Tag: homophobia

Planet Fitness

On By Michel McDonaldIn BullyingLeave a comment

planet fitness bakersfieldAs a child I dreaded going to gym class. I hated sports, but the exercise part didn’t bother me. I actually enjoyed the exercise part because it didn’t involve me being hit in the head by a dodge ball, or a baseball, or a football, or a tennis ball. I just really hate being hit in the head by balls. Well…

I used to go to the gym when I was in my early 20’s and I loved it. I stopped going for many years, but I started going to the gym again in 2005. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get there on the bus because we didn’t have a car. I only went there for maybe 3 or 4 months. I stopped going because I went to a friend’s wedding in Colorado Springs and I got my right ear pierced. My left ear was already pierced, so I evened myself out and started wearing earrings again on a regular basis in both ears now. When I came home and went to the gym, one of the female trainers who was so friendly with me that we were practically best friends asked me why I pierced both my ears and I told her the story of having my left ear pierced when I was 17. I also divulged some personal information that she wasn’t expecting. I told her I was gay. I made a joke about it and said “well I am gay…” and you would think that someone had just shot her dog. After that she stopped talking to me, she wouldn’t even look at me. That was when I decided to stop going to the gym.

So fast forward 10 years and I saw an advertisement on Twitter for Planet Fitness. I’m thinking of what happened to me at the last gym and I don’t ever want to have to go through that ever again. It was so depressing to be judged like that by someone who I considered to be a friend. I am very guarded and naturally want to go to Facebook and ask if anyone in the Bakersfield gay community has gone to that gym and one person told me that she hasn’t had any bad experiences. I’m taking her word for it, and I trust her, so I might take a chance. The only problem is, the plan I want will lock me in a 12 month contract.

Planet Fitness has 2 plans. Their $10/mo plan has no commitments, but you get very little benefits from it. This is what you get with their $10 plan.

  • Unlimited access to home club
  • Includes T-Shirt
  • Unlimited fitness training

Their $20 plan seems to be more what I am looking for because you get so much more.

  • Reciprocal use of all Planet Fitness® Franchise Locations
  • Unlimited guest privileges at any Planet Fitness location
  • Unlimited Hydromassage
  • Use of Tanning
  • Unlimited Total Body Enhancement
  • Unlimited Use of Massage Chairs
  • 1/2 Price Cooler Drinks (Restrictions may apply)
  • PF Black Card T-Shirt
  • PF Black Card Key Tag
  • Unlimited Fitness Training

I really like the hydromassage and the massage chairs. Well, my back will like them more. I have scoliosis and I am in constant pain every waking minute. I’m in absolute agony right now as I type this. I have a shiatsu massager that you put on a chair, and that does work, but when I am at a gym working out, I want to get in the shower and then sit in a massage chair. If I’m paying $10 a month and I can’t sit on that massage chair, I’m going to regret even being there. I would much rather pay the extra $10 every month to be able to get a few more benefits. I also wouldn’t mind getting a tan every now and then. Oh and half price cooler drinks? Yes please! I don’t know what total body enhancement means, but if it’s unlimited I’m so in. Oh and a black card t-shirt and key tag? Yes please!

I just want to be able to walk in and get on the treadmill or elliptical or even the stair climber and do cardio for an hour and then start building muscle which will help me burn fat faster. I also REALLY need to work on my butt. When I lost 70lbs a couple of years ago, I looked at my butt in the mirror when I got out of the shower and it was flat as a board. I don’t want to ever see a flat ass on myself again. If I am able to lose some weight, I want to have a nice bubble butt that is all muscle and no fat. Although, if I do get fat again, I’m gonna have a HUGE ass.

This $20 a month deal includes a $39 a year membership fee, which I honestly don’t mind, and a 12 month commitment. If I am committed to a year, then I will have no excuse to not go, in fact, I will feel obligated to go. And the $20 plan includes a unlimited guest pass which I am hoping will get my partner in there for free. So we’ll be working out for the price of one. Although, he may not get the benefits from the massage chair and bed or tanning bed. I’ll have to see how that works.

I’m really looking forward to going to the gym now. I’ve seen pictures and they have TV’s, so you can watch TV while you are doing your cardio. I was thinking of buying a bluetooth transmitter for my Dell DJ. I have bluetooth headphones for my phone, but my phone’s bluetooth doesn’t work. I’m sure I won’t need to listen to my own music if they have TV’s. And I’m sure they have very loud music, so you may not even be able to hear the TV’s lol. Then again, I haven’t gone in there yet, so I don’t know how they work. They may have headphones for the TV’s. Who knows. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Anyway, I really want to go and I hope I have the opportunity. I’m broke this month, so I’m afraid I will have to miss the special they have now. I hope they will have this sale next month.

My 50lb Weight Loss – Before and After Pictures

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, Noom, Pictures, WeightLeave a comment

weight loss before and after 50lbs

So yesterday was what I consider to be a milestone.  I weighed in at 212.6lbs which brings my weight loss total down to 50.4lbs lost since January 5th 2013.  So yeah, I feel like bragging lol.

Last night we went to a local event where a woman named Erin Davies is driving cross-country to show her documentary called FagBug and talk about her experiences with vandalism and homophobia and to raise awareness on the subject with her car called the “fagbug.”  When I heard she was coming, I knew I had to go because I wanted to see the car and have my picture taken with it.  And since it would be the first picture of me with 50lbs weight loss, I thought it would work as a great sort of after picture, even though I’m not finished with my journey.

Anyway, so let me give you a rundown of the images you see above.  Top left was from Christmas 2004.  I am actually not positive what my weight was back then, but I’m pretty sure it was 230 give or take.

The second picture on the top is a picture that was taken at Hearst Castle in Colorado in 2005.  It is also the picture that I used as my author picture since it was the best picture I have ever taken.  I hate taking my picture as a fat guy, but love pictures when I’m skinny so perhaps I will be taking a lot more photos when I am finally down in weight.

The bottom left picture was taken last year in May at a PFLAG meeting with Robin Tyler.  I had no idea until after the picture was taken that my stomach was actually that big.  I was beyond mortified, but kept it because I didn’t want to delete the only picture of me with Robin Tyler.  I mean, she’s Robin Tyler!

The bottom right picture is my before picture.  That is the one I took at the IHOP that we went to on New Years Day just before I made the decision to go on this weight loss journey.

Finally, the picture on the right is how I look today.  You can certainly see the difference in my neck and my face.  You probably can’t tell with the black shirt, but believe me, it’s thinner than all those before pictures.  My stomach (waist) was 50” and now it is down to 43”.  So yeah, it’s thinner.  Also my thighs are really skinny now too.  I didn’t think to measure my thighs at the beginning or every week because the Noom app didn’t ask me to, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have still kept a record.  It doesn’t matter because they are thinner now.  Oh and thank you photographer (my partner) for taking the picture with me talking instead of smiling lol.  That was sarcasm of course.

My total weight loss since January 5th is 50.4lbs.  My goal is to lose 63lbs, so I only have 12.6lbs to go.  Although, once I meet my goal I will adjust the Noom app so that I will go down to 170 because 63lbs was just a small goal to get me started, my true goal is much higher than a measly 63lbs.  I was afraid that if I set too high of a goal, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.  I think that I have proven to myself that not only can I meet this goal, but I can keep going until all the fat is gone.

Look out world, here I come!  My next picture will be when I have lost 63lbs when I weigh 200lbs or less (if it’s like 199.8 or something).  See you then…

Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Anti-Gay, Gay, gay pride, Gay Rights1 Comment

I know I know, you don’t have to tell me, I’m very late for the conversation since this documentary came out in 2009 but I’m just now seeing it for the first time on Showtime.  We don’t get out to the movies very often and when we do we have to both agree on what we see which means we don’t get to see a lot of movies.  So… here I am in mid 2011 just now seeing this movie for the first time.

ho·mo·pho·bi·a Noun /ˌhōməˈfōbēə/

  1. An extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people

I found the definition for homophobia so that people will know the exact definition and know I am not making it up.  “An extreme and irrational aversion”…  Note the word irrational.  That is in the dictionary.  It says that your aversion to homosexuality is irrational.  You know if the dictionary says you are being irrational then it’s time to cool your jets.

When I started watching this movie tonight I didn’t know they were going to really get into all of the gory details about how other countries treat their gays.  I thought it was just them documenting their organization of the gay pride parade and festival in Canada and that it would be pride for 90 minutes.  Instead, they bring us to Moscow, Serbia, Sri Lanka US and Canada.

“There are over 80 countries across the globe that still criminalize homosexuality.  7 or 8 countries that actually uphold the death penalty.”

These are the words that are shocking to me.  I know that there were countries that criminalize people for holding hands or just for looking or acting gay.  In Sri Lanka it’s a 10 year prison sentence, yes still.  Just for being gay in public.  In India and in Africa lesbian women have to worry about corrective rape.

“‘Corrective rape’ is a criminal practice, whereby men rape lesbian women, purportedly as a means of “curing” the woman of her sexual orientation.”

This one woman told a story about how they rape lesbian women for hours, it’s pure torture to be raped like this especially since most of them are still virgins at the time of the rape.  It’s not only painful to penetrate them but it’s also very demeaning and you know, mentally painful.  It’s painful for me to even think about it.

In Moscow Russia you cannot have a gay pride, the mayor denies their applications and says that he will continue to deny them this year, next year, 5 years from now and 10 years from now.  As long as he is in office he will continue to deny their gay pride festival so they have to go to secret locations and have their quick 5 minute gay pride then pack it all up before the police show up.

In the middle east, if you are gay you are going to be pushing daisies very soon because they do not, absolutely do not want you living among them.  They will kill you and it is perfectly legal to do so.  I seem to recall the president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being asked in a press conference in the United States a few years ago about the gay iranian people and he said “We don’t have gay people” and everyone laughed at him.  He was very serious, he wasn’t expecting to hear something so bold as being laughed at as if he had just told a joke.  They do have gays, they are all in hiding, married with children and pretending to be straight to stay alive.  That is no way to live.

People are dying and people are being held in prisons for 10 years and being raped to correct them.  This is why we have gay pride.  It’s to make people aware of intolerance and to send a message that we are here, we are queer, get used to it.  Our message is to get over it and stop killing us and treating us like we are dogs because we were all born this way just like some of us were born with red, brown and blond hair; brown, blue and green eyes; black, brown, red, yellow, pink and white skin.  We were all born this way so just get over it.

My definition, if I may be so bold to give it, is that homophobic people aren’t afraid of gay people, they just don’t understand why we are all so happy and “gay” about being ourselves when they have to live the way their parents told them they have to live.  You see, I believe that all of those anti-gay people are only anti-gay because they cannot be gay themselves, they are jealous because we are living the lives they feel they should have led so they are taking out their aggression on gay people because they are too coward to be openly gay.

Other homophobic people are that way because they are so ignorant because they were told by their pastor that because it says in the bible that being gay is a sin.  Well, so is being fat and so is being lazy and so is judging other people because that isn’t for them to do, that is for “God” to do.  You don’t have to talk to gay people if you don’t like them but by acting out against them you yourself are sinning and will go to this mythical place called Hell in our stead.  So enjoy.

You know, before I watched this documentary, I have to admit that I didn’t know all of this information.  I know to some degree but not every thing they were talking about.  So I come from this a little more educated and enlightened.  I’m going to watch it again the next time I see it on Showtime so I can be sure to pay close attention so the information stays with me.

My uncle was so bold to ask me one year, my visit just so happened to be around gay pride month where it was all over the news.  He asked me plain and simple.  “Why do gay people need to have their ‘Gay pride parade’?  The mexican’s don’t have a parade to be proud to be mexican, the blacks don’t have a parade to be proud to be black, so why do gay people do it?”

See, this movie is a great way to explain to them what I cannot explain from memory.  First of all I didn’t answer him.  I knew that it would be detrimental if I responded with an ignorant point of view because all it takes is one idiot (me) telling people the wrong thing and they tell a friend and they tell a friend and so on.  So I reserved my answer for a later time when I was more educated on the subject.  Here we are about 9 years later and I may just be ready to answer that question.

I won’t bring it up unless asked again though because when it comes to this type of conversation with my family, I get interrupted a lot and am constantly told I’m wrong and I’m not going to put myself in that situation so screw em.  And that’s another issue, they ask but they really don’t want to know the real answer.  They don’t want to know the full details so they tell you to edit yourself because they are so afraid I’m going to start talking about anal sex.  It’s not all about sex people.  It’s about freedom and about not being killed by your government or put in prison for simply being alive.

Wow this is longer than I thought it would be.  Ok so to wrap this up, it’s a very good documentary which helps explain a ton about not just the gay pride itself but also give you some historical and statistical facts.  Just watch it.  Here is the trailer.