Horrific BYU(Mormon church) conduct again!

This time BYU has denied giving a degree to someone who completed all of his requirements just because the Mormon church excommunicated him a few weeks before graduation(for publishing a calendar showing returned missionaries shirtless).

Read the full article here.


This is why I wasn't out while I was at BYU. I was scared of getting kicked out and not getting my degree on time. (Now I'm kind of scared of them revoking my degree anyways).

Response to a former friend(who's Mormon) about my support of gay marriage

I thank God every day that I had the courage to be true to myself even when everything I was taught growing up told me that I was less than a person for feeling the way I did. I am so grateful that I am gay because it made me realize how wrong the Mormon church is. Had I not been true to myself I would never have met my soul mate and been happy like I am now. I can't expect you to understand because you are not in my position and you have no reason to go against the church like I did.

Same-sex marriages should be allowed for the simple reason that everyone should be treated equally. Remember when the Mormon church was persecuted? Gay people are still being persecuted to this day when we are told that we don't deserve the same rights as straight people.

As for my parents, don't feel bad for them, they are kind, loving parents who are proud of Kip(my boyfriend) and my relationship. Of course it took time for them to reach this point but through our example their feelings on the matter have changed dramatically. I hope my example can help many more people see that there are many kinds of families and Kip and mine is one of them and is just as valid as more "traditional" ones.

How to find out who donated to Vote Yes on Proposition 8

To see a list of those who have donated to "YES ON 8, A PROJECT OF CALIFORNIA RENEWAL" go to the California Secretary of State page.

Click the "contributions received" bubble under the "View Information" section. Below that there's an option to download the Excel sheet of donors, so you can then alphabetize the list(I alphabetized the list by city).

I found out my uncle and brother that live in California both donated $100. How upsetting that they would donate money. I can only guess how much time they've donated. At least I know where they stand now.

UPDATE:
Today HRC was doing 100% matching of donations, so I made a $100 donation and that was matched, so I've now donated more than my family members donated to "Vote Yes". I do feel a little better, but there's so many people against us.

UPDATE:
This is a much more user friendly way to find out who has donated money to Prop 8:
http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/?Search+Again=

UPDATE:
I found out that my uncle has donated a total of $1000 dollars in support of Proposition 8. I can't compete with that kind of money.

Letter from the Obama campaign on GLBT issues

I'll admit I was offended/saddened by the segment on gay marriage in the VP debate. But I think this is a good time to share a message that I received from the Obama campaign when I asked them to share Obama's views on GLBT issues.

"Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting Senator Barack Obama and Obama for America with your thoughts on LGBT rights. We appreciate hearing from you.

Senator Obama supports economic, social, and legal rights for gays and lesbians. He supports full civil unions, expanding hate crimes statutes, fighting discrimination at work and in housing and other places of public accommodation, and wants to increase adoption rights. He opposes any Constitutional ban on gay marriage, opposes the Defense of Marriage Act, and opposes the current “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military, which weakens us in a time of global challenges.

Barack is a global leader in the fight against AIDS. He traveled to Kenya and took a public HIV test to encourage testing and reduce the stigma of the disease. In late 2006, Barack Obama worked to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act, one of the largest sources of federal funds for primary health care and support services for patients with HIV/AIDS.

Senator Obama has consistently supported LGBT rights, and will continue to work for an open, tolerant society where people of all sexual orientations are protected and their contributions are valued. Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,

Obama for America

---------------------------------------
Paid for by Obama for America"

So hopefully this cheers you all up as it does me, that under Obama there will be far more equality than under McCain.

Good Tagging Fun

My sister sort of tagged me(she wrote, "I tag anyone who wants to play...come on I want to know about your life!!"). So here goes:

Ten years ago I was:
1. In my first month of college at BYU
2. Not out
3. Dreading that I'd have to go on a mission soon
4. Loving such songs as "Save Tonight", "My Favorite Mistake" and "Believe"
5. Attending church weekly

My to do list:
1. Pick an article for journal club
2. Plant the tulip bulbs
3. Iron my clothes
4. Put in my vacation request for March
5. Run the Milwaukee marathon next year

Favorite snacks:
1. Dreyer's 1/2 Fat Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
2. Twizzlers
3. Baked Lays, Ruffle, etc.
4. Gummi Bears
5. Chips and Salsa

If I had millions of dollars I would:
1. Travel to everywhere I want to go
2. Pay off my debts
3. Buy a new car
4. Give a lot of money to my favorite siblings
5. Donate to Obama's campaign, HRC, Vote No on Proposition 8 and The World Wildlife Fund

Places I've lived:
1. Milwaukee, WI
2. Columbus, OH
3. Orem, UT
4. Provo, UT
5. Spain

My jobs:
1. St. Luke's Medical Center: Transitional Year Resident
2. BioMedics: Phlebotomist
3. SuperTarget/Macey's: Cart attendant, cashier
4. SCERA pool: Swim teacher, lifeguard
5. Deseret News: Newspaper carrier

I tag anyone who still reads this blog!

My Mosaic

I got this idea from my sister and was bored so I thought I'd do it.

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search .
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. Save your mosaic and then add it to your blog like a regular photo.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.




Answers
1: David-Perhaps my favorite famous David..for obvious reasons!
2: Mashed potatoes and gravy.
3: Ohio State for med school. My favorite school experience so that's why I chose that school.
4: Blue. I picked this picture of a Steller's Jay because I like wildlife and I remember seeing this bird all over when I lived in Monterey.
5: Cristian Ronaldo, a Portuguese soccer player.
6: Historically my favorite drink has been Bacardi Razz and Sprite.
7: Barcelona, specifically the Sagrada Familia...have wanted to go there ever since I lived in Spain.
8: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream...Dreyer's brand but the 1/2 fat kind.
9: Radiology, probably abdominal imaging.
10: My laptop.
11: Gay :). I liked this one because it's in Columbus.
12: Leon, so I got a lion(leon in Spanish). My sister calls me this and she's the one I got the idea to do this from so it was perfect.

Now it's your turn!

Vote No on Proposition 8

This whole issue is a very sore topic for me as I am obviously a strong proponent of gay marriage and hope to one day (in the not too distant future) to get married to my boyfriend of almost 3 years. I was elated when the California Supreme Court's decision allowed for gay marriage in the state and was saddened when I heard Proposition 8 was going to be put on the November ballot(though I figured that was inevitable). I was extremely disappointed again when I found out that the LDS Church sent a letter to the members of the church in California encouraging them to do all they could do to help get Proposition 8 passed.

The other day I got invited by someone on my Facebook friends list who is Mormon to join a group supporting Proposition 8. I of course declined and then sent him a message telling him no thanks. He wrote back that he was just trying to his part since the church asked him to. This made me think how influential the Mormon church is in this whole issue. I think most members will feel obligated to obey the church and make sure this Proposition passes. I wish they would have stayed out of this political question and let the individual members decide for themselves. My brother lives in California and I'm scared to think that he is involved in getting this Proposition passed.

I came across this letter posted on a blog from a volunteer with the Mormon church and it's scary how much organization and effort is going into this:


"July 28, 2008

Dear Presidents:

Yesterday a wonderful meeting was held with the eight Area Directors in Northern California. These are amazingly powerful people. The Area folks represent the grassroots effort for the passage of the Proposition and their responsibility overlays each Coordinating Council. This was a great and powerful meeting. I assure you that the LDS folks who work closely with or who are on the Board directly of the coalition are very impressive and politically experienced folks. It was great to see.

I have a few answers to frequent questions that are being asked and I feel that if I were you, I'd wanna know. Hope that this helps:

Organization, it' s a little confusing!? Answer: The Brethren have felt that the best way to organize and pass the Proposition is to have an Ecclesiastical arm and a Grassroots arm to organization. Elder Dalton, Area Seventy and Chair of California for every thing, reports to the Brethren. I assist him. We work with coordinating councils, all 17 in California and then Stake Presidents and Bishops, rank and file. The second leg to organization is grassroots. This is done so as to engage as many like minded folks who are not LDS, but whom will help. The senior folks who run the grassroots are LDS at the coalition and are headed by Gary Greener and Gary Lawrence. These folks are assisted in Nor Cal by Boyd Smith, and in turn by Area, then Regional Directors. The regional directors overlay Stakes. Below are Zip Code Supervisors by wards.

What is the role of grassroots? Answer: The grassroots folks in each Stake, Regional Directors will train zip code supervisors. Their goal, is to find the voters who will vote yes. It is not to persuade others ... but to find those who will vote yes. The ZCS will seek, with the RD help, to encourage as many as the ward members and like minded people as possible, to accept eight different responsibilities, all from walking a precinct to determine folks opinions (not to sell), to calling, to placing signage, to a myriad of essential tasks that Area Directors will oversee. Please know Presidents, that the RDs/ZCS's will be contacting many many people to accept responsibilities. We hope that you are fine with this happening without the Stake President or Bishop approving each assignment! We assume that you are ok with that!!

Will like minded people from other congregations really join with us? Answer: There was a conference call last week with 1200 pastors in California with James Dobson as the featured speaker. This Thursday, there is another conference call with 2000 California clergy. It appears that the effort on the part of like minded people is huge compared to eight years ago. The Area Directors and Regional Directors will be aware of contacting the congregations for a joint effort. Walking the precincts in particular is where we all may have an opportunity to grab a good friend of another religion and walk with them. If LDS people want to participate in that conference and know of the site of broadcast, they are welcome to go.

What is the timeline from here for the next few weeks.? Answer:

1. Congregations of LDS all having been taught the doctrine in July so that they may see the importance of fundraising and grassroots participation. Some Stakes have called all Stake Council and wives as well as several folks who may be able to contribute not on the Council. The Stake President, in that Cottage Meeting, has asked for their support. A great part of a fund raising effort, accomplished in one night.

2. August 1st: All Regional Directors have been called and contacted by Area Directors for training.

3. August 3rd: Training of Regional Directors commences by the Area Directors

4. August 1st-10th: Zip Code Supervisors are in place and are to be trained by Regional Directors..

5. August 16th: The First of three Saturday precinct walks are to be held under the direction of the Regional Directors.

6. August 23rd: The Second of the Saturday precinct walks are to be held.

7. Sept. 22nd: One million signs will be put up in yards around the state at 7:00am.

Other timeline events will be planned and executed and you will be updated.

That's enough. if I caused more questions than answered, please hit me back.

Thanks for all that you and have on your plate. The Lord will make up whatever we all feel we are lacking.

Brother Packer"

I also found this link to mormonsformarriage.com which is a group of Mormons who believe in gay marriage and seems to be a good resource for fair minded Mormons who support gay marriage but don't know what to do in light of the church encouraging them to fight for Proposition 8.

I feel like I should do all I can to make sure Proposition 8 does not pass including talking to my brother and everyone I know in California, hoping my example helps them understand why Proposition 8 shouldn't pass. We'll see how this all unfolds.

Rep. Tubbs Jones, you will be deeply missed

The AP writes: "EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio - Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said."

I am so saddened by the news. She was truly a great woman and a great representative for Ohio. I was privileged to have seen her stand with Hillary Clinton at a rally at Ohio State. I don't know how she'll ever be replaced, she was such an advocate for everything I believe in. Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully at least Obama will be elected so some of her ideals can be brought to pass.

New Intern

I started my first day of my intern year yesterday. I am on an inpatient general medicine service for my first month. I feel like I'm already getting the hang of things and that I'll be able to handle intern year just fine. I like being in charge of my own patients and writing orders. I will have my first overnight call on Thursday so I am nervous for that. Unfortunately I'll be on call for the 4th of July so I'm sad that I won't get to celebrate with Kip that day. We'll have to have a BBQ the next day, I guess.

Mormon church at it again with their hate

Here is an article from The Deseret News which talks about a letter the leadership of the Mormon church sent out to their California congregations which encourages the membership of the church to support the amendment banning gay marriage in California which will be up for a vote in November. When will the church stop discriminating against gay people? Why do they care if gay people are allowed to have civil marriages? Why can't they let the California members decide of their own free will whether they will or won't support the amendment. I wonder how my brother who lives in California will vote.

Match Day

Match Day turned out to be very different than I thought it would be. Kip and I ended up matching in Milwaukee, WI. I'm really happy that we matched together, but I wanted to either go to Phoenix or stay in Columbus and definitely didn't want to go anywhere colder that Ohio. I feel really bad that I had 4 years to make that happen and I failed and that I let Kip down. I really did enjoy the program when I visited so I am glad about that, although I honestly didn't learn that much about it because I didn't think there was any way I would end up there. I'm getting more used to the idea now and I'm sure everything will work out fine in the end. We'll enjoy buying our first house together and exploring a new city. Milwaukee is only a cheap Skybus flight away from Columbus so that'll be good. I'll miss Columbus!

My comment on a post on a fellow gay med student's blog

I've recently found a blog that I find very interesting and well written and today I posted the following comment on one of his posts so I include here for you to read:

"I always enjoy reading your blog and this post especially hit very close to home for me as I too am going through the application/interview process for residency(Radiology) and happen to be gay. I am couples matching with my boyfriend and it got very tiring explaining that Kip was in fact a boy, not a girl like everyone assumed(has anyone ever heard of a girl named Kip anyway?) and eventually I just stopped correcting the interviewers because I got tired of them not understanding(with one interviewer I had to say it three different ways before he finally got it). If I could do it all again I would have been more clear expressing myself and not letting them make me feel uncomfortable for being gay but at the time I just let it slide because I didn't want them to look upon me negatively."

I think one of the main reasons most of the interviewers assumed that I was straight was because they all knew that I was Mormon-being from Utah, going on a mission and graduating from BYU-so that made them assume that Kip would have to be a girl. I found it rather impossible to let people know that I am no longer a Mormon so it was very frustrating to have to carry that misconception around just because I'm from Utah. I will find out on March 20th where I matched so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out especially since the program director at my #1 choice is Mormon.

Done with residency interviews

Now that it's February I can relax for a couple of days. I did 30 residency interviews in 12 different states over the past few months. I did have some fun times-going to the driving range in Scottsdale and going to the beach in Charleston stand out right now but traveling and interviewing is a tiring process so I'm glad it's over. I can't wait for Match Day.

I went home for about 5 days over the Christmas holiday. I had a pretty good time hanging out mostly with my Mom and Dad as my brothers and sisters all have their own families now. I think I would have had a great time if I hadn't been missing Kip so much. I am relatively lucky to have the parents that I do. My mom seems to be doing a lot better handling the fact that I'm gay and even said that she'd be ok with Kip staying at our house if we came to visit. I'm definitely proud of the fact that my parents are Democrats and it was nice to have a couple of people on my side when the conversation of politics came up. I'm considering going back over the summer so we'll see.

Up next for me is my last clinical rotation working with homeless people so it will definitely be interesting.

November update

This month I've been doing a month of radiology at the Cleveland Clinic. I've been staying with Julie's parents while I'm up there. I'm up in Cleveland during the week and in Columbus on the weekends. It's been fun learning about radiology again and the Clinic is huge. It's cool to be at such a world-renowned hospital. Being away from Kip for up to a week at a time has made me realize how much I love him and miss him when I'm not around him. It definitely makes me want to be able to match in the same place for both my prelim year and radiology residencies because I don't know how I'd handle living apart from him for that long.

Interview season is in full swing. I have 15 radiology interviews lined up so that's a good number. I've had my interviews at Case Western and OSU so far. I'll find out on March 20th where I'll end up for residency.

After this week I only have 3 months of rotations left so graduation is rapidly approaching! It will be sad to say goodbye to my roommates and other friends that I've made since I've been here.

What AMSA thinks of the surgeon general nomination

I read this in an American Medical Student Association(AMSA) newsletter and it reminded me why I'm proud to be a member.

As the nation's largest, independent medical student organization, AMSA felt the need to stand up and oppose the United States Senate's nomination of Dr. James Holsinger to be the next U.S. Surgeon General. A report, "The Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality," prepared by Dr. Holsinger in January 1991, regards the sexual practices of homosexual men as biologically pathological that inherently lead to, "a diverse and expanded concept of sexually transmitted disease and associated trauma." The paper continues to state that men and women have a sexual "complementarity" that speaks for itself, comparing male and female reproductive organs to pipe fittings.

"It is unacceptable to permit a physician who furthers a position that runs so contrary to contemporary medical practice to serve as Surgeon General," says Daniel Murphy, AMSA legislative affairs director. "Even in 1991, Dr. Holsinger's paper was unscientific and decades out of date."

My Birthday Week 2007

This week my birthday was on a Wednesday and also happened to be opening day for the latest Harry Potter movie, which is exciting because I am a big Harry Potter fan. I only have to work 4 days a week on my rotation, so the day I didn't go in this week was Wednesday. It was nice not having to work on my birthday. I didn't do much during the day except run some errands. I did meet with the researcher I'm going to do research with in September, though, and it was great to meet him and hear some ideas of what I might be working on. I'll be doing abdominal MRI studies which is awesome because that's one of my areas of interest. It sounds like I'll at least have an abstract done by the time I'm done which would be awesome. I went to 7/11 to get a free Slurpee. Also of note, I went to Giant Eagle and my bill came to 7 dollars and 11 cents, so that was exciting. Kip, Lindsey, Ryan, Julie, Chris and I went to Pesto for dinner and then to see Harry Potter. The movie was good but the third one is still my favorite. Afterwards we went home and ate yellow cake and ice cream.

My family was again good with wishing me a happy birthday. My Dad called and sent me a card with some money. Tom and Emily emailed me. Andy called and sent a gift card to Best Buy which is nice of him. Amy and Katie called. Matt sent a package with Winger's sauce and some other stuff. So the only ones that didn't acknowledge me was Brad and Darla(like last year). I do miss my family, and it looks like I'll go a full year without seeing them since I don't really have a chance to until November/December.

Dave forgot my birthday but he's not the best at remembering stuff like that. I did talk to him the day before though and he moved to New York so I'm going to try to go see him in August.

On Saturday I went to Union with Chris and Julie to celebrate my birthday. It was good times. Then Chris and I went to his friend Ben's housewarming party.

Tonight Kip is taking me to Barcelona for my birthday dinner. Kip gave me my presents after dinner. He gave me a book of pictures of Columbus, a scented oil thing from Pottery Barn and some clothes from Ruehl. They were very thoughtful.

Marion, OH

This month for my first rotation of 4th year I am in an internal medicine outpatient clinic in the small town of Marion, OH. My preceptor is an awesome lady who reminds me of my mom(they even share the same birthday, weird). I don't love the 2-hour round trip commute, though. One cool thing though is that the 29th President of the Unites States, Warren G. Harding lived in Marion and there's a nice memorial there. An since I love history I visited it one morning and was surprised by how beautiful it is. Here's some pics:

I'm now a Med 4

Well it's hard to believe but I am done with my third year of med school. It was a really tough year and I'm glad it's over. We only had 3 weeks off the whole year. I never missed a day of a rotation! I even went the day that school was cancelled because of the snow storm! There were rotations with long hours and some rotations with easy schedules. I did OB/Gyn at OSU, I did two busy inpatient months at Children's and I did two hard services at OSU in medicine. I can't really complain about my surgery services though waking up at 4:15 AM every day for a month wasn't my favorite thing to do. I am proud of my accomplishments this year and proud of what I've learned about myself and about medicine over the past year. I learned for certain that I want to be a radiologist. I entertained the thought of maybe being an anesthesiologist or a pediatrician but I just enjoyed radiology more than anything else. Now to start the application process all over again!

Mitt "Romney's Disappointing Campaign"-article from Time

I came across this article in Time magazine today and I thought it was a great description of Mitt Romney, so I wanted to post it on my blog.

Here it is:Romney

My surgery rotation

Just wanted to post something really quick about my last rotation of third year-surgery. Last month I was on cardiothoracic surgery so i saw a lot of cool surgeries like CABG's, valve replacements, VAD placements, aneurysn repairs and even a cardiac tumor excision. The hours weren't bad at all for a surgery service.

Now I'm on Surg 2 which is a lot of colorectal, anal and bariatric surgeries. I have a lot more responsibilities on this service now so I'm a little stressed but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I have to wake up at 4:40 AM tomorrow to get to the hospital in time to round onmy patients and be ready for rounding with my residents. Really the only thing keeping me going is the fact that 3 weeks from tomorrow is my last day!

Well it's 8:30 PM which means it's bedtime for me. Wish me luck that I'll survive these next 3 weeks.