My eldest son came home from school to inform me that he thought one of his schoolmates liked him, because they slipped a self-authored poem to him in the hallway. And even though it’s not really surprising, his admirer was also a boy.
via Gay Teen Boys And Highschool Romance – My Teenage Son Has A Gay Suitor.
This is a sweet story by a rockin’ mom! The link is to the site “mommyish” which, I assure you, I do not read! LOL I got to it from HuffPo. Anyhow, worth a read.
‘Bare The Musical’ Star Casey Garvin: How The Off-Broadway Show Helped Him Come Out As Gay.
Casey Garvin, who is in the Off-Broadway revival/reinvention of ‘Bare.’ Photo: Huffington Post
Well, good for Casey. Note, however, that he’s talking about the pre-2012 version of Bare, not the one he’s performing in.
I’m just a broken freaking record, but this show has so much potential, so many terrific performances, and it’s just neutered in its present form. I’ve written about this several times. (HERE) and (HERE)
Still, it doesn’t mitigate the fact that in some incarnation it helped this young man understand who he was. You won’t ever hear me discounting the power of theatre to change lives. No, not ever.
Gay couples are preparing for New Year’s Day weddings in the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line to allow same-sex marriage, which will become legal in Maryland on Tuesday.
via Maryland Gay Marriage: Same-Sex Couples Prepare For Jan. 1 Weddings.
So happy for Maryland, a place I’ve adopted as home, even though I was born and raised elsewhere. When I lived in Maryland, O’Malley was generally referred to in our crowd as “the Boy Mayor of Baltimore.” Hot AND played in a band. What’s not to love??
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley looks on before signing the Civil Marriage Protection Act in Annapolis, Md., Thursday, March 1, 2012. Maryland is the eighth state to legalize same-sex unions. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“Marriage equality is a term so ridiculous on its face that when you hear it mentioned, you would think you were in Riyadh. Years from now, perhaps we can lose the equality part, the same-sex part and call it what it is — marriage. As much as the homophobes, an ever-thinning herd, whines and screeches, the earth is shifting underneath their feet and things are getting better all the time. This is going to be an incredible century. Didn’t get off to a very good start but we are making some bold and exciting strides forward.”
via Henry Rollins Backs Gay Marriage In New Editorial.
Great piece and video by Henry Rollins, one of our most insightful voices.
‘Amazing Race’ winners to bullied gay youth: ‘You’re Amazing!’ – LGBTQ Nation.
Brent Ridge, Josh Kilmer-Purcell – The Fabulous Beekman Boys – and Polka Spot the llama.
I loved Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s book about buying the Beekman Farm, the hilarious The Bucolic Plague. I loved watching Josh and Brent on The Fabulous Beekman Boys. I even bought a wheel of Beekman Blaak cheese — which was awesome. I’m ecstatic that they won The Amazing Race. But mostly, I’m thankful that someone out there is simply standing up for basic common decency. We need more of this. So much more.
Thank you, gentleman, for being amazing yourselves!
Last year some commentators predicted that straight applicants would say they were gay just to get an “enrichment scholarship,” which the college gives to students from underrepresented minority groups, including LGBT students. Mr. Rold said he had seen no evidence of that.
This year nine of the 12 freshmen who identified themselves as LGBT students also qualified for one of Elmhurst’s academic scholarships. The other three were either black or Hispanic, and, therefore, would have received an enrichment scholarship anyway.
Over the last year, membership in Elmhurst College Queers and Allies, a student group, has nearly doubled, Mr. Rold said. Why? Anyone’s guess.
It’s easy to overthink the power of a 12-word question, even one that became national news and stirred debate among admissions officers. The question’s a potential conversation starter, one thread among many in the story of who enrolled at Elmhurst and why.
“We’ve learned a little bit more about them, and they’ve learned a little bit more about the college,” Mr. Rold said of LGBT students. “The next thing will be to see how we retain them.”
via A ‘Welcome Mat’ for LGBT Students – Head Count – The Chronicle of Higher Education.
This sentence from the above pull resonated with me:
Last year some commentators predicted that straight applicants would say they were gay just to get an “enrichment scholarship,” which the college gives to students from underrepresented minority groups, including LGBT students. Mr. Rold said he had seen no evidence of that.
Why? Because it was obviously a concern of old straight guys who watched too much “Three’s Company” in the 70s and 80s. Have you EVER found a good old-fashioned straight teenager who wants to say he’s gay for a few scholarship bucks? Yeah, me either.
I’m glad colleges are starting to be this inclusive, but they shouldn’t be perplexed if prospies don’t check the “Hey, I’m gay!” box. Remember, today’s national discourse is not about getting high schoolers to come out necessarily, rather it skews toward “it gets better” once you get into college.
All in all, a good piece by Eric Hoover.
In defending this hurtful and discriminatory policy barring gay youth and leaders, the Boy Scouts of America are simply standing on the wrong side of history. And in doing so, the Boy Scouts are hurting the very people that it aims to serve: the young men who participate in scout programs.
via Gavin Newsom: Honoring the True Principles of the Boy Scouts.
Terrific piece on HuffPo today by California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. He’s bang on the money. As a gay man and a former Boy Scout, I can tell you this: today’s scout leadership is defying the very principles that Scouts are supposed to life by.
During ABC’s This Week, conservative panelist George Will weighed in on what he called the “growing consensus” of public opinion regarding same-sex marriage. On Friday, the Supreme Court decided to take up two big cases. The court will hear one case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, and a case on Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.
Here’s the big takeaway, I believe: it’s all generational. According to Politico, “The generational gap on the gay marriage question persists. Younger people, who tend to view this as a civil rights issue, overwhelmingly supported gay marriage. A full 63 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds backed marriage, and only 14 percent wanted no legal unions for gay couples.”
“Quite literally,” powerhouse pundit George Will proclaimed on ABC’s This Week, “the opposition to gay marriage is dying.”
H/T MediaBistro, 12/10/12
Marlo Thomas: Free to Be… You and Me — Forty Years Later.
Forty years ago this month, a group of my friends and I released “Free to Be… You and Me,” a children’s record created to expel the gender and racial stereotypes of the era, while rewriting all those pat “happily ever afters” that dominated the fairy tales of our youth. Our mission was simple: to convince children that their dreams were not only boundless, but achievable.
Marlo Thomas and friends in “Free to Be… You and Me.” Isn’t it time we remade this?
Saw this article by Marlo Thomas on HuffPo and immediately sent it to a friend. My friend is always banging on about this music and TV special. She has a seven year-old daughter and as “Free to Be…” was a seminal part of her own youth in the 70s, she wants her daughter to find the empowerment that she felt she found in “Free to Be… .”
We both think it’s way past time that someone remade this, include new ideas like same-sex parents, multi-racial normalcy, bullying, childhood suicide and depression and so much more. This stuff is too important to be sluffed off as a period piece.
Who should we get to spearhead this? My friend and I think Ellen is the right choice. Let’s get on that.
In Britain, the all-male culture of college sports is not quite the mass religion it is in the US, but it sure is a force that has historically been hostile to homosexuals in their midst. But here we have the new order: a Warwick University rowing club doing a naked calendar and video to benefit straight rugby player Ben Cohen’s campaign against anti-gay fear and bullying. I simply cannot begin to imagine such a thng happening when I was a student at Oxford.
via In The Buff Against Bullying – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.
Lovely little piece by Sullivan and a great short video. Good on ya, hunky, sporty, English rowy lads!
One Last Word 