Daily Archives: May 11, 2012

Pgh LGBTQA Youth Post Response Video to ‘It Gets Better’ Video

Found a link to this in my box today … I think its great!

Interesting points that I took away from Han’s comments

Is the concept that ‘It Gets Better’ too big of a promise?

How can we as adults support young people seeking to ‘get better’ in the context Han suggests?

How can we as adults support ourselves – I’ve met more than one person who rejects the whole project because they simply don’t feel their lives are “better” – can we do something about it?

I may be showing my age but I think its pretty cool that they filmed this literally as the Pirates’ video was debuting on the big screen. I hope they’ll post more videos.

The reality is for many people, it doesn’t get better and I believe we have to be okay discussing this. Some people grow up and face life in a world where they are second or third class citizens and just continue to be pummeled by systems that reject them. Or general life stuff that is perhaps magnified in impact because of our LGBT identities. Han’s suggestion that developing better tools inside ourselves to handle these things that we can’t control is wise. And so hard.

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Pgh Public Radio News Show Talks Marriage Equality With Tony Norman

I’m still puzzled by the lack of local LGBT voices in the media coverage. Clearly, that’s an issue we need to address as a community. But I was quite intrigued to learn that a man I greatly admire, Tony Norman, would be appearing on today’s Essential Pittsburgh to discuss the President’s statement on marriage equality.

Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Columnist

Call my cynical but I detect a theme that local media wants to play up the “sexy” provocative elements of how this will impact black support for Obama and right wing responses. And I was eager to see what Tony would do.

He did not disappoint. He had the data and the facts to refute – perhaps destroy- the myth that black voters are inherently homophobic. He referenced everything from Prop 8 voting data to significant statements on the parallels between the struggle for civil rights in both communities. Yes, he said civil rights over and over and over. It was wonderful and it redirected the whole conversation. I was almost in tears of joy.

Mind you, I’ve gone round a bit with Tony on language. We don’t always agree, but I’ll never doubt that he knows what he is talking about AND he’s willing to admit when he might still have something to learn such as his willingness to read the GLAAD Media Guide.

Here’s the link to the broadcast. I urge you to listen.

Follow Tony on Twitter @TonyNormanPG

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Barney Frank AND Chris Matthews Relentless on Religious Values with Tony Perkins

This is pretty awesome. Congressman Barney Frank and commentator Chris Matthews really push back on Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins religious defense of his bigotry.

You may know this already but GLAAD has an interesting project called CAP – Commentator Accountability Project. They essentially make sure the media is aware of the bias and demand more transparency on the hate-fest these folks spew outside of mainstream media.

The GLAAD Commentator Accountability Project (CAP) aims to put critical information about frequent anti-gay interviewees into the hands of newsrooms, editors, hosts and reporters. Journalists or producers who are on deadline often don’t have the time to dig into the histories of a commentator. Audiences need to be aware that when they’re not talking to the mainstream media, these voices are comparing LGBT people to Nazi Germany, predicting that equal treatment of LGBT people will lead to the total collapse of society, and even making accusations of satanic influence.

The Commentator Accountability Project is bringing all of these statements to light, while calling attention to the sentiments behind them. We will show that the commentators who are most often asked to opine on issues like marriage equality or non-discrimination protections do not accurately represent the “other side” of those issues. They represent nothing but extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community.