In Utah, it is currently legal–

• To evict a tenant for being gay
• To fire an employee for being gay

The Salt Lake Tribune reports this morning that a gay anti-bias bill that would prohibit this type of discrimination will be attempted in this session of the Utah State legislature — even though the LDS church has reportedly chosen to not get behind it, as had seemed to be the case earlier this year.

This apparent refusal to provide its blessing (something that is literally required for most LDS legislators to get on board) may be tied to attempts to remove the clause allowing exemptions for people with “sincere religious beliefs against homosexuality”.

Maybe it’s me, but isn’t this exactly the group this bill is targeting? Keeping this clause in makes it essentially non-enforceable and non-effective.

ADDENDUM: It didn’t pass. Another year in Utah with no legal protections. I also read that the church fears this because they would not be able to fire church employees who are in a gay relationship as they currently do with impunity. Nice.

I’m still in São Paulo and more than ready to head home, but my flight is not until 11:35 p.m. and the logistics of having to check out of the hotel and to kill time for many hours while schlepping a bag around is tiring.

I was able to talk the Renaissance Hotel into letting me camp out in the 23rd floor lounge and just had a nice nap in a chair, a light snack and am now taking advantage of the free wireless service to update the old blog.

I met an old mission companion for lunch today. We had previously lunched last month after communicating via Facebook for a year or so. Really nice guy. Never mentions the church in any form and that is actually quite nice. I suspect that he is not active, but am content to also not discuss the church.

He asked me to take an envelope of cash to his nephews in Utah. I would have thought either sending an electronic gift certificate or using PayPal would have been a better solution, but am happy to to haul the envelope to the U.S.

I start traveling back to Brazil in mid-January, after taking a couple of weeks of vacation and then working in SLC for a few days.

I woke up in São Paulo to a very foggy morning and even though it is now noon, the haze has not completely burned off.

I spent a couple of hours walking around Parque de Ibirapuera and taking photos. Many great shots incorporated the fog, so this set of photos is not just more of the same.

Yesterday I had a meeting at the HQ building for my company’s parent company and got to experience a different part of the greater city. The area was an older town with small, narrow streets and many corporations have built (and continue to build) large modern buildings there. It’s amazing to see the amount of construction going on in this city!

An old Brazilian mission buddy of mine has sent me a message saying that he will call me tonight after he gets off work. Elder Fóz was laid up in the mission office for several weeks in 1979 with knee surgery and we became friends at that time. I haven’t seen nor spoken to him since then, so it will be interesting to see where he is in his life.

Many old mission companions and friends are on Facebook and I see their incessant posts bragging about children on missions, temple marriages, their callings. etc. Reminds me of old friends who are still “dragging Grand” in Laramie — something they did in high school but without ever outgrowing those “glory years”. I feel like I have graduated and moved on. Many in Brazil have contacted me and want to talk, but I really have nothing to share with most of them and am not really ready to rehash the mission and “what happened to you since?” question.

Started a little packing today, but nothing serious yet. Tomorrow morning brings on the dash to fit and remember everything for my two weeks in Brazil.

I bought a larger suitcase to take this time, and am having to deliver a replacement laptop to a co-worker there (and bring her old one back to the US), so I wanted to be able to pack it instead of carrying it. I didn’t pay a fortune for a lighter-than-air MacBook for traveling only to have an 8-pound Dell become my ball-and-carry-on-chain.

I’m glad I was able to spend the weekend at home with my honey. We spent a lot of time together and just enjoyed each other’s company.

I’m starting to think about prepping for my next trip to Brazil (in four days). Originally I was to leave tomorrow, but a change in plans on the return due to a newly-scheduled meeting the day after I was to come home allowed me to shift the outbound back a couple of days as well. I like being home.

The week at work (just back from two weeks off) has been relatively quiet, which was a welcome change and a nice transition.

Next month is our company’s annual customer conference and for me, September is pretty much a lost month due to tight deadlines, meetings, planning sessions, etc. October should offer some more breathing space — and I have already purchased my ticket for that 10th trip to Brazil.

My honey and I took a 2-day trip to Las Vegas last weekend to spend time with his family who were gathered there. We had a relaxing time and didn’t lose as much money as we took, so consider it a success.

On that trip we stopped at his mother’s in St. George to pick up an item to carry to his sister in Las Vegas and ended up having a rather heated discussion about marriage. She is considering marriage number 6, but has no problem supporting anti-marriage equality initiatives on the ballot. A rather frustrating conversation took place and while I am prone to discussion, normally my honey is not. He was this time.

A couple of days later I asked him, “If and when we are legally able to get married, are you going to invite your mother?”

He didn’t answer.

Tonight is my last night in Brasil — for the month of July.

This is has been a productive, yet long trip (10 days) and I am ready to get home to my honey. He has taken the whole week off, so I decided that I would take off Friday as well (I get home Thursday afternoon) so that we could have a 3-day weekend, at least.

On Friday night we went to Bar Brahma again and saw both Carolina Soares and Os Originais do Samba and had a great time. I took a work colleague who is both LDS and new to the company (and Brasil, for that matter), but I was pleasantly surprised to see him roll with the punches at this loud, somewhat raucous club.

I didn’t mention church to him on Sunday and as far as I know, he didn’t sneak out of the hotel and find a local sacrament meeting, so I find that somewhat refreshing. I have a colleague now who makes a point of letting everyone know that she will not be socializing on the sabbath and ensures that everyone knows she has gone to church.

This time was a nice contrast.

Tomorrow I leave for São Paulo again. It’s the middle of winter and the forecast calls for rain and nighttime temperatures in the 40s and 50s, so this will be a nice change from our hot, dry spell here in Utah this year (though we did get a nice rainstorm early this afternoon).

One of the events to which I have been invited is a baby shower. My first in Brazil. The mother (who is an employee of the company with which I work — and a friend of both mine and my honey) had asked me to buy her a baby swing for which she would reimburse me. I decided it would make a better shower present — and then I won’t feel bad if I picked the wrong one. I don’t have a lot of experience shopping for newborns.

Two Facebook sites have requested my membership and they are diametrically opposed to each other — the first, the mission reunion site I mentioned previously and the 2nd, an ex-Mórmon (it’s all in Portuguese) site that pokes fun at the church.

I hope I don’t mix up any posts I may make.

I just checked out of one hotel and into another. I had a nice, quiet weekend with no travel for a change and was able to sleep, eat, walk, take photos and sleep some more. It’s funny how much ‘me’ time I can get in a city of this size.

Work begins tomorrow and it will be four intense days filled with meetings, problem-solving and trying to impress my boss, who will be here for the first time while I am.

Today is a beautiful fall (at least for 4 more days) day and the skies are blue and the temperature in the 70s F. This could almost be Sydney if it weren’t the for the funny accents.

And tomorrow is another trip to Brazil. The discussions to have me move down there for a duration have progressed to the point of a specific timeframe (“six months”) and the involvement of Human Resources.

At this point, I’m just taking it a day at a time and will do what I need to do — as long as it does not demonstrably impact my person life.

I’m there just over a week (I’ve decided to quit traveling over the weekend to/from) and will have an entire weekend in São Paulo and one in Salt Lake when I return a week from Friday. What a concept!

It was reiterated again today at a company event that I may be asked to relocate to Brazil for a short duration (today’s request was “four months”).

A tough call and I certainly don’t want to be away from my honey that long, but I’m told the company will pay for air travel home during that time, so it’s not like a prison sentence.

I guess I’ll see what happens when/if an official offer is made.