I want the elections to be over. Elections are designed to make me fully understand how much I do not belong. Worse, I get the overpowering feeling that I will never belong!

It is always the same pattern with electoral campaigns. Candidates and parties start by telling us they really feel our pain, and want to fight for us. Then the issues that the election must address start to be pondered, identified, and, defined. For a short time in the electoral campaign you think these issues will be debated. However, soon after, it all comes down to having to watch how spineless candidates, grovel, trying to re-present and re-create themselves parading their ever-so-wholesome families to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that they are 300% American. Whatever the fuck “American” means…it is made very clear that it is not me, that it will never be me.

So…here is a list of reasons electoral processes tell me how Un-American I am (Sorry I could not contain this list to a mere 10):

1.      I am an atheist. Apparently it does not matter my commitment and desire to make this country a better place for all. Loyalty is a mandate to worship a disaffected, warmonger, punitive, sexually repressed and sexually obsessed god.

2.      I am a Leftist.

3.      I belief we should actively and robustly pursue social justice. I believe this country should ask, and be told by its citizens what to do for its citizens (Yeah, screw JFK).

4.      Same set of rules for all citizens, all citizens first-class citizens, regardless of buying power, age, sex, language, ethnic background, sexual orientation, disability, religious or non-religious background, political or lack of political affiliation or gender representation.

5.      I believe poor people matter, you must talk about the poor and your plan to end poverty during your campaign.

6.      I do not hate immigrants and believe there must be a path to citizenship that is just and fair to all.

7.      I believe in a big government that will actively and loyally protect me from: Greedy Health insurers, Corrupt Banks, discriminatory and oppressive lending practices, exploitative employers, polluters, gentrifying and unscrupulous, real estate scalpers and the police.

8.      I believe in free Universal Single Payer Health Care and free education including Graduate School.

9.      I value education and deplore anti-intellectual rhetoric.

10.  I have contempt for mediocrity.

11.  I believe in a small government that will be out of my personal life, will stop spying on me and will not regulate my every day activities. From forbidding dance outdoors, to closing parks at night, to having a beer on a sidewalk! From entrapping people to criminalizing sex work, from telling me who to date and who I can marry (and divorce!), to telling me whether I can adopt or not.

12.  I oppose the Death penalty and oppose torture of prisoners, including prisoners of war.

13.  I am not a warmonger and I believe it is OK to question and criticize a president’s decision to go to war.

14.  I believe citizens have a right to organize and participate in the political life of the country.

15.  I believe all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression, without facing harassment, discrimination or violence.

16.  I believe men should be able to marry men and women should be able to marry women, even if they never have to visit one another in a hospital!

17.  I greatly enjoy having non-marital, non-procreational sex in many different positions.

18.  I live and thrive in a big city.

19.  I do not feel more threatened by Muslims than by Christians.

20. I am a feminist

21. I am Latino

22. I am queer

23.  I donate and ask you to donate to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

Thank you for reading my first post I sometimes felt I was the last person in the world with a blog. Then I remember millions of people in the world do not have access to this technology. This blog marks my comeback to the Internet, I abandoned my web page long before blogs existed, Cyborg Yoryie comes back older but not necessarily wiser.

I believe I have things to say that hopefully will add to some of what is being discussed in the blogosphere. I am also extending invitation to some of my friends to become guest bloggers in this space. Most posts will be in English, my second language, some may be in Spanish, and some may be in Spanglish. I will not impose a language on my guest bloggers, or myself.

Most importantly, this blog is an affirmation to the diversity of queer Latino identities. I’ve seen the mainstream media, as well as counters pollsters, painfully struggling to discover ascertain a formula that will explain guess contain define who we are in order to make us predictable, boringly unsurprising (most recent example the democratic primaries,) well I hope this blog contributes to the idea that the effort has failed, we are indeed, diverse, unpredictable, full of surprises, and we can’t be contained