Inclusion Wins!

Last night was a significant step toward a full repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The House and the Senate Armed Service Committee both voted to repeal the policy yesterday. Although the vote was mostly Democrats, a few Republicans stood up and cast their votes for equality. Representatives Biggert (R – IL), Cao (R – LA), Djou (R-HI), Ron Paul (R – TX), and Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) were the Republicans in Congress that voted on the right side of history. Senator Susan Collins of Maine was the one Republican vote on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Log Cabin Republicans are thankful for these members of Congress and look forward to working with them again. Unfortunately, there were no votes from Kansas and very few from the Republican Party. But working within the party is the reason I am here and the work that the Log Cabin does is especially important. We worked and strived to get these votes and will continue to work to get more in the future.

It’s been a great week with a lot of exciting and interesting things going on. We worked extremely hard in the office this week, meetings on The Hill, reaching out to members, and attending events. I am overjoyed at the vote with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and am pleased with the Republicans that voted for repeal. I hope that the process continues to move forward with support for both sides. That goes to show that having conversations and actual facts for Congress members is more influential than waving signs or protesting. No offense to those that take part in that type of activism but that simply is not how you get your message heard and more importantly voted on.

Everything will be fine in the end, if it's not fine, it's not the end."
This is a quote I often say to myself in my daily life. Before receiving the internship with Log Cabin Republicans, I received several denies from other places and congressman. Yet after this week, I am more than pleased to be in the Log Cabin office. I have the pleasure of actually working for something I believe in. Instead of giving tours of the Capitol to constituents, I work on actual issues and am truly learning the strategies of successful lobbying. Log Cabin is also an amazing organization in that, we take on the job that everyone else has given up. Other GLBT advocate groups are simply ignoring meetings with the Republican side of the aisle and considering Republicans a lost party. Many of the members of Congress have actually never been approached by advocacy groups and have been failed to be educated then. Log Cabin fills that gap and works within the party to ensure equality.

This week was also great for famous receptions and banquets. I have shared a beer with Senator Scott Brown to pee next to Minority Leader Boehner to meeting the newest Congressman Djou.

On Tuesday Christian invited me to attend a fundraising reception at a local pub for Charlie Baker who is running for Governor of Massachusetts. Scott Brown, the centerfold, gave the welcome and then walked around the room meeting people. Wilma Goldstein, a past fellow at the Dole Institute at KU, was there and we chatted for a while. She is an amazing woman and I was excited to see her there. After the event, I ran home to change and head to Nellie's Sport Bar for a Lady Gaga party. They were showing the Glee episode that focused on Gaga. There were fun drinks and a lot of "gleeks." I am just getting into the show, thanks to my Lawrence roommates, but had a fabulous time anyways. Scott Brown to Lady Gaga, interesting switch.

Wednesday I went to a reception at the glorious Capitol Hill Club, a Club exclusive to the Republican Party and invite only. There was a Young Gun reception for Republicans around the country running for Congress. The members were introduced and then went around the room meeting the various people and lobbyists. The club was beautiful, like everything Republican is, and all of the candidates were very outgoing and exciting. I wish them the best of luck and hopefully a few seek our endorsement so we can have a Republican majority again in Congress!

After the Young Gun reception we headed to another event at the Capitol Hill Club for Charles Djou, the newly elected special election candidate from Hawaii, Obama's old home territory now led by a Republican! Log Cabin was one of Djou's first endorsements and he has stuck with us through his vote for repeal this week. He was just sworn in on Tuesday. The reception was excellent and many powerful Republicans were present and spoke. Minority Leader Boehner was there, so tan, and he gave a speech praising the Republican Party and Djou. We spoke for a bit, as we used the restroom beside each other. I was able to meet several people from the RNC as well, and one of the ladies invited me to go to a Happy Hour with the National College Republicans down the street after the Djou event.

At the CR Happy Hour were several other interns that were working with Republicans and around town, so I finally met others in my rank. After a couple of drinks and meeting several people I headed home and decided to try line dancing at a bar close to my house. When I think of line dancing, I think country western and boots and my dad. But this bar was far from. This was gays line dancing to techno and Beyonce! It was pretty great. I joined in on one of the lessons and learned a salsa Latin type dance. Oh, I am so diverse! Watch out Patty, I can shake it like a Latina now.

It was an amazing eventful day that ended perfectly. What a city! I can be at a prestigious political club one hour and the next be salsaing drinking margaritas.

Thursday we worked all day to get last votes for the repeal and were happy to celebrate later that evening. I am helping Log Cabin out with our involvement in the Pride festival as one of my tasks and the Capitol Pride committee had a meeting on Thursday so I went to that. Naturally being led by gays, the meeting was at a bar with drinks. I met a couple other festival people and am excited for the two weeks of events that starts this weekend. After the "meeting" I met up with Christian and Clark, from Log Cabin, at an event at the famous Hilton Hotel, where Reagan was shot. There was an outdoor event celebrating the kickoff to Pride. We had a couple of drinks to celebrate our win towards repeal and had a fabulous evening.

This has been an outstanding week and I am beginning to assimilate into the DC life. I still do though avoid the crazy lady by our office that I believe is casting spells at the business folk. I am missing my friends like crazy, especially with the release of Sex and the City 2! I wish everyone well and continue being fabulous and thanks for reading about me!

Lesson Learned: Never assume a vote in politics i.e. Ron Paul voting for repeal (Remember him in Bruno?)

First Week

On my last trip to DC , I took a tour with May Davis (a good friend from Student Senate) of the Supreme Court and learned that above the actual court room is a basketball court. So this morning when I got up, with a little hangover, I decided to go over and see if my boy John Roberts wanted to shoot some hoops. He was busy so I walked by the Library of Congress and then remembered that I am here to lead - not to read!

My first week of intern work is now over and it has been excellent. Each day has offered something different with a variety of challenges and numerous exciting moments.

Thursday was a full day of work in the office. Part of my job is to write the Log Cabin Blog, research news stories that affect the party or GLBT concerns, and run the twitter and facebook. Completing these tasks and my ongoing work on the website filled my day on Thursday until around 6:00pm. After work, I decided that maybe it was time to purchase bedding and a pillow and get off of the couch. I took the 20 minute metro ride to the nearest Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. This is one of the strangest aspects for a midwest person. In a city you literally have to carry your groceries and items back on the metro and carry them home, meaning you are limited to about two bags. DC also charges people to use sacks so you better bring the reusable bags, if you are my friend then bring your census bags! In Lawrence, I shop about once every three months and stock up in order to save time and effort. That method is practically impossible here. The Target is built above the Bed, Bath, and Beyond which is built on a Payless, not the typical shopping I am used to. There is also no Walmart!!!! and a lot of hippie expensive organic places, that I am sure my sister would love. Thank goodness, I was able to find bedding and make it back to the house with time to get ready and go out for the evening.

Going out is a very different concept for me here in DC. In Lawrence, my friends and I wouldn't even think about leaving the house until around midnight but on weeknights here the metro ends at midnight. So I changed and headed out at 9:30!!! CRAZY right Lawrence friends!?! I don't know a soul here yet and decided to suck up my fear and just go to a bar alone and see if I could meet people. I headed to a gay district area of town and fortunately met some people who were just visiting DC. We were both new so we were in the same position and just sat at outside a corner bar and had a couple of drinks together and chatted. He was from upstate New York and invited me to a Drag show the next night. He knew the famous Drag Queen Pandora Boxx and invited me to join him at her show the next evening. I was so excited! I had made a friend, but he was leaving after the weekend. Eh, I at least got a club invite out of the evening. I headed home a little tipsy and had the metro directions in my pocket so I wouldn't drunkenly get turned around. Once back at the house, I chatted with the new roommate a little and bonded more. Booze makes bonding with new people so much easier!


Friday at the office was a great day! Our new Executive Director started. He is excellent. He served in the Iraq war and then in the Bush Administration. His contact list and experience are extensive and extremely benefiting for Log Cabin. Him, Christian and I went to a lunch with around 30 prominent GLBT people in the DC area. The group consisted of lobbyist to human rights activist to business people. There were Democrats and Republicans present. I made some excellent contacts and met some outstanding members of society and my community.

After work I decided to try out a happy hour that I had heard so much about. No one does Happy Hour like DC! I went to a bar with unlimited beer for $8! I had planned on just having a couple then heading back to the house to freshen up but then got to talking to people and stayed until my new friend came and we went to the Drag Show together. Pandora Boxx was absolutely amazing and hilarious! I was able to attend her after party performance as well and talk with her a bit. After that I headed to the famous gay bar called Nelly's Sports Bar. A KU alumni owns the bar and it was featured on The Real World DC. It was pretty busy with a lot of young interns and political workers. I enjoyed myself and even let a guy from Mizzou buy me a drink, lucky him!

This morning after bypassing basketball with John and skipping the library, I went on a stroll around the Capital to the Lincoln Memorial. I called my girl RanDee and friend Nick, who is in Vegas now, to keep up with friends. I then went to the National Asian Culture festival in front of the Capital. I had some great bubble tea and remarkable Thai food. Martial arts, belly dancers, and arab drums were my entertainment for the afternoon. At 5:00 I decided to do what any person in DC would, go have a beer! I then called the family members to fill them in. I am headed out again tonight in order to make friends. I left an amazing social life in Lawrence with many popular great friends to DC where I drink alone at bars and force myself to chat with anyone sitting close to me. I hope to make friends soon, but either way I am enjoying myself!

Lesson of the Day: Get out of the house and into the streets to truly enjoy a city.

Great First Day!

After I had posted my last message I met my new roommate for the summer, he was just getting back from church. He just finished his sophomore year (under 21) and is a social conservative from Missouri. Needless to say we have little in common. But this is a journey and I am positive about all experiences and he knows DC better than I do, so his help is greatly appreciated. He also informed me that we have an iron and ironing board in our hall closet. FAIL! I'm so glad that I spent three hours looking for winkle spray!

I woke up plenty early the next day because, as my mother taught me, always plan time to get lost. So naturally I got lost twice and my commute to work that should take 15 minutes took an hour. Luckily, I was only a couple of minutes late and the director was very understanding. The DC Log Cabin Director's name is Christian Berle. He has been involved with the Log Cabin Republicans for a couple of years and is very outgoing and has made me feel welcome. Our office is located within the Arent Fox LLC building that focuses on lobbying and law within politics. I am slowly meeting several people around the office and this upcoming Monday the new Executive Director will move in.

Christian and I started the day grabbing coffee and going over several expectations and tasks for me. This will definitely be a great learning experience because my first task is to update our website.... TECHNOLOGY! I am also writing the Log Cabin Blog and running our twitter, so watch for those updates as well. After some time in the office starting the website, Christian treated me to lunch. We grabbed salads at a local cafe (there weren’t any business women's specials unfortunately) and ate in the park at Dupont Circle.

After lunch, we headed to the Brookings Institute for a speakers panel on "Lessons Learned from the Service of Gays and Lesbians in Allied Militaries." The program discussed gays and lesbians serving in foreign militaries. Military leaders from Canada, the UK, Australia, Israel, the Netherlands, and Sweden all gathered to describe their experiences and share the policies that allow homosexuals to openly serve in their militaries. The allied military leaders shared the consensus that the problems are few to none by allowing homosexuals to openly serve, and actually strengthen their forces.

“Gays and Lesbians are just as effective as straight soldiers. Sexual orientation has no effect for how well a person does their job,” declared Commander Luc Cassivi, a seasoned naval officer of the Canadian Forces.

It was a great session and I learned a lot. I worry though that the military leaders were too positive and neglected to share any negative learning experiences. I was fortunate enough to meet several influential people at the panel, such as Dr. Nathaniel Frank. Nathaniel has spent most of his professional life focusing on homosexuals in the military and authored a world famous book Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America.

Later that evening Christian, remarkably, invited me to a personal dinner to celebrate Nathaniel and his work. The dinner was at an upscale townhouse in DC. (Almost 200 years old restored) Some of DC's most prominent LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, for those of you unfamiliar with the community) activist were in attendance. I networked with numerous influential people and had a great time in conversations. The catered meal was outstanding and of course wine too!

I was at the dinner and event until around 10:00PM, which left me no time to purchase bedding anywhere so another night on the couch, oh well. It was worth it. I received a signed copy of Nathaniel's book and was surrounded by inspiring people who have tirelessly worked for the cause of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to ensure equal rights for all Americans. I look forward to joining this campaign and contributing my efforts for a more equal inclusive nation.

It was a long, yet fabulous, first day with Log Cabin Republicans!

Lesson Learned: Always have a glass of wine in your hand and a smile on your face to ensure a successful dinner party

Arrival!

I discovered today that my life, at least three months of it, weighs 131 pounds. This past weekend I cleaned, packed, and sucked the air from all of my clothes with the amazing Space Saver bags (don't worry I didn't buy them from the commercials). It was all jammed into two suitcases and ready for travel.

This morning I woke up at 5:00AM at my sister and her husband's new home in Overland Park. I had decided to stay there the previous evening in order to be closer to the airport and have a relaxing evening with family. GUARANTEED if I had stayed in Lawrence with my great and crazy friends, I probably would not have slept and would have struggled to find a sober driver at 5:00 in the morning. I was amazed by how busy and bustling the airport was this morning. For almost an hour I waited in line for security. If you know MCI then you know that this is pretty rare. I assume it is simply a flock of students and others returning home after graduation or headed to vacations. As I stood there in line I thought "Shoot, better get used to this security! Thank goodness I enjoy people watching so much."

Around 1:00PM I got off of the plane with no problems at the Dulles Airport, which is about a 30 minute drive outside of DC. Prior to that I had a quick layover in Chicago. I had planned on taking a taxi into the heart of DC where my townhouse was located but changed my mind after striking up a last minute deal for a personal luxury driver. It seemed like the simplest, stylish, and least stressful way to travel. After he drove Miss Daisy aka me to the WISH office for check-in, he drove me to my actual location at a four story old townhouse that has several smaller living areas in it. WISH stands for Washington Intern Student Housing. I heard about if from several previous interns that I knew from KU. It is "fully" furnished with furniture similar to the Reserves Apartments in Lawrence, and if you know what I'm talking about then you know the quality. The location is outstanding. It is across from a large park that I "might" think about running in some morning and just a 5 minute walk to the metro.

Once arriving at my apartment it was around 3:00PM and naturally there was no one there. The historical apartment is on the first floor and has one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen and living room. It is no penthouse but will work efficiently. The entire building is full of interns from various walks of life. There are men, women, liberals, and conservatives. I am excited to meet each of them and look forward to our social being hosted next week.

I brought in my suitcases and decided to head out and grab a bite to eat and to try to pick some items up at a Walgreens or a CVS. Those stores are on every corner, correct? Well they're not! I walked around for several hours in the misty 50 degree weather before figuring out the metro system and locating a CVS. I enjoyed my Tuesday walk around touring the city on foot, but set out to find winkle releasing spray and bedding for my small twin bed. Unfortunately I am going to bed on the couch tonight and have laid out my wrinkly clothes on the bare bed in hopes they will be ready for my first day tomorrow with Log Cabin Republicans.

Tomorrow I start my morning off by attending an event called "Lessons Learned from the Service of Gays and Lesbians in Allied Militaries" Battling the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy will be one of the major items my summer agenda for Log Cabin. I plan on discussing more topics about the actual internship in future posts. Also, don't worry Lawrence friends, these posts won't usually be this long. Have a beer or a case for me tonight boys!

Lesson of the Day: Space saver bags = good idea for traveling IF you have an iron or wrinkle releaser when unpacking.