Coming out is one of the hardest and most personally-defining moments in a man or woman's life. It is the time when these people not only accept who they are, but accept who they are regardless of whether or not others do. It takes courage, bravery, and a strong sense of self. Not just this, but it is arguably one of the hardest things a person may ever have to do in a lifetime. Because of this, there are many sites dedicated to making this defining moment a little easier.
Here are some links:
Coming Out Tips - About.com Guide to Gay Life
WikiHow: How to Come Out as Gay or Lesbian
Qnet.org - How Can I Tell My Parents I'm Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual?
It is important to read about the issue and have a strategy for the confrontation. If a parent or friend reacts badly, it is important to anticipate this so it doesn't slow your stride. These things happen. It will take your family time to adjust to the idea just as it took you time to adjust as well. These websites tell you what to say, what not to say and how to say it. They tell you what to expect, and also how to deal with the unexpected.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Why write about Gay Rights and issues?
Why do I write about issues facing the gay community? First and foremost, it is not because I am gay. I am not gay. It is because I am human.
It hurts my heart to think that two people in love cannot get married. And yet many straight people get married two, three, four, or even five times! How will being gay destroy the sanctity of marriage? It seems to me that the sanctity of marriage is being lessened and destroyed without the help of the gays.
It also hurts me to think that gay students are being bullied literally to death. Children committing suicide for being gay? Or worse, not for being gay, but for being called gay? I think the entire world as a whole needs to change its attitude and outlook towards the people in it. We are all equal, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, wealth, or otherwise. At the end of the day, we all live and we will all die. Life and death do not discriminate. They takes us all. And I just feel as though we should try to make our short experience on earth one that is full of happiness, rather than hate, discrimination and prejudice, and we should try to do the same for others. It truly hurts me.
I will never make fun of anybody or talk badly about them: Not for their gender, sexuality, race, clothes, hair or shoes. Or anything. I think every person I pass by has someone in the world who loves them and deserves to be treated as a human. Our society makes it such a socially acceptable norm to pass judgement on others. It is wrong, and we are breeding future generations of those who will continue to act this way. I think the world in general is in need of some intervention.
I hope to be lucky enough to have children and raise a family someday. It is awful to say, but I hope my children are not gay. I hope they are not gay because I don't want them to have to face the trials and tribulations that come with it. It's unfair. No one should have to feel awful and unaccepted because of who they are or who they love. But, that's the reality of the world. However, if my children are gay, I will embrace them tenfold. First, if they are gay and have the confidence to tell me about it, that means they are also courageous, because it takes a lot of bravery to be openly gay in a world that doesn't want you to be.
It hurts my heart to think that two people in love cannot get married. And yet many straight people get married two, three, four, or even five times! How will being gay destroy the sanctity of marriage? It seems to me that the sanctity of marriage is being lessened and destroyed without the help of the gays.
It also hurts me to think that gay students are being bullied literally to death. Children committing suicide for being gay? Or worse, not for being gay, but for being called gay? I think the entire world as a whole needs to change its attitude and outlook towards the people in it. We are all equal, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, wealth, or otherwise. At the end of the day, we all live and we will all die. Life and death do not discriminate. They takes us all. And I just feel as though we should try to make our short experience on earth one that is full of happiness, rather than hate, discrimination and prejudice, and we should try to do the same for others. It truly hurts me.
I will never make fun of anybody or talk badly about them: Not for their gender, sexuality, race, clothes, hair or shoes. Or anything. I think every person I pass by has someone in the world who loves them and deserves to be treated as a human. Our society makes it such a socially acceptable norm to pass judgement on others. It is wrong, and we are breeding future generations of those who will continue to act this way. I think the world in general is in need of some intervention.
I hope to be lucky enough to have children and raise a family someday. It is awful to say, but I hope my children are not gay. I hope they are not gay because I don't want them to have to face the trials and tribulations that come with it. It's unfair. No one should have to feel awful and unaccepted because of who they are or who they love. But, that's the reality of the world. However, if my children are gay, I will embrace them tenfold. First, if they are gay and have the confidence to tell me about it, that means they are also courageous, because it takes a lot of bravery to be openly gay in a world that doesn't want you to be.
Casual gay-bashing conversation at St. John's
Today, after leaving the printing lab in Mariillac Hall, I retreated downstairs for some food in the cafeteria. On my way down the stairs there were two boys in front of me having conversation amongst themselves. They were talking about their roommate in the dorms. They were thinking of ways they could get him removed from their suite next semester. Why? Because he is gay.
I think it's awful, not only to feel this way within yourself, but to be comfortable enough in your prejudice to speak about it with others around. You never know who is listening and who might be hurt by your words. When I heard them speaking, I didn't respond to their harshness with a racial slur. Why? Aside from the fact that I am not racist or prejudiced in the least, I didn't say anything because had I done so to prove my point, they would have turned around SO fast and made a scene about it. Why, though? Why is prejudice against gays okay, and other prejudices are not?
I held my tongue, but I regret it. I should have told them they were wrong. I should have told them they were awful for saying what they said. The names they called him amongst themselves so casually is what leads so many gay students to suicide. I should have said something. Calling a gay man a fagg*t should be just as wrong as calling others racial, prejudicial, discriminatory slurs. And it's not. WHY?!?
I think it's awful, not only to feel this way within yourself, but to be comfortable enough in your prejudice to speak about it with others around. You never know who is listening and who might be hurt by your words. When I heard them speaking, I didn't respond to their harshness with a racial slur. Why? Aside from the fact that I am not racist or prejudiced in the least, I didn't say anything because had I done so to prove my point, they would have turned around SO fast and made a scene about it. Why, though? Why is prejudice against gays okay, and other prejudices are not?
I held my tongue, but I regret it. I should have told them they were wrong. I should have told them they were awful for saying what they said. The names they called him amongst themselves so casually is what leads so many gay students to suicide. I should have said something. Calling a gay man a fagg*t should be just as wrong as calling others racial, prejudicial, discriminatory slurs. And it's not. WHY?!?
DID YOU KNOW? Famous gay, lesbian, and bisexual celebs:
Andersoon Cooper
Jodie Foster
Neil Patrick Harris
Nathan Lane
Drew Barrymore
Ani DiFranco
Angelina Jolie
Michelle Rodriguez
Marlon Brando
Nelly Furtado
Megan Fox
Andy Dick
Eleanor Roosevelt
The above are some of the very many celebrities you may not have known to be gay or bisexual. I mean, Eleanor Roosevelt? Come on, 'who woulda thunk it'? Those listed above are all documented as referring to themselves as either gay or bisexual, and many use their power in the limelight as activism for their cause.
Jodie Foster
Neil Patrick Harris
Nathan Lane
Drew Barrymore
Ani DiFranco
Angelina Jolie
Michelle Rodriguez
Marlon Brando
Nelly Furtado
Megan Fox
Andy Dick
Eleanor Roosevelt
The above are some of the very many celebrities you may not have known to be gay or bisexual. I mean, Eleanor Roosevelt? Come on, 'who woulda thunk it'? Those listed above are all documented as referring to themselves as either gay or bisexual, and many use their power in the limelight as activism for their cause.
IS JOHN TRAVOLTA GAY?
Carrie Fisher, a long-time friend of Travolta's, said bluntly to a writer for The Advocate, “Wow, I mean my feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care.”
However, is this enough to OUT the man publically? It's her word against his. However, what if it was her word, and many other people's words, against his? Would it then be more believable?
The same article tells that author Robert Rudolph has not only witnessed John Travolta having gay sex, but since outing Travolta has received emails from many other man claiming to also have had sex with John. Randolph plans to write a book on the matter, of which he has "plenty of material", that he will call "Tracking Travolta".
"When the details emerge, he's gonna make Tiger Woods look like a Boy Scout," Randolph said, according to this article.
That same article also says that Randolph passed a lie detector test concerning his statements regarding Travolta's homosexual love life.
However, is this enough to OUT the man publically? It's her word against his. However, what if it was her word, and many other people's words, against his? Would it then be more believable?
"When the details emerge, he's gonna make Tiger Woods look like a Boy Scout," Randolph said, according to this article.
That same article also says that Randolph passed a lie detector test concerning his statements regarding Travolta's homosexual love life.
MAN CURED OF HIV IN BERLIN
According to the FOXNews article, "Timothy Ray Brown, an HIV-positive American living in Germany, had leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy, when he received a transplant of stem cells from a donor carrying a rare, inherited gene mutation that seems to make carriers virtually immune to HIV infection."
Doctors say the successful transplant rid Brown of both his leukemia and his HIV infection.
However, the cure is "absurdly impractical". You have to "find compatible donor that has this genetic defect, and this defect is only found in 1 percent of the Caucasian population and zero percent of the black population. This is very rare.”
However impractical, though, it gives us hope that a more practical and standard cure for HIV is realistic in the future and marks a huge milestone in HIV/AIDS research.
Doctors say the successful transplant rid Brown of both his leukemia and his HIV infection.
However, the cure is "absurdly impractical". You have to "find compatible donor that has this genetic defect, and this defect is only found in 1 percent of the Caucasian population and zero percent of the black population. This is very rare.”
However impractical, though, it gives us hope that a more practical and standard cure for HIV is realistic in the future and marks a huge milestone in HIV/AIDS research.
"HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT SLAMS IRAN FOR HARASSING GAYS"
This article, released by the Associated Press, discusses Iranian law's violation of Human Rights and international law regarding the country's treatment of homosexuals.
Here are some highlights, quoted directly from the article:
Here are some highlights, quoted directly from the article:
Thousands of people are believed to have been condemned to death for homosexual activity since the 1979 Iranian revolution, and the public hanging of two men – one of them a minor – in 2005 for having consensual sex drew international attention.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was jeered when he said in a speech at Colombia University that homosexuality did not exist in Iran.
Iranian law criminalizes all sex outside traditional marriage. But the report said the government “appears to officially sanction harassment and abuse” of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iranians, who are often seen as “diseased, criminals or corrupt agents of Western culture.”
Under Iran’s Islamic law, same-sex intercourse between two men is punishable by death, but the penalty is more lenient for lesbians – 100 lashes for the first three offenses and the death penalty for the fourth.
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