p>
The gay marriage pioneers Jack Baker and Michael McConnell recently cc'd me on their email to a marriage law attorney working with them, Yale Law School Professor William N. Eskridge, Jr., which included a PDF copy of a legal brief they have filed in their quest to get a Minnesota court of law to require a Minnesota County to legally record their 1971 same-sex marriage that was legally performed under Minnesota State law at the time, and never legally dissolved by any court order. Blue Earth County, without any legal authority or a court order, refused to record the marriage retroactively after it was legally performed, despite the fact that no Minnesota law prohibited same-sex marriages at that time and later anti-gay marriage legislation was not retroactive before it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage. </p><p>
I was barely able to read the 30 page legal brief, given my worsening low vision blindness, but for my own notes I have selected a few quotes below, which may be hard to read and understand due to the legal language that I was too lazy to edit into some less technical language: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.google.com"><p>
<i>"Cases</p><p>
Baker v. Nelson, 191 N.W.2d 185 (Minn. 1971) </p><p>
Baker v. Nelson, 409 U.S. 810 (1972) . . . </p><p>
Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. v. Nadasdy, 76 N.W.2d 670 (Minn. 1956) . . .</p><p>
Obergefell v. Hodges,135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015). . . </p><p>
United States Social Security Administration, Survivors Planner: If You're Surviving Divorced Spouse, https://www.ssa.gov/planners/survivors/ifyou3.html . . .</p><p>
STATEMENT OF THE CASE</p><p>
James Michael McConnell and Pat Lyn McConnell a/k/a Richard John Baker (Appellants or the McConnells) appeal from the April 7, 2017 Order of the Honorable Bradley C. Walker, Judge of Blue Earth County District Court, which denied their Petition for a Writ of Mandamus and requests for injunctive relief. (Add. 1 (Order).) . . . </p><p>
The basis for all claims is that the County and its local registrar improperly refused to fulfill their ministerial duties to record Appellants marriage certificate and to provide them with certified copies of the recorded certificate as required by Minnesota law. . . . </p><p>
STATUTORY BACKGROUND</p><p>
When Appellants were married in 1971, marriages in Minnesota were governed by Minn. Stat. ch. 517 (the 1971 Statute). . . </p><p>
After the examination period expired, and once the license was issued, the 1971 Statute provided no authorization to revoke, withdraw, or invalidate an issued marriage license. . . </p><p>
Finally, and relevant to this appeal, under the 1971 Statute, the clerk of court was required to record the marriage certificate. The statute affirmatively mandated that [t]he clerk shall record such certificate in a book kept for that purpose.Œ Id. á 517.10. The statute even imposed a penalty for failing to comply with the mandatory duty to record the marriage certificate. . . . </p><p>
. . . only three specific types of prohibited marriages were deemed automatically void: marriages between close relatives; underage marriages; and marriages where one party was already married. . . </p><p>
All other prohibitedŒ marriages, 5 such as remarrying within six months of being divorced, were not automatically deemed void by the 1971 Statute. Same-sex marriages were not expressly prohibited by Section 517.03, and were not made absolutely void by Section 518.01. . . </p><p>
STATEMENT OF THE FACTS </p><p>
The McConnells are residents of the State of Minnesota. (Add. 12, K 4.) They were married in 1971 after being issued a marriage license by Blue Earth County. (Id.) The McConnells, who were 74 years old at the time the Verified Petition was filed, have lived together as a married couple for more than 45 years. (Id.) They have been continuously recognized as a married couple by their family members, friends and colleagues, and in their church and community. . . . </p><p>
On September 3, 1971, well within the six-month period of validity of the Marriage License, the McConnells solemnized their marriage in a ceremony conducted by an authorized minister of the United Methodist Church. . . </p><p>
Previously, the McConnells had applied for and been denied a marriage license in Hennepin County on the sole basis that they were of the same sex, a decision that was on appeal at the time Blue Earth County issued the Marriage License. See Baker v. Nelson, 191 N.W.2d 185 (Minn. 1971), overruled by Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 2605 (2015). The Minnesota Supreme Court¡s decision affirming the denial of the Hennepin County license application was issued on October 15, 1971. Id. The United States Supreme Court opinion dismissing the appeal was issued in 1972. Baker v. Nelson, 409 U.S. 810 (1972), overruled by Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015). . . . Connor received the Marriage Certificate on September 8,
1971. </p><p>
Evidence submitted to the district court suggested that the County determined sometime before August 31, 1971¢that the Marriage License, although it had been duly issued, was defective, but the County provided no basis for the purported defect. (Add. 5.) The McConnells did not receive notice that the Marriage Certificate had not been recorded, and believed that it had been. . . </p><p>
Forty-three years later, on September 29, 2014, Michael McConnell wrote to the County requesting three certified copies of the recorded Marriage Certificate. (Add. 15, * 24; Add. 28.) The McConnells sought the certified copies of their recorded Marriage Certificate for the purpose of securing certain Social Security benefits and for estate planning purposes. . . . </p><p>
The United States Supreme Court, recognizing that marriage is a fundamental right, acknowledged the harm that flows from the failure to recognize a person ¡s status of being legally married. See Obergefell, 135 S. Ct. at 2601-02 (explaining that laws excluding same-sex couples from the marriage right impose stigma and injury of the kind prohibited by our basic charter). </p><p>
Respondents also argued that an adequate remedy for their failure to record the McConnells¡ Marriage Certificate would be for the McConnells to get married again. . . . </p><p>
Remarriage would deny that the McConnells are already married, and have been so for many years. This fact has tremendous personal significance to the McConnells, their friends, and family. It also has legal significance, to the extent that a marriage of 46 years conveys additional rights and benefits in comparison to a marriage of just a few months.5 Therefore, remarrying would not be as complete, beneficial, and effective of a remedy as simply compelling Respondents to record the Marriage Certificate, as the law requires.6</p><p>
The duration of a marriage can have legal significance in many ways, such as affecting retirement and survivor benefits available from the Social Security Administration, private pension rights, spousal coverage under employee health and welfare benefit plans, inheritance rights and others. See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. á 416(f) (The term husband means the husband of an individual, but only if . . . he was married to her for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding the day on which his application is filed[.]Œ); United States Social Security Administration, Survivors Planner: If You're The Worker's Surviving Divorced Spouse, https://www.ssa.gov/planners/survivors/ifyou3.html (explaining that a 10-year marriage is required for eligibility for certain Social Security survivor benefits). . . . </p><p>
First, there is no express authority in either the 1971 Statute or the current Marriage Statute that permits Respondents, after a marriage has been solemnized, and after the marriage certificate has been signed by the presiding official and returned to the County, to invalidate the marriage license or the marriage itself. The Marriage Statute expressly permits the clerk of court (or today, the local registrarŒ) to refuse to issue a license before a marriage occurs if, during the five-day examination period, it discovers that there is a legal impedimentŒ to the marriage. Minn. Stat. á 517.08, subd. 1 (1971); Minn. Stat. á 517.08, subd. 1b (2016). However, there is no express authority in the Marriage Statute for the clerk or the local registrar after a marriage license has been issued and a marriage has occurred to retroactively deem either the license or the marriage to be invalid. Neither Respondents nor the district court¡s Order identify any such express authority. . . </p><p>
. . . the long-established rule in Minnesota is that once a marriage has occurred, it cannot retroactively be deemed a nullityŒ or voidŒ unless the legislature, by statute, has expressly declared that type of marriage void. </p><p>
The legislature did not declare same-sex marriages voidŒ until 1997, at which point the McConnells had already been married for 26 years, and then did so only prospectively, not retroactively. See 1997 Minn. Laws ch. 203, art. 10, secs. 2 and 4. The 1997 legislation amended Minn. Stat. á 517.03 to, for the first time, expressly prohibit same sex marriage. At the time, á 518.01 declared marriages prohibited by á 517.03 to be void. However, the 1997 enactment was not retroactive; it expressly did not apply to marriages contracted within this state prior to March 1, 1979. 1997 Minn. Laws ch. 203, art. 10, sec. 4. The prohibition was repealed in 2013. See 2013 Minn. Laws ch. 74, sec. 2. Accordingly, not only was the McConnells marriage in 1971 not deemed void by the legislature at the time; it has never been deemed void. . . </p><p>
CONCLUSION</p><p>
For the reasons set forth above, Appellants respectfully request that the Court reverse the district court's Order and remand the case to the district court for issuance of the requested writ of mandamus and injunctive relief."</i></p><p>
(Quoted from State of Minnesota Court of Appeals, notice of case filing No. A17-0688, Apr. 27, 2017. James Michael McConnell and Pat Lyn McConnell a.k.a. Richard John Baker, Appellants, vs. Blue Earth County, et. al. Respondents - accessed Jul. 1, 2017 from 30 page PDF copy)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
(See previous posts <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2017/06/baker-included-in-new-gay-marriage.html">Baker included in new gay marriage history book (6/16/17)</A>, <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-by-michael-mcconnell-on-his.html">Book by Michael McConnell on his marriage to Jack Baker that led to the first Supreme Court case on gay marriage (12/29/15)</A> and <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2015/07/baker-on-gay-marriage-in-1972-vs-2015.html">Baker on gay marriage in 1972 vs. 2015 reaction to Supreme Court ruling (7/17/15)</A>)
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-55482708075864718352017-06-25T12:56:00.001-07:002017-06-25T12:56:28.298-07:00OSU small town (gay) Pride event is 'family friendly'<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEMH8YiMtw8AtqFyFCUAK-8rjAa2C0StJy7lXUYh3x9MFSrYZA4x-aGVVsAFF5v8h7qab4MHK7xGCDr6gx1EKWXw-6miBeUqg6QCdskHFeAMDrGMZ2SpwDf-soWyTTJc2Ogo5zjYs7pq4v/s1600/CorvallisPrideGT20170625pA1.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEMH8YiMtw8AtqFyFCUAK-8rjAa2C0StJy7lXUYh3x9MFSrYZA4x-aGVVsAFF5v8h7qab4MHK7xGCDr6gx1EKWXw-6miBeUqg6QCdskHFeAMDrGMZ2SpwDf-soWyTTJc2Ogo5zjYs7pq4v/s1600/CorvallisPrideGT20170625pA1.JPG" WIDTH=400 HEIGHT=295 alt="Corvallis Pride front page newspaper story Corvallis Gazette-Times, Jun. Jun. 25, 2017, p. A1, A12" /></a></p><p>
PHOTO: Oregon State University, with an enrollment of 30,000 students, is located in the small college town of Corvallis, Oregon, with a population of about 50,000 residents, but it is still big enough to hold a "family friendly" (gay) Pride event in June. See the local professional newspaper story by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/young-and-old-picnic-in-the-park-for-pride-corvallis/article_432c04ec-f27c-5c45-84f2-99b2e55098ff.html">Lillian Schrock, "Pride Corvallis holds a picnic in the park. Celebration of Pride: Corvallis event attracts hundreds to Starker Arts Park," Corvallis Gazette-Times, Jun. Jun. 25, 2017, p. A1, A12 gazettetimes.com posted Jun. 24, 2017 as "Young and old picnic in the park for Pride Corvallis"</A>, which includes links to videos and photo galleries. The newspaper article says, "Dharma Mirza . . . was picnicking in the park for Pride Corvallis, a family-friendly event to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. As a Muslim transgender woman ... She said the queer community saved her life by helping her overcome a drug addiction, homelessness and sex work. ... Mirza, who is HIV positive, is a board member of the Valley AIDS Information Network, Inc. She also founded Haus of Dharma, which puts on drag shows and advocates on behalf of the transgender and queer community. She planned to host a drag show following the picnic. Hillary Fishler, who organized Saturday's picnic, said she wanted the substance-free event to be a calm, safe space for people of all ages and identities. She hoped the event would bridge the divide between university students and the Corvallis community." </p><p>
As somebody who is old enough to recall the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York City, and the first Gay Pride celebrations, it is a marvel at how far Pride has come. When i was living in San Francisco in the in the 1980's the very gay Castro Street would fill with drunken revelers for June gay pride events. I left during the AIDS crisis and so I do not know if S.F. still has some gay merrymakers to celebrate LGBTQI+ Pride Month in both a traditional manner as well as a "family friendly" way. </p><p>
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Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3221229651700278779.post-48023492069762874502017-06-24T11:14:00.001-07:002017-06-24T11:14:56.358-07:00Zero Population Growth is the elephant in the room<p> <!-- START OF POST -->
My local professional city newspaper printed a very good opinion piece by <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/as-i-see-it/as-i-see-it-the-growing-problem-with-growth/article_d5b1b8d3-c8dd-5642-9bc7-5513ea87a72c.html">Therese Waterhous, "As I See It: The growing problem with growth," Gazette-Times, Jun. 15, 2017, p. A8</A>, which says in part, "The PERS debacle in Oregon is another example of overly optimistic predictions about growth. Never did a leader step up and say that predicting what economies will do is like rolling dice. It is. Thinking that PERS would forever be funded by investments at a certain rate has proven foolish. Currently we have the Trump administration relying on overly optimistic predictions of growth to repair the economy." </p><p>
I have also been similarly skeptical of "growth" and said so in a previous letter to the editor: <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-population-growth-still-biggest-environmental-problem-we-face/article_f64c1d2a-5965-11e2-bf55-001a4bcf887a.html">Thomas Kraemer, "Population growth still biggest environmental problem we face," Gazette-Times, posted Jan. 8, 2013, p. A9</A>. I say, "Zero population growth used to be a widely supported goal, but it is opposed by greedy Wall Street plutocrats who also reward companies for building products that must be thrown out frequently. If legislators sincerely cared about the environment, they would require manufacturers to sincerely make products that were supportable and repairable for decades." (See previous post <A HREF="http://tomsosu.blogspot.com/2013/01/corvallis-plastic-bag-ban-and-gay.html">Corvallis plastic bag ban and gay marriage (1/8/13)</A>) </p><p>
However, in my experience with managing the managers of multiple businesses, giving these managers a goal of growth is essential because nearly all businesses will stagnate, go obsolete and then out of business if they do not do continuous improvement, and the easiest way to measure it is with sales growth, but it can also can be measured by customer satisfaction and other factors, such as staying in business despite changes in the world. High tech companies must constantly do new products, to replace old and obsolete ones, just to stay even. </p><p>
I also know from experience that the problem of population growth is a real one nobody wants to address logically or unemotionally, and therefore I appreciated the following letter: </p><p>
<blockquote CITE="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-reviving-zero-population-growth/article_4480a06e-69c8-5558-87e6-d44229668037.html"><p>
<i>"The previously popular "Zero Population Growth" movement was not mentioned in the insightful June 15 "As I See It: The Growing Problem with Growth" by Therese Waterhous. </p><p>
Zero Population Growth addressed the bigger problem of limits to population growth, based on Earth's finite resources, which has been disingenuously ignored by "climate change" (formerly known as "global warming") activists. </p><p>
The latest catchphrase "climate action" encompasses many praiseworthy environmental goals, but it is also silent on the need to address the elephant in the room - excessive population growth."</i></p><p>
(Quoted from <A HREF="http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-reviving-zero-population-growth/article_4480a06e-69c8-5558-87e6-d44229668037.html">Kim Wilson, "Letter: Reviving zero population growth," posted June 21, 2017</A>)</p>
</blockquote></p><p>
I love living in a college town!
</p> <!-- END OF POST --> Thomas Kraemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824975875892487598noreply@blogger.com