Villanova Swimmer Comes Out; Gay Student In Texas; Lance Bass & Outing Anti Gay Politicians;

Villanova Swimmer Comes Out

This is interesting because it's about the emotional aspect of coming out if you're a gay athlete, and also about a few social things as they are related to what everyone calls "gay culture."

Villanova is an excellent university on Philadelphia's Main Line. I know it well because I live in New Hope, Bucks County and I have a few friends who graduated from there. A swimmer at Villanova, Ryan Murtha, recently came out in public to all his teammates. He did this after a great deal of soul-searching and self-loathing.

So this is tough for me and I apologize for taking so long to tell you guys this, but it took me forever to admit to myself and then it’s been really hard to work up the courage to say it.

I’m gay. I’ve tried to bury this part of myself for a long time but slowly grew to accept it over the past year and a half. I want you guys to know that this isn’t something that I chose. I was just born with it.

Anyway, I want you to know that I’m still the same person that I’ve been. I hope you guys don’t see me any differently because of this. I don’t think it should define me totally; it’s just one of many parts that make up who I am.

But if for whatever reason you don’t like me because of this, I guess I can’t blame you because for a long time I hated myself for being gay, too. I made myself believe that living with this shame was worth not losing any of my friendships. But I don’t want to be ashamed anymore. And I’ve kind of felt like I wouldn’t be able to 100% accept myself and move on until I could be truthful with my friends. That’s you guys. So if you’re down to stick around and still be my friend, I can’t even begin to say how grateful I would be.

If you have any questions or if you want to talk to me about it, feel free.

Does it get any better than that? He's tired of the shame. After a long moment of silence, the entire room began clapping and supporting Murtha. Then the entire team went to Chipolte to celebrate. 

You can read the rest here. The article goes on to mention a few comments Murtha makes on other topics. But I think the part about where they went to celebrate is worthy of comment. Notice, they didn't go to the gay bar. They went to one of the most mainstream establishments in the US. So those of you who don't see the death of the gay bar or the gay ghetto as real, you might want to look around and see what younger gay men are doing and how they're living their lives.

Gay Student in Texas

There's clearly a pattern lately. In gay presses, anything anti-gay or discriminatory seems to be coming from states like Texas and Alabama. I'm not sure whether or not the media hypes this up, with regard to region, because there's still discrimination everywhere, not just in Texas and Alabama. I think this story could happen anywhere in the world.

In any event, here's a story about a brave gay teen in Texas who did a video and he was penalized because they claim he was pushing a gay agenda, and it is against their personal beliefs.

Austin Wallis, a 17-year-old US YouTuber and former student at private Christian school Lutheran High North in Houston, posted a video recently showed him in tears after he recounted a story of how he was called into his principal's office two weeks ago. 

He said: ‘The gist of it was: I had to go back into the closet. Which means I had to delete all my social media, including YouTube. I had to erase my digital impact on the world. And he said I’ll have to do that to stay at the school.’

You can read the rest here. Allegedly, the school is another one of those religious Christian affairs that simply don't support LGBTI issues. Is this wrong? Yes. However, if you know you're dealing with these kinds of religious fanatics why bother wasting time with them? In other words, the scorpion will always sting to kill just as the bible thumper will always discriminate against the gay person. It's in the scorpion's nature to do this and nothing is going to change that.

I'd rather look at a more positive side and dismiss these kinds of Christian organizations completely. And they do have a right to their opinions, hooded as they may be. One, I'm glad to see a brave teen so open and out about himself. Two, there are plenty of schools and places in the US where this kind of thing does NOT happen. And I'll bet many of them are even located in Texas.

Lance Bass & Outing Anti-Gay Politicians

This is an interesting article because it sounds a little like sour grapes. It's as if Lance Bass thinks that because bloggers like Perez Hilton threatened to out him back in 2006, he should be able to out others now.

And I'm supposed to applaud this? Really? 

He and new husband Michael Turchin are for it when it comes to anti-gay politicians who might be gay themselves or are against marriage equality and are having extramarital affairs. 

The couple paid a visit to The Meredith Vieira Show this week and were asked to weigh in on Alabama State Rep. Patricia Todd’s threat to out some of her fellow lawmakers if they did not support gay marriage in the state. 

Todd said she received death threats over it. 

‘I think you have to keep politicians honest,' Bass said. 'I’m never about outing people at all but when it comes to voting against my right to live my life the way I want to and my pursuit of happiness? Then I’m all for it. Out them.’ 

Turchin added: ‘If you’re going to work to suppress a group of people and yet you are living – in your eyes – an equally immoral life, if someone wants to make you accountable then I think they should.’

First, what Todd is threatening sounds a lot like blackmail to me. Is there such a thing as legal blackmail? I'm not sure. And is it ethical to hang someone's sexuality over their proverbial head?

Second, as a human being I'm adamantly against outing anyone,and I mean ANYONE. I think coming out is a private process and no one has the right to put anyone in that position...not Lance Bass or his new husband, what's his name.

Do I like closeted politicians who are allegedly anti-gay? Not at all. I've known a few, and guess what, some are even Democrats. Yup. Good old left wing Democrats. I've seen it in person. But I'm a human being first, before anything else. And I think I would be a really fucked up human being if I started playing with someone's deeply seated emotional issues. I don't think I have a right to do that, and neither does Lance Bass and what's his name.

The rest of this bullshit is here.  

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Another "Looking" Article; Small Rant

Another Looking Article; Small Rant

Yes, another know-it-all critic, Bobby Hankinson, posted an article about HBO's Looking and he finally gave his grand approval. Get my smelling salts. But his praise is only based on the most recent episode, while slamming previous episodes as if he's the authority on gay television.

 For many viewers, it may just be too little, too late. That's a shame, because I think tonight's episode finally struck the right balance between the show's much-touted realism (some might call it "overly-touted") and some really nice storytelling.

Comments like that often pass me by because when I talk to friends and I read comments on threads and forums about Looking I see gay men who are thrilled to see a TV show with which they can finally identify, and one that gives a voice to the most silent majority within the gay community: the gay male who breaks most of the traditional gay stereotypes. In other words, he's not the wedding planner, the florist, the hairdresser, or the interior decorator. There's nothing wrong with any of those careers or the gay men who perform them. It's just nice to see another part of gay culture portrayed once in the show Looking.

You can read more here.

And here's a comment from a web site that monitors TV ratings.

HBO is taking chances on niche markets. They are starting to represent characters who are NOT in the 98% majority of heterosexual, white, middle class men aged 18+ because that demographic is NOT the 98% majority of people in the world. Bravo to the network for taking chances on things out of the ordinary. The shows, while not unproblematic, are fresh and foraging new ground for silent, oppressed voices to be heard.

I'm with this guy. Very few in the history of the world have been more oppressed than the gay male who is NOT the stereotype of effeminate Truman Capote. And I'd like to think the days of the amusing swishy gay male, much like the days of black men who tap danced, are coming to an end very soon.

Whether or not Looking will survive another season I don't know. I hope it does. But I'm also finding that TV in itself is a dying medium and most people I know under the age of fifty are watching shows online and I'm not sure if those ratings count. If you do a simple search for Looking and read some of the reviews and comments from gay men who've seen the show online you'll get something much different than you'll see from critics.

If you go to this youtube link you'll be able to read a variety of comments. Some are the standard gay hate comments for all things LGBTI. Others are written by younger gay men who love the show and hope it continues. I think that's important to grasp being that so many younger people are NOT subscribing to cable or Direct TV anymore and they are getting all their entertainment and information online. We're thinking of doing that ourselves in the near future.

I think if Looking were to add at least one gay couple who have been together at least ten or twenty years it would gain in ratings. And I'm not talking about a gay couple like the one on Modern Family. I'm talking about a real gay couple.