Beat, Curse, Disown Your Gay Kid in Jesus' Name

What's love got to do with it? Joe.My.God. writes of this family in Kennesaw, Georgia:

440K views in one day of this YouTube clip in which a kid comes out to his family, only to have them curse him because Jesus, then physically attack him.

Dan Savage and others have set up a fundraiser to pay the kid's living expenses while he gets on his feet.


Update, 8/29, 9 a.m.: Donations for Daniel Pierce, who is staying with supportive friends, now exceed $50,000.

In the Life: Beyond the Rhetoric

An interesting couple of reports on gay Republicans and school bullying in Minnesota from In the Life, which will produce its last video this December.




The Associated Press reports that a record number of gay candidates are running for Congress this year. What is it with gay Republicans? Do you know one? Would you date one? Would you vote for one?

Tyler Clementi's Brother Speaks Out

In an interview on Anderson Cooper's AC360:

Southern Boys Say It Gets Better

Nate from South Carolina:



Matt from Maryland:



Kenn from Florida:



Larry from Texas:

This Probably Causes Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Nuclear Meltdowns, Ya Know

. . . isn't it great?

Youtube seems to be eighty-sixing uploads of the big scene as fast as they can, but here's a link to the video that will probably stay up.


Honk to Midwestern Malaise  for the idea.

It Gets Better: This Week's Faves

My God, how the world has changed in my lifetime.  Videos like this would have made a profound impression on me as a lonely gay teenager - this one is by staffers at White House - the White House, for God's sake:



And gay university presidents?  With their spouses?  Unthinkable back then, but yup:



And who could ever have imagined a gay softball team - in Austin, Texas?  A great message from the Gay World Series champs, who can beat the straight boys at their own game and make 'em like it:



Ditto from the San Francisco Track and Field Club:



At the other end of the scale, international drag queens have a fabulous message too:



An Eagle Scout says you can be true to your oath and be true to yourself too:



Adobe Systems employees say it got a lot better for them:



So do Etsy employees:



Asian-American kids catch a lot of flack from the parents but say don't let that hold you down:



Even way over on the other side of the world, it gets better in Singapore, too:



And even with ultra-conservative Catholic Republican parents, Chris Kelly says stick it out, it only gets better:




And to top it all off, this is not an IGB video, but you gotta hear this story from Hank Chen, which made your Head Trucker spew coffee all over the keyboard:

It Gets Better: This Week's Faves

EA employees:



D.C. Gay Flag Football League:



Lonely Planet employees:



TELUS employees:



Dow employees:



Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice:



And for all you Whos out there in Whoville:

It Gets Better: More Gay Jocks

Awesome video from the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club:



The Kansas City Carnivores:



The San Francisco Fog:



Front Runners New York:



And a couple weeks ago, I posted an It Gets Better video from the Boston FLAG flag football league, but here's one that shows off their, um, dance moves. Gotta love it:

It Gets Better - This Week's Faves

Thomas Roberts, MSNBC:



The University of Southern California:



Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C.:



Tammy from rural Canada:



Cher and the cast of Burlesque:



Feather Boa Fathers:

It Gets Better: This Week's Faves

Not blogging much this week.  Just not in a mood to write.  There've been been several stories from Texas and around the country and the world that in a different mood I might have something to say about - but the holidays are not something I enjoy at this late age, for several good reasons.  And I just don't have the heart right now to blog about the various unhappy or hurtful or hateful things people have said or done.  I reckon you guys are keeping up with all that via the newsy blogs I link to in the side column, if you want to.

Mainly I'm just puttering around the house here, working on one little project or another, nothing worth mentioning.  No turkey day for me this week.  But the ex-roommate and I are going to get together next week for our monthly dinner, and he's a good cook so that will be nice.

Meanwhile, about all I can come up with to post are some well-done or noteworthy videos from the It Gets Better Project.  Times have changed, are changing, will change for the better - eventually.  Not sure how much more change I'll see in my lifetime, but here's my tiny contribution to hope.  All I can do for now.


The Honorable Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States:



The leader of Her Majesty's Government, the Right Honourable David Cameron:



Lance Corporal James Wharton of the British Army:



Specialist Drury, United States Army, Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan:



Scott Zumwalt, of an illustrious American military family:



Boston's FLAG Flag Football League:



Employees of Pixar Animation Studios:



Andy and Jason, from Chicago:



Micah Jesse was bullied starting in preschool:



Students at Princeton University:



Sally Field and friends:




And finally, the Pop Luck Club proves that the impossible is . . . very possible after all:

It Gets Better: This Week's Faves

Your Head Trucker shares some of the best videos he found at the It Gets Better Project this week.


Michael Ignatieff, Liberal Party leader and perhaps the next Prime Minister of Canada:



Will grew up near Tallahassee, Florida:



Kevin and William in Chicago:



University of Michigan Law School students:



"A bunch of fun lesbians":



Orthodox Jews:



Barbara Gaines, a producer for the Letterman show:



University of Alabama students:



Pennsylvania:



Staff of the Human Rights Campaign:



The NOH8 Campaign:



The Colorado theater community:



The Yale School of Drama:



And finally, B.D. has something to show you - but you have to be very, very quiet:

It Gets Better - This Week's Faves

First up, for my Canadian truckbuddies, some names and faces that should be familiar to you:



And here's Mike Chalut, Toronto radio/TV personality and president of ManCrunch, talking about how hard it was coming out to his very religious parents:



Mary, a straight mother of three, makes a very important point about the courage it takes to be gay:



Adam Lambert:



Suze Orman:



New York lawyers testify that it gets better:



Gap employees say it gets better:



Anthony in Mobile, Alabama, draws a picture of the happy gay life he's determined to have:



When David came out to his missionary parents, they tried to cast the demons out of him:



Excellent video from many members of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS:



Jean, a transsexual lesbian from Maine, shares an amazing story of courage and triumph:




And finally, the pièce de résistance:  Ten years later, Herman met up with his high-school bully again - and girlfriend, you just have to hear him tell it:

It Gets Better: Gay Jocks

The Greater Philadelphia Flag Football League:



The Seattle Quake Rugby Football Club:





A Seattle rowing club:

It Gets Better: Boy on a Bridge

A very moving story:

God Still Hates You, Faggot

From an October 20 interview with Cardinal-designate Raymond Burke, telling Catholics they are obliged to vote in accordance with the teachings of their faith - and against all those intrinsically evil homos like you and me, bud:



And via David Mixner, from the I'm From Driftwood blog, here's the result of this kind of oh-so-holy teaching - decide for yourself who's being truly evil:





Also, listen to Dan Savage's description of the horrific beating his first boyfriend got as a young teen when he came out to his ultra-religious father, beginning at the 2:50 mark:



My late husband's first partner was likewise thrown out of his parents' house at age 16 and walked or hitchhiked all the way from northern Oklahoma to the home of a kindly aunt in New Orleans, with no money and his few belongings in a plastic garbage bag.

And these religious motherfuckers have the gall to say WE are intrincially evil?  What's wrong with this picture, I ask you.

It's not that religion is necessarily a bad thing - it's the monstrous, ignorant, self-righteous misuse of religion as a weapon of control that is evil.  Which human beings are awfully good at.


FYI, there was just as much discussion over the "naturalness" of homosex back among the ancient Greeks and Romans as there is today - the difference being, nobody back then had a Bible to beat people over the head with, so most folks just shrugged and minded their own business.

Until the Christians came to power.  One of these days, I'm going to write a nice big post about all that, but in the meantime I highly recommend Louis Crompton's monumental historical survey Homosexuality and Civilization, among others.

McCance Resigns, Arkansas Apologizes

Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School Board in Independence County, Arkansas, whose horrific anti-gay death rant last week provoked outrage around the world, submitted his resignation this morning, which was duly approved by the school board in a formal vote.

In yesterday's Little Rock Arkansas News, columnist John Brummett wrote:

Today’s column begins with a memorandum I presume to send to the world in behalf of Arkansas.

Dear World:

You need to understand that we in Arkansas remain mostly a sparsely populated rural culture. While there are lifestyle advantages to that, we also confront certain stagnant pressures that are matters of politics and heritage. One result is that we maintain too many school districts of small size.

This situation dissipates our already limited talent pool of people to run for and get elected to all these little local school boards.

But be assured that we have a court ruling that says the education of our children is ultimately the state government’s responsibility.

So, speaking as the state, we are sorry about those ghastly and evil ravings of that person who tragically sat on the board of one of our small rural districts. But please understand three things:

(1) He got duly elected by the local patrons, which means the rest of us in the state had nothing to do with that.

(2) He did not actually run anything and was but one vote on that little local board.

(3) But if you get right down to it, he was, and is, the entire state’s responsibility and problem, and we want you to know that, as a state, we do not hate homosexual children, nor do we want homosexual children dead, and we will do what it takes to make sure that these unspeakably ignorant and hate-filled pronouncements are forever condemned, isolated and discredited.

Sincerely in our regret,

Arkansas

Update:  Honk to Joe.My.God. for posting a link to McCance's resignation letter (pdf).

Dr. Phil Slams McCance's Apology

What I Say:  My stars, I have lived to see the day that one old straight boy slams another one for being homophobic, and in no uncertain terms. Kinda hard for your Head Trucker to get his mind around that.

But while I think Dr. Phil's observations are pretty much true, as I said yesterday, it takes time for a big, hard lesson to sink in - for you and for me, as well as for any ignorant redneck.

My religion teaches me that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Yes, McCance did a truly wicked thing, and has had his nose rubbed into it really hard.  Now let the better angels of his nature go to work.

Give him some time to process it. That's what you and I would need, too - you know you would.

Who knows - down the road, he just might turn out to be a wonderful, outspoken advocate for gay youth.

If Fox News and the Christianists don't turn him into another Joe the Plumber with a truckload of cash first. But we'll see. Give it time.

It Gets Better: This Week's Faves

Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, father of six, grandfather of four:



Rabbi David Bauer in his thoughtful message says God loves you for being queer, and your sexuality is a blessing:



First Lady Michelle Obama discusses the problem of bullying with Ellen, beginning about the 7:15 mark:



Staff at the Democratic National Committee share their stories:



Google employees spread the message:



Facebook employees tell their experiences:



Drag entertainer Craig in Calgary, Alberta, tells how he survived boarding-school hell, and has heard apologies from some of the bullies:



Summer says after she left Louisiana and her Southern Baptist family, she found the peace, acceptance, and love she needed:



Randy and Cosmo say things got exponentially better after they got away from the bullies and Bible-thumpers:



Some of our wise gay elders share their refreshing point of view:



And I think everybody would love to adopt Harry and Wayne as their gay grandpas:



The cast and crew of the Jersey Boys national tour speak out:




And to end this post on a beautiful note, the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles shows their True Colors :

Clint McCance Apologizes, Admits Ignorance, Plans Resignation

A great big bouquet of props to Anderson Cooper who last night not only held McCance's feet to the fire, but roasted him up one side and down the other, not letting him off lightly.  GOOD WORK, I say; a mindless, arrogant bully like McCance ought to be made to feel, at least once in his life, what it is like to be publicly humiliated and beaten up - metaphorically, if no other way. 

Like the old joke about the farmer who hit his stubborn mule over the head with a two by four, it takes a really big knock to get the attention of someone like this, and McCance has gotten it right in the face:



Part II includes a moving interview with David and Amy Truong, the parents of Asher Brown:



Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times has a further report on the story here, including this statement from HRC president Joe Solmonese:

Clint McCance's decision to resign from the school board is a step forward for the community he represents. We are hopeful the wounds that were inflicted will soon be healed.  What remains troubling is that Mr. McCance focused his regret on particular word choices not the animus behind those words. We hope he will take this time to reflect not only on the language he used but on what he can do to make the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people better.

What I Say:  We should not expect anyone to be completely healed and changed overnight; you know from your own experience, guys, that big lessons take time to sink in.

But it's a wonderful thing that McCance has been befriended by the father of a child lost to suicide. This is a learning moment for McCance, steeped so deeply in the dark, unreasoning, unreflecting prejudices of his culture. We should all pray, or at least earnestly wish, that he will by steps and degrees continue the journey he has now begun, unwillingly, towards light and knowledge and repentance, and thereby convert many like him.

That, on our part is the truly civilized, humane response; it is also the truly Christian and Jewish one:

As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. -- Ezekiel 33:11.

Believer or atheist, repentance and forgiveness are what it's all about, fellas. Otherwise, human society is no more than a collection of wild beasts endlessly tearing at and devouring one another.

Think about it.

It Gets Better: Oral Roberts' Gay Grandson

Randy has also written an article about growing up in Tulsa with his evangelical family: "Something Good Is Going to Happen to You."


And here's a clip of Oral talking about homosex, from a post I made last year, which should tell you all you need to know about Ronnie's and Randy's struggles as gay teens and men in that family: