I can't say enough about how much I love the Gay community. I self-identify as being Bisexual, but secretly, I'm convinced I'm just a fabulous gay man trapped in a woman's body. I pretty much embrace every aspect of Gay-ness; Adoration of pop idols, house music, fashion, movies, musicals. Some of the most fun, amazing and wonderful people I know are Gay. I am an avid supporter of Gay rights, Gay Marriage and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Almost every young boy I surrounded myself with growing up turned out to come out after high school. This is probably why my Gaydar is so good: I've been a Fag Hag since the playground days. And it's pretty much my life-long goal to have Drag Queens dress up as me and a gaggle of fabulous and fierce Gay Boys following me around.
I guess maybe I'm just lucky that I grew up in such a Liberal area with a somewhat wonderfully open-minded family. (Except of course for my super Irish-Catholic grandparents) My Aunt lived in the heart of Chelsea, NYC's Gay Mecca. I remember one day going to breakfast with her and she said to me, "Now, if you see two men holding hands, don't be alarmed." I told her that we had a Gay couple in my High school and that it didn't matter to me. Love is Love, no matter who's doing it.
But sometimes, other people are not so lucky to live in such a Liberal, Urban paradise as New York. Sometimes, people are not as accepting or supporting of alternative lifestyles. Gay youths face the fear of having to come out to their families and be shunned in return for simply being who they are. They face bullying at school, on the streets, in their workplaces. And often times, this extreme bullying turns tragic. Gay youths, fearing that they have no way out, that things are at the lowest point, that there is no light at the end of the tunnel, wind up taking their own lives.
In the past 3 weeks, 9 Gay youths have committed suicide because of bullying; In the most extreme case, a 18 year old Rutgers University student was secretly video taped having sex with a man by his classmates, and the video was posted on the internet - both outing and humiliating him. He jumped off the George Washington Bridge.
This needs to end.
Through the time that George W Bush was in office, a witch hunt was in effect across our country. The hatred for Gays and Lesbians grew stronger and more violent over the last 10 years; Not since Stonewall have we seen this level of ignorance and atrocious acts committed toward the Gay community. From our own President attempting to pass a Federal Law prohibiting Gays and Lesbians from getting married to the fact that an archaic law such as Don't Ask, Don't Tell still remains on the books; This is 2010 - we should be more open-minded and more accepting of our fellow human beings by now. But yet, the seeds of ignorance have been planted into the minds of our youths by bigoted Adults who do not want to change their prejudices.
There needs to be a change in the way that we all think and not simply a mob mentality. Gay teens today need to know that one day, they won't have to live in fear anymore. That things will get better. That it does get better. That there are people in this world who will love them and accept them and be there for them, regardless of how grim things may seem right now. But that they have to be alive to experience the better.
Please do whatever you can to help make a stand and help make things right. Leave your ignorant beliefs and prejudices behind. Help make the world a better place. Help prevent these senseless deaths.
Visit the Trevor Project's website: They are doing something amazing and you can too:
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
Showing posts with label gay rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gay rights. Show all posts
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Be who you are and say what you feel...
..."Because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
So as I've already said before, I am a proud, flag-waving, card-carrying Bisexual. I'm also a giant Fag Hag and a huge supporter of Gay Rights. I am also a big fan of the show, "Degrassi: The Next Generation". For those of you who aren't familiar, it is a long-running Canadian teen drama that has tackled every topic under the sun from teen pregnancy to school shootings to domestic abuse to eating disorders and everything in between. This season, they have introduced an FTM (Female-to-Male) Transgendered character named Adam. I think that it it so amazing and progressive that they have done something like this, to give a face to the Trans community and give young kids who are struggling with their identity someone that they can look to and to see their similar struggles play out on TV. It's really so unfortunate that there aren't more LBGT characters on TV - especially not in the U.S. It's even more unfortunate that here and now in the year 2010, we still live in a world where people hate other people for no reason, for things that they are scared of and things they don't understand and are too afraid to try and learn about.
When I first realized I was bisexual, I joined the LGBT group at my college in an effort to try and learn more and be more connected with that community. I had heard of transsexuals and drag queens, but I mostly associated it with men dressing as women. In our group, we had 3 FTM trans-gendered guys - one of them actually lived in my dorm freshman year. I remember seeing him on our all-girl floor and being confused as to why this guy was living on our floor. 2 of them were pre-op trans and one of them had actually gone through sexual reassignment surgery and was a post-op trans man. His story was especially moving because he came from a very strict Middle Eastern household and for him to have come out as trans was probably something completely earth shattering for his family. Apparently, his parents were able to cope with it - as they supported him through the surgery and his new life as a Man. But not as many Trans people are so lucky.
Being trans-gendered has certainly become a lot more public recently than it had been in the past. It has even been glamorized on TV with the VH1 show "TRANSform me!" But obviously there is still a lot of stigma attached to being Transgendered, even within the Gay community. And of course, there is still a stigma attached to being Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual in general, regardless of how public, commercialized, stereotyped and sensationalized the lifestyles have become in the mainstream. We still live in a country where high ranking members of our Military are fired after having long and important careers because of their Sexual Orientation, thanks to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We still live in a country where Gays and Lesbians cannot legally get married, where our elected Government officials are fighting to define Marriage as the union between "One man and One woman". We may have a Black president in the White house, but is that where the progressiveness of our country ends?
I write this post with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart as I dream of a day where Gays and Lesbians can get married in the state that they live in and have their marriage recognized all across our great nation. Where they can share their love in a world that is open to love instead of hate. Where young gay boys and girls won't have to be afraid to go to school because they will be beat up because of who they choose to love and who to be. Where gay men and women won't be afraid to be who they are in a successful job because they might be fired for loving who they choose to love. People shouldn't be afraid of being who they are or doing what they feel. Because Love is Love - and that's all that really matters.
So as I've already said before, I am a proud, flag-waving, card-carrying Bisexual. I'm also a giant Fag Hag and a huge supporter of Gay Rights. I am also a big fan of the show, "Degrassi: The Next Generation". For those of you who aren't familiar, it is a long-running Canadian teen drama that has tackled every topic under the sun from teen pregnancy to school shootings to domestic abuse to eating disorders and everything in between. This season, they have introduced an FTM (Female-to-Male) Transgendered character named Adam. I think that it it so amazing and progressive that they have done something like this, to give a face to the Trans community and give young kids who are struggling with their identity someone that they can look to and to see their similar struggles play out on TV. It's really so unfortunate that there aren't more LBGT characters on TV - especially not in the U.S. It's even more unfortunate that here and now in the year 2010, we still live in a world where people hate other people for no reason, for things that they are scared of and things they don't understand and are too afraid to try and learn about.
When I first realized I was bisexual, I joined the LGBT group at my college in an effort to try and learn more and be more connected with that community. I had heard of transsexuals and drag queens, but I mostly associated it with men dressing as women. In our group, we had 3 FTM trans-gendered guys - one of them actually lived in my dorm freshman year. I remember seeing him on our all-girl floor and being confused as to why this guy was living on our floor. 2 of them were pre-op trans and one of them had actually gone through sexual reassignment surgery and was a post-op trans man. His story was especially moving because he came from a very strict Middle Eastern household and for him to have come out as trans was probably something completely earth shattering for his family. Apparently, his parents were able to cope with it - as they supported him through the surgery and his new life as a Man. But not as many Trans people are so lucky.
Being trans-gendered has certainly become a lot more public recently than it had been in the past. It has even been glamorized on TV with the VH1 show "TRANSform me!" But obviously there is still a lot of stigma attached to being Transgendered, even within the Gay community. And of course, there is still a stigma attached to being Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual in general, regardless of how public, commercialized, stereotyped and sensationalized the lifestyles have become in the mainstream. We still live in a country where high ranking members of our Military are fired after having long and important careers because of their Sexual Orientation, thanks to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We still live in a country where Gays and Lesbians cannot legally get married, where our elected Government officials are fighting to define Marriage as the union between "One man and One woman". We may have a Black president in the White house, but is that where the progressiveness of our country ends?
I write this post with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart as I dream of a day where Gays and Lesbians can get married in the state that they live in and have their marriage recognized all across our great nation. Where they can share their love in a world that is open to love instead of hate. Where young gay boys and girls won't have to be afraid to go to school because they will be beat up because of who they choose to love and who to be. Where gay men and women won't be afraid to be who they are in a successful job because they might be fired for loving who they choose to love. People shouldn't be afraid of being who they are or doing what they feel. Because Love is Love - and that's all that really matters.
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