The GAY thread

[dots]

He died a few months ago.

It's so incredibly sad to learn this. It's just such a shame.

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

Ok, this is going to sound really stupid, but I was surprised he was gay. Maybe because I just figured if he was gay, he'd be out by now. Goes to to show you how bad internal pressures to stay closeted can be when a veteran actor on Broadway still felt the need to act straight (at least in public even if many people it seems already knew).

I believe that Richard Chamberlain also "came out" late in life...in his 70s, I think; and Jim Nabors, too.

George Takei as well.

They're from a different generation; one where this type of thing wasn't made public, often for good reason. I think it's kind of cool that so many older folks are coming out now. If it's something they're willing to share, good on them.

Speaking of George Takei, he and his husband, Brad, have started a campaign to have people give the finger to the state of Alabama... The wedding finger:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/04/george-takei-alabama-gay-marriage_n_6803052.html

 

[dardar1126]

It's so incredibly sad to learn this. It's just such a shame.

There was a thread regarding his passing...people shared their memories, condolences, etc. I think it was in Great Skate Debate (?)...I don't know how to find the thread.

Does anyone have the link to that thread?

EDIT: Found the thread link...he died in August 2014...

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/ziggy.92959/

 

[dardar1126]

Twitter:

[URL='https://twitter.com/glaad']GLAAD ‏@glaad

1h1 hour ago
Who Says You Can’t Be Gay in Country Music? http://tasteofcountry.com/gay-in-country-music/?trackback=tsmclip… via @TasteOfCountry #LGBT

[/URL]

 

[AliasJohnDoe]

I was going to put this in the "Funny Youtube Video" thread, but thought it was better here.

Max's Underpants - Hiding VPL: http://www.newnownext.com/learn-to-...erwear-model-and-willam/03/2015/?preview=true

 

[dots]

I was going to put this in the "Funny Youtube Video" thread, but thought it was better here.

Max's Underpants - Hiding VPL: http://www.newnownext.com/learn-to-...erwear-model-and-willam/03/2015/?preview=true

Ok that was a bit much

I might binge watch his videos anyway...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyeE541I_Uw

 

[allezfred]

Did my first canvassing for the Marriage Equality Referendum on 22 May yesterday to crowds coming to watch a Gaelic Football match. Positive enough, although there was one horrible man who used "Vote for Queers" etc. Ah well he'll be dead soon.

 

[all_empty]

Ok that was a bit much

I might binge watch his videos anyway...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyeE541I_Uw

Haha this model lives in my neighborhood!

 

[PeterG]

Haha this model lives in my neighborhood!

 

[PeterG]

Q&A: Reba Talks 'Very Important' LGBT Rights, Her First Gay Wedding & Feeling 'Sad' For Closeted Country Stars

'I Don't Understand Why People Have A Problem With (Gay Marriage)'

 

[antmanb]

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg married his male partner over the weekend http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-xavier-bettel-gauthier-destenay-gay-marriage

 

[PeterG]

Iggy Azalea Cancels Pittsburgh Pride Performance Following Uproar

Seems to be mainly about some random tweets from 2011 years before she was famous:

When guys whisper in each others ears I always think its kinda homo

wondered why my butt felt like it was about to grow legs, flip me off & walk away. then I remembered i played soccer yestrdy w 5 dyke bitches

Ten Walls Dropped By Festivals After Homophobic Comments

Ten Walls is the stage name of a producer from Lithuania who has a top 10 song last year in the U.K., "Walking With Elephants". According to wikipedia:

In June 2015, Ten Walls posted a rant on his Facebook pages condemning homosexuality and comparing it to pedophilia. As a result of his opinion, he was dropped from several festival line-ups, his booking agency, Coda Music Agency, announcing they no longer represented him and Fort Romeau pulling out of supporting him at London club venue Koko. The posts were later deleted after backlash and Ten Walls put out an apology claiming that he cancelled the festival dates himself. Organizers of Dutch festival PITCH, Belgian festival Pukkelpop and Spanish festival Sónar publicly confirmed they cancelled Ten Walls performances due to his anti-gay statement and the artist also received criticism from Lithuanian LGBT activists.

Part of a tweet he wrote in response to all of this:

Last week I wrote a Facebook post that was wrong and completely out of character and the result was a badly written post that was unacceptable. It was never my intention to offend anyone.

Why, how could I be offended when one applies I am a pedophile?

I did like one of the tweets somebody posted about his "apology":

Sorry I said some really disgusting things about gay people, I apologise as it might affect my record sales. Yours. Ten Walls.

 

[missing]

The New York Times had a very interesting article about evangelicals, homosexuality and the Bible.

 

[dots]

It's a joyous day and screw the haters!

 

[PeterG]

Russian men walk holding hands while hidden camera records peoples’ homophobic reactions

The article refers to two situations in the video which both made me start to feel scared for the two men, especially the one with the last guy:

The two men just continue walking away but they’re already scared. “I’m a bit frightened by his reaction, he hit hard,” said one of the young men.

The video ends with one of the worst encounters the two men faced when a man pushes right through the couple purposely to stop them from holding hands. He then continues to scare the men and appears ready to fight.

The above link shows the video, here is a direct link.

 

[skateboy]

Russian men walk holding hands while hidden camera records peoples’ homophobic reactions

The article refers to two situations in the video which both made me start to feel scared for the two men, especially the one with the last guy:





The above link shows the video, here is a direct link.

That guy at the end there really WAS scary. They stopped the video, which makes me wonder what actually happened.

We still have a long way to go.

 

[antmanb]

It really is worrying, but I wonder what the general consensus is in Russia - do a majority of people agree with the laws? Is it an extremely intolerant place for gay people? Was it so before the legislation was enacted?

 

[allezfred]

I would say yes to all three. But perhaps a Russian can correct me....

 

[agalisgv]

Obama is currently in Kenya, the homeland of his father. At today's press conference with Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta, Obama directly challenged him on gay rights in Kenya.

Mr Obama said that as an American-American, he was “painfully aware” of what it was like to be treated as a lesser citizen in law in his own country and that such discriminatory policies ended up on the wrong side of history.

"When you start treating people differently, not because of any harm they’re doing anybody but because they’re doing different, that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode, and bad things happen,” Mr Obama told reporters at State House in Nairobi.

“And when government gets in the habit of treating people differently, those habits start to spread. I am unequivocal on this. The idea they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong, full stop.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...es-with-Kenyan-president-over-gay-rights.html

Obama went on to speak about the widespread corruption plaguing Kenya's political establishment, and alluding to Kenyatta's issue with the ICC, all while Kenyatta was standing next to him. Hope Obama's stature in Kenya will help to open minds re:lgbt rights.

 

[agalisgv]

The Boy Scouts have ended their ban on gay scout leaders. The Mormon Church is threatening to leave the organization over it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/boy-scouts-end-nationwide-ban-on-gay-leaders.html?_r=0

Apparently the organization was facing looming prosecution for violating anti-discrimination laws in several states. But since Mormons make up a very high percentage of scouts, this potential rift is quite significant.

 

[PeterG]

9 year-old boy's self-paying tribute to Madonna. 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHn4W8ouXas

And an article about the star of the video today:

We Tracked Down VOGUE BOY and Interviewed Him
http://www.ixdaily.com/the-grind/we-tracked-down-vogue-boy-and-interviewed-him

 

[aftershocks]

This sounds and looks like a creative, fun event:
http://highballcolumbus.org/

Also found in the publication, OutlookOhio is an article about Xavier Dolan, a gay filmmaker who "wants 'gay movies' to be seen simply as movies." The article, entitled The De-Gaying of Xavier Dolan, appears on p. 44 of the September 2015 issue:
http://outlookcolumbus.com/2015/08/outlook-ohio-magazine-current-issue/

 

[dots]

Well I don't care if this is not gay enough but I had a good cry watching Vanessa Williams return to Miss America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEhgo5UC-zg

Goddess <3

 

[allezfred]

She went and saved the best for last.

 

[PeterG]

Olympic freeskier Gus Kenworthy announces he is gay

This yahoo article mentions an ESPN interview. Here's a bit from that interview, where it talks about Kenworthy returning home after winning a silver medal in Sochi:

...Kenworthy continues through the crowd, flashing uneasy grins for the camera-holding masses, wishing he could hide from view. They see a hometown hero, Kenworthy sees a liar and a coward. If they knew he was gay, would these kids idolize him as much? Would his sponsors continue to pay him? Would his friends stop using "gay" as a descriptor for all things that suck?

The answer, Kenworthy is convinced, is no. They'd all turn away, and all he'd be left with is a heavy piece of silver. He is so convinced of this that, in his darkest moments, one of America's newest and most beloved Olympians has contemplated taking his own life.

Link to the full ESPN article:

https://espn.go.com/olympics/story/...worthy-first-openly-gay-action-sports-athlete

 

[Xela M]

It really is worrying, but I wonder what the general consensus is in Russia - do a majority of people agree with the laws? Is it an extremely intolerant place for gay people? Was it so before the legislation was enacted?

Yes, most people support the laws. Yes, it is an intolerant place. There was a period of "decadence" during Yeltsin's presidency when you suddenly saw a large number of gay, cross-dressing TV presenters, actors and singers on television, but they all suddenly became straight and got married to women when Putin came to power.

 

[PeterG]

The Reagan Administration’s Unearthed Response to the AIDS Crisis Is Chilling

This short film (under eight minutes) is indeed chilling. It demonstrates well for me what it was like to be a teenager/young adult during this time of cold-hearted contempt...or at best...indifference. A lot of time we didn't know about this kind of coldness because it was unspoken, but we knew on some level it was there. This is just proof of that. Now when so many are on the bandwagon about being pro-gay rights, part of me can't help but think, "...but what about your silence back in the 80's and 70's, etc."?

 

[hanca]

It really is worrying, but I wonder what the general consensus is in Russia - do a majority of people agree with the laws? Is it an extremely intolerant place for gay people? Was it so before the legislation was enacted?

Very good friend of mine is Russian. Even though she has spent a long time living out of Russia, some of her opinions about this shocked me. Once we were talking about various topics and I asked her what would she do if either of her sons turned to be gay. She felt that she would try to make him change his mind, because she doesn't believe he would be happy as a gay. (As if he could change it to make her happy!!!) She said she would let him know that this would break her heart (emotional blackmail!!!). I did try to reason with her because she generally seems to be quite a sensible woman, but with this issue she would not move an inch. I don't know if they would act intolerant in Russia, but the saddest thing is that they seem to genuinely believe that being gay is wrong. They don't do it to be nasty, they are not 'educated' (or informed) enough and therefore their opinions may be shocking for us, but this is what they believe, what hey were taught. Perhaps brainwashed? How do you change that? You can't teach someone who doesn't want to be taught, and they strongly believe that they are right because that's all they know about this, so they have no motivation to be persuaded in any other way.

 

[LilJen]

The Reagan Administration’s Unearthed Response to the AIDS Crisis Is Chilling

This short film (under eight minutes) is indeed chilling. It demonstrates well for me what it was like to be a teenager/young adult during this time of cold-hearted contempt...or at best...indifference. A lot of time we didn't know about this kind of coldness because it was unspoken, but we knew on some level it was there. This is just proof of that. Now when so many are on the bandwagon about being pro-gay rights, part of me can't help but think, "...but what about your silence back in the 80's and 70's, etc."?

OUCH. I'm currently reading a doctor's memoir about working in an AIDS clinic from 1992 into the early 2000s. It reminded me how depressing and terrifying those early days were (I was born in 1969, so just hitting teenagehood as the epidemic really blossomed)--we all thought we could get AIDS from EVERYTHING, and I remember hearing about Bailey-Boushay House in Seattle where all the AIDS patients were, how scary and hopeless it all seemed. That's how the press was: AIDS was this mysterious thing that gay men and Haitians (?) got, and they died miserably and nobody (at first) knew how they got it or how to prevent it.

 

[4rkidz]

I do training as a GBLTQ ally, very excited that I was chosen finally for a workshop presentation in the States next year for 'ensuring safe spaces' in providing service etc., We have been doing this training for quite a while here in Canada (safe spaces) but within my own professional organization this is our first in the States. I still see a lot of intolerance with the transgender community, observing daily with colleagues and clients the overt discrimination..

LilJen what is the name of your book? Speaking of the 'aids era'.. I had a blood transfusion in the late 80's prior to testing and subsequently had to go through 2 periods of testing after the fact - back then it was like a death sentence.. this is one area that focused money and testing has made a huge impact on people now diagnosed..