Know Your LGBT History - Coming Out

Today, I'm not focusing on a historical figure but a process in which every lgbt has gone through - Coming out.

Via these movie clips - some delightful and others hard to watch - we see a multitude of reactions to this difficult but eventually rewarding process:



 Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Paul Ryans promises to fight against gay equality' and other Friday midday news briefs

Paul Ryan promises Focus on the Family that he will fight gay equality - Reason one million and one to not vote him and Mitt Romney into office. But hey! GoProud loves them!  

NOM Geography #FAIL - Good grief! If you are going to bash us verbally, at least get your geography right. You know that we will make fun if you don't.  

Second Ex-Gay Lawsuit Claims Some Parents Can’t Love And Affirm A Gay Child - Is that the fault of child or the parents, dumbasses? 

 Tea Party Congressman Announces Support For Bill That Makes It Illegal To Fire Someone For Being Gay - I'm as shocked as you are. 

NC diaper pastor too bigoted to vote for any presidential candidate

The North Carolina diaper pastor, Patrick Wooden recently appeared on a radio show where he had some pointed things to say about the presidential election. This is what he said about President Obama:

My position is African Americans are people also, we want the same things that all other Americans want, we are a part of this country, we have built this country, so we should be counted also and considered. Our families, our homes have been decimated, and with the things that have happened in our community, do we need to add to it a President where little black boys and little black girls are hearing this great man in the most powerful position in the land say ‘I believe same-sex marriage is the direction that the country ought to go in.’ Then that same little black boy or little black girl looks to the heroes in the black community at the local level which are the preachers and the community leaders and the NAACP leaders and then they see the leaders line up and follow this man. What kind of message are we sending our children? And we’re the most vulnerable.

Wooden asks what kind of message is Obama sending little black boys and black girls? I can answer that question. President Obama is saying that people should be treated equal regardless of sexual orientation.

I happen to love that message. For one thing, it's much better than Wooden's past statements accusing gay men of having so much sex that they wear diapers and butt plugs or that they shove cellphones and baseballs bats up their rears.

But his interview gets even more interesting when he talks about Romney:

The same God of the Bible who will not allow me to vote for the most pro-abortion, same-sex marriage president that we’ve ever had will not allow me to vote for a bishop in a cult. 

So basically Wooden is too bigoted to vote for anyone.

I don't know but maybe we should be happy about that.

Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.

'Boxer Orlando Cruz comes out of the closet' and other Thursday midday news briefs

Orlando Cruz Comes Out: Boxer Says He Is 'A Proud Gay Man' - And Cruz is a successful boxer, unlike a sad religious right talking head (Matt Barber): 

 

For my Christmas present, I want to be present when and if someone tries to gay bash HIM.

In other news:

FRC links DADT repeal to military's 'slipping sexual standards' - Yet another example of the Family Research Council scapegoating the gay community.  

WaPo’s Garrison Covers California’s “Pray Away the Gay” Ban - According to a Washington Post columnist, the folks pushing against California's ban of "ex-gay" therapy have no case. Duh.  

Rob Anders' Transgender Washroom Visits Petition Sparks Twitter Outrage - What the hell? Another bathroom meme against the transgender community! 

Hate group doesn't have the guts to sue Dan Savage

Dan Savage

It seems that Dan Savage has started a war with Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council.

Recently, Savage said the following:

"every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council" and that "Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work"

 While I wouldn't have made the point so gruesomely, Savage is somewhat right.

FRC and Perkins have contributed - whether intentional or not - to the problem of depression and other negative behaviors amongst gay youth (lgbts in general) with their pointed attempts to undermine pro-gay information and visibility. Then they exploit these problems of negative behaviors by claiming that they are indicative of being gay rather than the results of homophobia. Homophobia, by the way, which is shielded by their efforts under the guise of religion.

Needless to say, Perkins was not happy. On the Mike Huckabee show, he said the following:

As my teenagers would say, he has some issues. He is a man with some real deep-seated issues ... and Dan Savage is nowhere near, he's a hundred and eighty degrees from the positions that we have taken. It's wrong and I will tell you this, we are pursuing everything possible to deal with him because he is out of control.... This is the bottom line, Mike: is that if you don't embrace and celebrate homosexuality and everything associated with it, then you are intolerant. And the truth of the matter is, let's just be very, very truthful, and that's what we deal in is the truth, that even is society embraced homosexuality, there would never be that sense of self-fulfillment because it's outside the way God created man and woman. And that's the bottom line. They cannot erase that, even if they get every law on the books changed, it will never change that. 

And there lies Perkins' dodge. It's not about "celebrating homosexuality," it's about not lying and spreading propaganda.

The fact of the matter is that if you do lie on gays (which FRC has done on many occasions) and you do spread hateful propaganda about gays (which FRC has also done), you are in fact intolerant.

No matter how many times you cling to God's name, you can't get away from that simple fact.

Savage was quick to address that point (using one of my posts, by the way):

I have issues with people who would deny me and other LGBT people our full civil equality for no legitimate reason. I have particular issues with high-profile haters who encourage parents to reject their LGBT kids, doubling their already quadrupled risk for suicide. I have issues with people who say that LGBT people are "pawns of the devil." I have issues with people who compare LGBT people to terrorists. I have issues with people who falsely link homosexuality and pedophilia. I have issues with people who suggest that a law calling for the execution of gay people merely "upholds moral conduct."

Sue me, Tony. I'd love to see you talk about my "issues" on a witness stand.

I realize that this isn't how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you're old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people like me weren't allowed to call people like you out. You still believe you should be free to lie about me and other LGBT people with absolutely impunity—we're all pedophiles and terrorists and Satanists—and that we should have to shut up and take it because... well, I'm not sure why you think we're not allowed to respond when you lie about us. Maybe that's something we could get to the bottom of during the depositions.

Personally, I think Perkins is just bluster. He wouldn't dare take on Savage in a court of law.

But still, I can always hope.

Expedia video of father going to his daughter's same-sex wedding is a tearjerker

This video will make you cry. It cuts through all of the nonsense thrown at our relationships and families by the religious right:

Expedia is doubling down on its proclaimed support of same-sex marriage with a poignant wedding-themed video.

Titled "Find Your Understanding," the clip -- which was produced as part of the online travel company's ongoing "Find Yours" campaign -- tells the story of Artie Goldstein, a retired business owner who admits to feeling apprehensive before attending his daughter Jill's same-sex wedding in California.

 "My expectations of what Jill's life was going to be included a husband," Goldstein recalls. "So when Nikki came to ask permission to marry our little girl, that startled me. I told her, 'This is not the dream I had for my daughter.' I didn't say yes, I didn't say no."

Stunning footage of Jill and Nikki's nuptials accompany Goldstein's emotional narration. "You come to terms with it...it's supposed to be this way," Goldstein observes. In an email statement to HuffPost Gay Voices, the blushing brides said they were "truly humbled" by Expedia's decision to feature their story as part of the campaign.

 "Our hope is that all families can experience this type of closeness and support, regardless of sexuality," Nikki and Jill Weiss-Goldstein said. "We are extremely proud of our father and his personal journey that has led him to his understanding."

'Discredited author - Obama murdered his gay lovers' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Jerome Corsi Continues his 'Obama is Gay' Crusade - According to discredited author Jerome Corsi, President Obama had gay lovers whom he had murdered. Lord Hammercy! And the worse part about this? Corsi probably is more financially secure for peddling this junk than most of you reading this post.

 Bill Nemitz: Group returns to spit on law, set Mainers straight - Maine newspaper destroys NOM for hiding its funders.  

Dan Cathy, Chick-Fil-A President, Stresses Company's Support Of 'Biblical' Families - No word yet about did he mean King Solomon and his 1,000s of wives. 

 Former NFL commissioner donates $100,000 to Md. marriage campaign - Good for him!

 California's 'Ex-Gay' Reparative Therapy Ban Details Sought, Shared In Other States - YES! I'm all for it!