Adam Sunny Flanders

Today was my second diving trip with John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. I saw a lot more variety of fish and we dove at another shipwreck. Video from Monday’s trip is below. I selected the highlights of the trip from about an hour of video. I don’t have a lot of experience filming underwater, but I’m sure I’ll get better – so please excuse the erratic movement. I was about 35 feet deep most of the time (my PADI certification allows me to go down to 130 feet).

As you’ll see in the video, I saw numerous tropical fish, a shipwreck, several coral reefs, a florida lobster, and even a sea turtle – it was so cute! I’m excited to get back in the water. Hoping to see some sharks and manta rays.

Today there were some giant fish and two giant barracuda that kept following us along the shipwreck. We saw a lot of interesting species, including a giant crab about the size of a suitcase! There were supposed to be some nurse sharks and even some hammerhead sightings, but I didn’t see any sharks today. Someone on the trip today caught a baby lionfish and brought it onboard. They are invasive species and it will likely be killed and dissected. When the boat came back in, there was a manatee waiting to greet us, but he was badly cut up from the speed boats that frequent the waters. I will post more pics and video later, but I’m heading out to dinner right now and a little shopping. Check out Monday’s diving below!

Waves were 6 feet high today in Key Largo, so scuba diving has been delayed to tomorrow. We decided to go on a glass bottom boat and kayaking in the mangroves, then to a a really awesome restaurant – Islamorada Fish Co. – incredibly beautiful palm trees, live music, right on the ocean, live shark feeding, and had my first yellowtail snapper and it was really really good! BTW, Islamorada means “purple island.”

Checkout the new pictures posted in my Flickr account and the video of the shark feeding below. I expect to dive with nurse sharks (the ones in the video) this week. I have snorkeled with nurse sharks before – even though they are usually much larger than me, they are basically harmless, even the grey ones, which look formidable!

I’m currently waiting in NYC (JFK) airport for my connecting flight to Ft. Lauderdale for two weeks of scuba diving and other fun stuff in the Florida Keys! I’m super tired ’cause I’ve been up all night – there was a drag show and dance last night, and they just opened a new gay bar in Bangor called the Therapy Lounge. The flight out of Portland left at 8am, so I didn’t get any sleep in between. I’m glad I brought my pillow! I will be posting photos every day or so on Flickr and Facebook, as well as videos of my scuba diving (yes, underwater videos) to YouTube.

I may be really tired, but the fact that I’ll be in the sunny heat, walking under palm trees on the beach in a few hours, more than compensates. Plus, I can sleep on the plane. Finally some time to relax. I am also happy because I will easily be able to graduate after just two more semesters (Spring 2011). I will be getting my Bachelors of Science in Biology, then I’ll likely be making a more permanent move to Florida.

I wanted to bring your attention to some gay rights stuff going on right now. Other than the Question 1 lawsuit dragging out in Maine, a new documentary is just premiering exposing the ignorance and bigotry behind Prop.8 and how it was hugely supported by the Mormon Church. This is their website: The Mormon Propo$ition: Equality for Some. And trailer below…

Also, this Monday, May 17th, is the International Day Against Homophobia. It’s focused on addressing the homophobia that still exists in the sporting world. Below is one of their posters 😉

This is my presentation summarizing my work this semester, establishing a transgenic line of Arabidopsis. I am working with a rice gene overexpression of metallothionein, a family of proteins that is important to heavy metal induction, oxidative stress and drought tolerance. I will be continuing my work this Summer and thoughout the next two semesters (when I graduate). Hope you find it interesting, just like my last one concerning rice transformation!

George Allen Rekers – you’re probably already familiar with the name if you watch the news; doctor for the Family Research Council (closely associated with the Maine Family Policy Council AKA Christian Civic League), the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), and the American College of Pediatrics (not a real college, by the way). He was recently caught with a 20-year-old male prostitute who has since admitted to having sexual relations with Reker.

It is being widely covered in national media, but I really liked Rachel Maddow’s report, which is more frank and to the point. Reker, like many fundamentalists, has based his career on making life miserable for gay youth and just mailed out an anti-gay letter to American schools misinforming them that homosexuality can be cured. This is a complete lie, as most intelligent individuals recognize. There are absolutely no scientific studies to support any claim of NARTH or the FRC. In fact the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the legitimate organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, all support the fact that homosexuality is inborn and cannot be changed.

It’s nearly the end of the semester, only one more day to go. I have one more final exam tomorrow and my lab presentation next week, and then I’m heading down to Florida for a few weeks of scuba diving and other fun things in the Keys. I passed all my classes (17 credit hours) and I will be taking a few courses this Summer as well, but nothing too intense. I just completed my first set of transgenic plants in the lab I work in on campus and they will be seeding soon. I’m excited to put together a full garden this Summer – I already have so many things growing here in my apartment, like tomatoes, watermelon, morning glory, cypress vine, and stevia. I got a really big tent and a new sleeping bag, so if anyone wants to go camping, let me know! I’m sure I’ll also be doing a lot of rollerblading, hiking, tennis, photography, and scuba diving, too. My family and I always go camping a lot in the Summer, but we take our motorhome RV, so it’s not exactly roughing it, lol. I’m sure a lot of really interesting things will be happening this Summer. And thanks to all my readers for the over 5,000 unique hits in the past year!

The plaintiffs in Gill et al. v. Office of Personnel Management have their first hearing today in federal court. This is the first federal hearing in a direct attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which currently allows the federal government and other states to ignore marriages performed in states that have recognized same-sex marriage. It means that if a same-sex couple is married in Massachusetts, for example, their marriage is not recognized by the federal government or most states that do not perform same-sex marriage themselves, such as Maine.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn DOMA on the grounds that it violates the equal protection clause of the US Constitution. This lawsuit is long overdo and is being lead by GLAD’s Mary Bonauto, who also lead the marriage equality victory in Massachusetts and is a native Mainer, currently living in Portland. I had hoped she would sue the State of Maine for the civil rights violations of Question 1, but overturning DOMA is much more important – many legal experts have pointed out that this lawsuit has the greatest chance of affecting national change, ie: federal government and nationwide recognition of marriage equality.

Some of you are already familiar with Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the pending challenge to Prop.8, which is expected to go all the way to the US Supreme Court. The arguments of both sides in that case have already been heard and we await a decision by US District Cout Judge Vaughn Walker, who recently created a media frenzy by publicly outing himself as gay. Either one of these lawsuits could potentially result in nationwide, federally-recognized same-sex marriage. Without exception, all civil rights have historically been granted by the high courts or Congress. In ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in DC, the DC Council recently affirmed their position that the majority does not have a right to vote on the basic human rights of others, particularly minorities (which is exactly what we did here in Maine). Importantly, Congress had the opportunity to reverse this decision but did not – it could be said that Congress affirmed the rights of same-sex couples.

It will be very interesting to follow the progress of these lawsuits. It is clear that the momentum for GLBT rights – equal rights – has gained a critical mass. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is coming under heavy fire every day and the Pentagon has already softened the existing rules of DADT. The Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Federal Student Non-Discrimination Act will make federal law reflect the same non-discrimination policies we have here in Maine (since 2005) and several other states. It’s about time!

This week’s GLEE was one of the best so far. The entire episode was full of Madonna’s music, my favorite artist. They even sang my favorite song ever, What It Feels Like for a Girl. A lot of the jokes were funnier than usual, too, and the episode dealt with some elephants in the living room a little more honestly than it has in the best. GLEE is a really fun show, but its campy and unrealistic situations don’t quite measure up to shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation, which has already dealt with GLEE’s controversial topics much more effecively and in a straightforward manner. But GLEE is not meant to be true to life in that sense. It’s mostly about the awesome music! Anyway, you can watch this week’s episode or past episodes at FOX.com

OK, I got the video uploaded in 13 parts. I filmed almost non-stop for the entire 2 hours of the show. The first half is student performers and the second half is professional drag queens. Below is part 1, but you can view the entire playlist here: UMaine Drag Show 2010