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During senior class awards, this young man accepts the prize for “Class Actor” — by coming out to his classmates. Cheers all around!
Feel Good Vid of the Day |
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| By: Elliott Wednesday January 23, 2013 7:57 pm | |
During senior class awards, this young man accepts the prize for “Class Actor” — by coming out to his classmates. Cheers all around!
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66 Comments
Elliot!
Saw that earlier and posted it to Facebook. The speech is pretty cool, but the response is fucking awesome. We really have come a very long way from my distant youth.
I went to a small rural school – we didn’t really have a mean crew but back then being gay was whispered about – a gossip point. of course I can’t speak for any gay student hurt by the comments or the innuendo, no doubt they were, but we didn’t have a nasty vain of gay bashers that I ever knew about. I know of no physical attacks on anyone. But again, there were probably many words said that hurt.
I’m just so grateful that now – finally – we has a nation are understanding that being gay is just who you are – nothing sinister or sinful about it.
Takes courage, I’m sad to say, to do what this young man did.
yes! indeed we have – feels good :)
but the tide is turning.
I grew up in a town of 30,000 in NE Oklahoma in the 50s and 60s. Homosexuality was the subject of jokes, insults, and innuendo when I was in high school. I cannot even imagine anyone there ever admitting they were gay to anyone who was not also.
I’d like to think the tide is turning in our favor but then I read just plain stupid shit and I wonder.
Oh, good fucking grief. I’m so glad that my taxes are funding this kind of bigoted bullshit.
don’t you feel they are dinosaurs tho? especially after Obama’s speech?
It has not gone away yet, but it is in full retreat and they are a minority. Most Americans support same sex marriage.
Beats the fuck out of this shit. More of that Christian charity and love we keep hearing about.
If they are dinosaurs, they’re too stupid to crawl into the nearest tar pit.
It’s sadly ironic that some Christians are so gung-ho to torture and kill people.”Whatsoever you do to the least of my children, that you do unto me,” and all that.
they clearly aren’t thinking clearly – how could Jesus be so vengeful? Kinda negates his whole message of love
maybe Jesus was gay anyway – he’s what, 30? and no kids -
Well, he was a Jewish mama’s boy…
Gotta love the conservatives. Creating their own Galt’s Gulch isn’t good enough for them. They’ve gotta make it into Leviticus’ Gulch.
They are damned lucky that their savior has not returned, because he would seriously kick their asses into the fiery pit. They are the very antithesis of everything he taught.
True. Jesus warned that there would be false prophets teaching in his name, though. He was nothing if not perceptive on that point.
That is a highly edited Leviticus, since none of them are giving up their bacon, shrimp, or polyblends.
Yeah, I was going to point out that they probably denounce teh gayz over bacon sandwiches on Sunday but it seemed too obvious to type out. Kinda like pointing out that the earth rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds…
Cheers all around, too. So wonderful! Confirms that the struggle was worth it, but there’s always so much more to do.
polyblends?
Hi fatster!
did you see blatant homophobia when you were in highschool?
Deuteronomy 2:11 – Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
Margaret,
you’ve been very open and honest here so I feel comfortable quizzing you, did you experiencing homophobic harassment in middle/high school? I know as an adult you suffered real beatings.
Ditto here, though from the Deep South. During that era (’50s), females didn’t hear a lot of that, though–the “behind the barn” talk, I mean.
omg I thought you were joking but Deuteronomy 22:11 actually says that.
LMAO!
it must have been so sad and lonely to be gay – and I bet especially girl gay
Not sure what went on among the girls. This was in the late 60s and eastern Oklahoma is pretty much west Arkansas. I grew up with racism and segregation (attended segregated schools for the first few years) and homophobia and sexism were pretty much ubiquitous.
No, Elliott, not really. There were hints, the occasional little comment, but nothing blatant. Thank heavens. The racist thing was a tough enough sitch to deal with.
Oh, no. I never had the courage to come out in high school or middle school. I mostly kept to myself and was harassed for being aloof. Until I discovered dope. Then I was very sociably acceptable because the people I hung around with were much more interested in getting high than anything else. And people didn’t much harass the person who always had the dope.
Being trans in Texas…That was loneliness squared. It’s a shame that I know so much trivia about the television programs that were in syndication between about 1971 and about 1975.
I have to say that going to college was a real revelation to me. I started making friends with a lot of women, made my first black friends (residential segregation made sure I never went to school with any growing up) and met my first openly gay guy when I was 19. Discovered that the world was a lot more diverse and interesting than I had ever dreamed.
Remember: President Obama waited until ONE month before the Election (in the last days of September) to drop Deportation proceedings against one of the first Gay Marriers in Massachusetts:
If he truly cared about Gay people’s rights, he would have dropped Deportation proceedings much earlier. (He might have been waiting to see if the man died [of AIDS], so that he wouldn’t have to drop the Deportation.)
If he actually wanted to suppress Gay Rights, and actually wanted to hurt as many Gays as possible, he would wait until the final month, until as many Gays as possible had been hurt by his Deportation policies.
Did that influence your course of study?
did the video may you smile?
I am pretty sure that being trans anywhere back then was pretty isolating and intimidating, though Texas and Oklahoma (they share a common culture) would have been hell on earth.
in some instances, it may be good just to move on.
if people are asking questions and trying to understand with any degree of good faith, sure, stop and have discussions.
But there are some who will never be convinced, whose minds are very intentionally and very firmly shut.
Responding to them, even reacting to them as one reacts to a gnat, is a waste of time, effort and energy.
Focus on the goal and the folks who are potentially educable.
Leave the knuckledraggers on the curb for trash pickup.
The video made me smile and feel good! (I should have said that first.)
*sigh*
But it is nice to see/know that you have blossomed into a wonderful woman
I think indirectly. All scholars are products of their times, places, and experiences. I know it has certainly informed my work since. I started out with a focus on Native Americans, largely because my first wife was full-blood Cherokee and I had lived around her family for four years. My interests in race and ethnicity also grew out of my experiences with Native peoples, as well as my experience with the rampant racism in Oklahoma. My interest in gender issues is a bit more complicated. I think I have to blame my mother for much of it, since she inadvertently raised me to be a protofeminist (I always assumed that men and women were alike and that the should be equal). I became aware of gender diversity or differences in gender systems as a result of my work with Natives.
Good. That makes me smile.
ahh – that is interesting, and informative. I knew you were from Oklahoma but I didn’t realize your Native American connections.
Another influence on my understandings and interest in gender came from my move to Chicago in my 30s. People’s perceptions of me as “macho” were frankly shocking, as I had always been a bit of a wimp or laid back guy in Oklahoma.
Well, thanks, though I’m sure some people around here might debate the “wonderful” characterization. Good night all.
I love this speech, and this brave young man, but — you know me, I have two complaints.
1. Excuse me, parents and classmates! This young man is speaking to you. At a public event. Regardless of the content, shut up. And when you realize this young man is coming out? Silence.
2. No individual is “LBGT.” It is one name for our community. A better, more inclusive name for our community is LGBTQ?I (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex.
But, when coming out, please say which you consider yourself. Are you gay? Are you Bi? Are you Trans? Then, please, tell us, as a member of the LGBT community, which you are. Are you Bi and Trans? Super! Then say so. But it’s pretty much impossible for an individual to be “LGBT.” Got it?
Please, let’s not let this catch on. I’ve seen it a lot lately. Groups, community, organizations: LGBT(Q?I). Individuals: pick one (or the two that apply). It’s confusing, and wrong any other way.
Thanks very much for posting this, it’s remarkable.
oh wow. Very interesting especially after what you said about your mom.
My son, who turns 40 in April, is half Cherokee. Most of my research has focused on the tribes of the southeastern US (Cherokee, Seminoles, and Creeks). I am also dark enough, especially after a summer in the Oklahoma sun, that everybody thought I was Indian when I was married. It was a real education for a nice middle class white boy to suddenly experience racism first hand.
This wouldn’t have been possible when I was in school. The kid would have been dragged off the stage by the teachers and sent to the principal’s office and had his parents called etc. etc.
My school was particularly nasty to gays, nerds, kids with freckles, kids with big ears, pretty much everyone. Once I got into University and met some gay people and everyone I hung out with just treated them the same as everyone else, I knew they were the kinds of people I wanted to hang around with.
Although I’m not gay myself, I get annoyed when some of my “newer” friends make remarks or jokes about gays and I basically tell them to quit it with that shit.
The worst are friends of friends, when your friend invites you over and you ask who else is there just because these other people piss you off.
I’m rambling, I guess my point is that my niece is gay and although it doesn’t bug me, it bugs my sister because she comes from that time. Eventually all the old farts will die out and people like my niece and her friends will be in the majority and same sex relationships will not be seen as unusual.
I had a feeling you’d like this Teddy
No matter how enlightened I thought I was when I first came here, you’ve taught me – and the rest of us — so very much.
It was mostly about the way I carried myself and moved, as well as some fairly standard Okie ways of acting and speaking. Interestingly, nobody ever thought I was sexist and I had lots of women friends. They just claimed that I “oozed testosterone.” I never did really understand that.
jeez!
so foreign to my Dutch Country world (not that I am Pennsylvania
DutchGerman myself: half Irish, half mostly English, which is why I have a hard time getting along with myself)I told my final therapist that if I was gay, I wouldn’t have a problem, if I was a transvestite, I wouldn’t have a problem and if I was a gay transvestite, I wouldn’t have a problem. I knew I’d found the right person when she understood right away.
here’s hoping! It sure seems that way.
well Peg, you are a special circumstance.
EDIT: and g’night
well, I can’t imagine the ladies would complain about that! ;)
I am mostly German from my father’s side (Black Dutch) and hillbilly on my mother’s side (a mix of a little bit of everything: Irish, English, German, French, and who knows what). Found out after my son was born that my father’s mother was part Indian (which is about when she found out from some genealogist who was distantly related through her father).
oh cool – I’m fascinated with genealogy, since the 10th grade. On my mother’s side it’s the history of New England and New York basically so it’s easy learning, I can’t imagine trying to find one’s past as an African or Native American by comparison.
They did not seem to.
African American genealogy is challenging, but there are still a fair number of records, given that they were property for so long. For Native Americans it can be a real nightmare (I have done historical demography and tried to trace genealogies for people in the late 19th century and can seldom get back more than 2-3 generations).
Think I will toddle off. Take care all.
I did a DNA test which showed my mother mother’s ad infinibackalot was via central Europe
but I truly regret not knowing my father’s Y-origins.
g’night – I guess I too will wander off – morning comes early in these parts.
Thanks everyone.
Thank you, Elliott
thank you, love it !
G’morning everyone!
Thanks for the video, El!