Unpublishable Things

Photos and thoughts on current events that might not make it past my copy editor.

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This is how your California oak is made. #backyard

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Christmas!!

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Perfect weather for studying and reading.

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Nerd for days.

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Surf’s Up!

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Dream home exterior.

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Le Brooklyn. (at Dumbo Art Festival)

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Stroller

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Sir Fuji squares off with a beast most foul.

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#nofilter

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Living on LA is pretty much the best show on earth.

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"ACLU! We defend your right to screw! And your right to marry too!" #lapride

[bobbyfinger]

Because they are just two boys who are nothing more than names and faces to me, I have nothing bad to say about Dylan and Brad. I can only judge them based on appearances and headlines because that’s all I’ve been given. And they are a cute couple, aren’t they? Just look! I’m happy for them! I really am. I want to stress that a few times because it’s important. I’m happy for them. Because they went through high school and were able to not only decipher a piece of themselves, but to share it. Fearlessly. They found each other and held each other and kissed each other and Instagrammed the hell out of it to the point that enough of the school thought it was cute enough to vote for them. It’s easy to joke about how it won’t last once they’re in college, or that a high school romance is nothing but simply that, but predicting their future is of less than zero importance to this story. So let’s not.

Let’s talk about how seeing their story pop up on site after site has made me lose that nice punch of happiness and pride that came after first looking at their photo. Let’s talk about how I’m finding myself unable to ignore the unspoken element in all these stories which is that it’s easier to be the first gay couple to be voted “cutest” by your high school when you’re both white and male and good looking and in one of the most affluent counties in the country.

These boys went to Carmel High School. In the 2010-2011 school year, there were 395 students in the senior class. My guess is that there were probably a handful of other kids in that class who may not have had the best hair or the best smiles or the best clothes or even an Instagram account but held each other just as tightly outside their houses and felt something they had never felt before who wonder why no one who looks like them or acts like them ever gets a Huffington Post article.

It’s a process, of course. And it’s great that the youngs love the gays. And it’s great that Dylan and Brad were in the yearbook together. But sometimes I just hope the quieter, less photogenic ones know they’re in the exact same club. That even if they don’t pay the dues, know the pledge, or even show up, that they deserve just as many notes and just as many reblogs and just as much happiness.

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A+

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Random giraffe downtown.

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One of the coolest downtowns in America.

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If the law doesn’t work out…

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America.