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An awesome pop-rock track against gay bullying made in collaboration with the It Gets Better Project. Featuring a cameo by Dan Savage.
Clip description: "Continuing to make amends for anti-gay comments he made, comedian Tracy Morgan met with LGBT teens in New York. Randi Kaye talks with Jayden Love (homeless teen), Carl Siciliano (The Ali Forney Center) & Elke Kennedy (Sean's Last Wish)."
ABOVE: "Tracy Morgan listens to Jayden Love, an Ali Forney Center client rejected by her religious family." I can't imagine a more effective remedy for Morgan than meeting the kids of the AFC.
"If Tracy Morgan is truly sorry for what he has done, then he should make the effort to learn the damage that is caused by homophobic parents and help to educate others about the terrible harm caused by parental rejection. He heard the crowd cheering him on. What if one of them has an LGBT child? I would advocate that his employer, NBC, join in this effort. Their power to reach millions is obvious. There is no more valuable effort that can be done for LGBT youth than to work to help them be loved and protected in their own homes." - Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano, writing for the Huffington Post.
RELATED: Morgan has agreed to meet with Siciliano and GLAAD.
During a call with GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios and members of GLAAD’s staff today, Morgan committed to meet this week in New York City with LGBT youth from the Ali Forney Center who have been hurt or left homeless by parental rejection as well as family members who have lost children to anti-gay violence. Those he will meet include Elke Kennedy, the founder of Sean’s Last Wish. Elke’s son Sean was killed by anti-gay violence in 2007 at the age of 20 in South Carolina, when another man called him a f*ggot and punched him so hard it broke his facial bones and separated his brain from his brain stem. Since that day, Elke has traveled more than 140,000 miles to speak in states across the country about hate violence and bullying. Morgan also committed to participate in GLAAD’s upcoming ‘Amplify Your Voice’ PSA campaign to combat anti-LGBT bullying.
According to a just-released study, LGBT youth tend to take greater risks with their health than do their heterosexual counterparts.
High school students who identify as being gay, lesbian, or bisexual are more likely than heterosexual students to smoke, drink alcohol, use drugs, and take part in violent and suicidal behaviors, a CDC survey shows. CDC researchers analyzed survey results from about 156,000 high school students. "This report should be a wake-up call for families, schools, and communities that we need to do a much better job of supporting these young people," Howard Wechsler, EdD, MPH, of the CDC, says in a news release. "Any effort to promote adolescent health and safety must take into account the additional stressors these youth experience because of their sexual orientation, such as stigma, discrimination and victimization."Anti-gay groups will, of course, leap upon this latest study without noting their own complicity in the "stigma, discrimination and victimization" noted above.
Another horror story from the evil minds of George "Rentboy" Rekers and the Family Research Council. Please check out Box Turtle Bulletin's extensive multi-story investigation into this outrage.
Add Focus On The Family to the list of hate groups gleefully jumping on Queerty's now-infamous post about "indoctrinating" students. Last month Queerty's article was republished by NOM, the Family Research Council, and the Concerned Women for America.
Steve Rothaus reports at the Miami Herald:
They’ve bullied and taunted her, calling her names and writing on her locker. And now, the seniors at McFatter Technical High School have elected Andrew Viveros their 2011 prom queen. “They called my name and I was in total shock,’’ said Andrew, a 17-year-old who was born male but has publicly presented herself as female for the last two years. With her long wavy brown hair, Andrew wore a royal blue dress and got a fresh manicure for the Friday night dance. Andrew, also known as Andii, plans to someday change her name to Andrea after she transitions. She wanted to run for prom queen in order to show other transgender teens “it gets better.” She ran against 14 others.
Blah, blah, blah. Same old, same old.
The New York Times has launched a new series in which LGBT youth tell their stories. Hit the link, this looks pretty cool.
JMG reader Sean Chapin has convinced the San Francisco Giants to become the first professional sports team to create an "It Gets Better" video. Chapin's petition to the team on Change.org had drawn over 6000 signatures.
In an interview Monday, Chapin, a 35-year-old accountant who lives in San Francisco and works in Oakland, described the team's decision, announced Monday, as a "breaking bubble" that will have profound reverberations. Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said that the team had been thinking of joining the campaign before Chapin started his petition drive, but that his efforts speeded things up. She said the exact content of the video and which, if any, players or members of the coaching staff will participate have not been determined. Originally, the plan was to produce the video for the Giants LGBT Night home game in August, Slaughter said, "but now we're trying to get it done sooner than later."Congratulations, Sean!
