8 year old tells Michele Bachmann: “My mommy’s gay but she doesn’t need any fixing.”
“Video of Michele Bachmann trying to get her photo op in with my 8 year old son. It’s hard to hear but he leans in and tells her that his mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing. GO ELIJAH! Love that look of shock she gets.”
MyAcceptance.org tells stories of LGBT people, two photos at a time
MyAcceptance.org, a new photo essay project, is documenting members of the LGBT community — two photos at a time. The one on the left representing how they’ve felt in the past and the one on the right representing how they feel now.
Much like the It Gets Better campaign, the goal of the project is “to give hope to those out there that are struggling in their lives, those who feel like they’re alone and that there’s no one to turn to.”
The project also invites people to participate by submitting their own photos.
Learn more about the project and view the photos at MyAcceptance.org.
(Photo: Parker Austin)
US 2012 Election: Stances on LGBTQ Rights
Here’s visual confirmation of each 2012 presidential candidate’s plans on 12 issues that affect America’s estimated 31 million LGBT voters.
(via tyleroakley, marriageequality.org)
Michele Bachmann: ‘I don’t judge gays’
Michele Bachmann, fresh from a victory in the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, and was again dogged with questions about her anti-gay platform, this time declaring, “I don’t judge gays.”
Read the full story at LGBTQ Nation.
Gay soldiers brutally attacked at fast food restaurant
Two gay soldiers were brutally attacked at a Colorado Springs fast food restaurant on Saturday morning. The victims say that they were attacked because they are gay.
When the group of soldiers walked into the restaurant, a “group of black men and women” started making remarks about the way they were dressed. As they tried to leave, they were physically attacked.
Two were rushed to the hospital, one with a fractured face.
“We walked in and immediately one black male started making remarks like, ‘faggot.’ […] I turn around and my friend was getting stomped by six black males, another female friend of mine was trying to fight off three or four men.”
The identities of the victims were withheld due to the pending status of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
(via LGBTQ Nation)
LGBTQ Tumblr blog highlight: homohelp
Equalitopia sits down with homohelp, a Tumblr blog whose concept is quite simple: brightly colored images featuring tips about everything LGBTQ-related. These tips range from inspirational to sarcastic to witty.
Homohelp started less than three months ago and now its posts are receiving hundreds and even thousands of reblogs. Recently, homohelp was added to Tumblr's new LGBTQ section of the “Spotlight” directory.
Equalitopia: What was your initial inspiration for starting homohelp?
Homohelp: Honestly? It was just boredom and an attempt to get a cheap laugh just to see who was reading. The first handful of posts really weren’t very good, in my opinion. They were very cringe-worthy, and some were downright offensive. (Some people will argue that homohelp is still offensive, but I don’t think any of our posts now are as bad as some of our very first posts.)
Equalitopia: What are you aiming to accomplish with the blog?
Homohelp: At this point, we’re trying to encourage people to realize that just because people are not-straight doesn’t mean that they’re totally different people from those who are. The comment I see more than any other one (Which happens to be my least favourite, actually.) is something along the lines of “Uh… Why is this called homohelp? Straight people do this, too.” I always get really frustrated reading that, because I never wanted to make a blog that excluded anyone, including straight people. I’ll be the first to admit that homohelp is essentially a ripoff of a certain other “tips” blog about male siblings. I could never personally connect with that one, because I don’t think I have much swagg, but you don’t need to be a “bro” to appreciate that blog, and you don’t need to be a homo to appreciate homohelp.
Equalitopia: You started homohelp less than three months ago and now your posts are receiving hundreds and even thousands of reblogs. How did you establish that audience?
Homohelp: I have no idea, actually. I’m still surprised everyday to see how many people are supporting this blog. I never really bothered with trying to get more people to follow the blog. I’ve never asked anyone to do promotions for it and I use the same handful of tags for every post. Really, all I do is write the posts and hope somebody is reading them. Any success we’ve had with the readers is thanks to our readers themselves. They’ve been the ones spreading the word about homohelp, and we’ve received some really nice messages. It’s kind words from our readers that really keep motivation up for this. There have been a few times where I’m totally stumped for posts and think about just taking a break for a while, or giving up all together, but I can’t do that at this point. I feel like I’d be letting people down, which is the last thing I want to do.
Equalitopia: How many people are behind homohelp? Who are they?
Homohelp: I always feel really silly answering this, because I’ve always referred to homohelp as a “we.” Technically, I’m the only person behind homohelp at this point, but I still refer to it as a “we.” The blog encourages readers to submit their ideas for posts to us, so I would feel really silly referring to homohelp as just me, because it’s not. Even a good chunk of the posts I write are inspired by comments on past posts or messages from readers, and I feel like I would take credit away from them if I just referred to myself when talking about the blog. homohelp is more than just me, it’s everyone writing into us and reading our posts and sharing our words.
Equalitopia: What’s your personal favourite homohelp?
Homohelp: I think I have to go with #32. (never act out of spite. it is always wrong, no matter what the cause. even if you’re being bullied or teased, remember that you are above petty actions, and that you are a better person than anyone who’s ever tried to hurt you.) It definitely doesn’t represent the tone of the blog now, and it’s not worded quite as well as it should be, but it’s my biggest moral guideline. If there is any one message I could get out to the entire world, it would be that. I see so many people saying that things will get better and you can get even with the bullies from high school, and tons of bullshit that never made any sense to me. The minute you stoop down to the level of bullies and try to get even, you ARE a bully, and everyone should aspire to be better than that. I always thought one of the things our community was pushing for was an end to hate, and when you fight hate with more hate, you don’t get rid of it, you just make more.
Equalitopia: What are your favorite LGBTQ-related Tumblr blogs?
Homohelp: I don’t actually follow very many blogs. (I don’t think I’ve been fully swept into the Tumblr craze yet.) I do enjoy reading gaywrites, I think they do a good job at finding which news stories deserve highlighting, and lgbtlaughs, because they make me giggle every day.
Equalitopia: Anything else you’d like to add?
homohelp: Thank you so much to everyone who’s been reading this blog. (And also to you, Equalitopia!) So many of you have been so supportive of this, and it really does mean so much to know that we’ve been able to help people in any way at all.
Also, somebody also wrote into us once and accused homohelp of being “a bunch of gay-hating, condescending lesbians,” which to my knowledge is not the case, so I just want to clear that up.
Oh! And I don’t know if this is tacky or not, but our merchandise store is opening this week! We’ll be selling four different t-shirts for now, and 25% of all proceeds will be donated right to GLSEN, so I hope people check that out, because it’s all for a good cause.
Gay parents bashed on hidden camera show
ABC staged a scene where gay parents were harassed by their waitress in a Texas diner. Some bystanders had some strong reactions while others ignored it.
The hidden camera show What Would You Do? has run a number of segments on homosexuality:
Tumblr adds LGBTQ section to new “Spotlight” directory
Equalitopia and a number of other LGBTQ blogs have received invites to be featured in the LGBTQ section of Tumblr’s new Spotlight directory, which replaces the old directory. Upon its launch, it did not include an “LGBTQ” category.
Aside from the new look and lack of user recommendations, the new directory is very similar to the old. A few categories were removed while a numer of new ones were added.
Currently featured in the LGBTQ directory are: I’m A PFLAG Mom, Art of Transliness, genderqueer, TRANS, KNOW Homo, Gender Magick, You Know You’re Trans* When…, Soffa Support, homohelp, Queer Secrets, the gang’s all QUEER, Fuck Yeah FTMs of Color, HOMOGROUND, LGBTQ GMHA, Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, and Equalitopia.
Users can recommend categories or blogs to be featured by emailing editors@tumblr.com.
What do you think of the new directory?
(Equalitopia’s directory image resource via SneakyTomato)
Google Chrome runs television ad featuring the “It Gets Better” project
Google Chrome is running a television ad featuring Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project. The commercial is part of Google’s biggest offline ad campaign.
The video, which was uploaded to Google Chrome’s YouTube account on Monday, features Dan Savage any the many other videos that were created for the project.
“Beginning with one inspiring video, Dan Savage used the web to create the It Gets Better project–a movement that has generated thousands of uplifting videos that give hope to teens.”
According to the New York Times, Google Chrome’s overall television campaign is “the biggest offline campaign ever for Google.”
Countless others have been joining in on the project. Just last month, Apple employees launched their own video.
Last year, Google announced that it would offer gay employees extra pay to allow for tax inequality.
Did you know?: A “Gaygler” is a gay Google employee?
(Video via Reddit)
Apple employees: It Gets Better
Apple employees share a personal message for the It Gets Better Project.
