Is society really as accepting as it claims?

[canmark]

Members of the ruling Conservative party in Canada have produced and It Gets Better video, although not without criticism.

National Post: Tory anti-bullying video draws fierce criticism
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/Tory%2Banti%2Bbullying%2Bvideo%2Bdraws%2Bfierce%2Bcriticism/5591009/story.html

CBC: 'It gets better,' Tory MPs tell gay teens in video
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/20/pol-mps-it-gets-better.html

[Marz]

Tragic

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052522/Man-beaten-burned-alive-victim-homophobic-attack.html

[gnash]

^^^  i just now read that while compiling TDS. he looks so much like my friend in chicago, and they're about the same age. :::crying:::

stuart walker

RIP

[gnash]

another article:

Stuart Walker's Brutal Murder in Cumnock: Will Gay Hate Crimes Ever End?

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/236723/20111024/stuart-walker-cumnock-murder-gay-hate-crime-burned-set-on-fire-beaten-killed-died-scotland-scottish.htm

[canmark]

Washington Post: New ‘It Gets Better’ video features three Republicans with record opposing gay rights
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/new-it-gets-better-video-features-three-republicans-with-record-opposing-gay-rights/2011/10/26/gIQAnHFzJM_blog.html

[lislis]

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-sin-patrol-sin-patrol-provides-protection-for-salt-lakes-lgbt-community-20111030,0,7453881.story

They call themselves "Safety In Numbers", or "The S.I.N. Patrol."

[tfferg]

Australian gay writer Alasdair Duncan writes on his experience on a festival panel about gay characters in novels on school reading lists

A few weeks back, I was a guest at the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle, and appeared on a couple of panels, including one called Boy Meets Boy. The panel was a mix of fiction writers and teachers, and the discussion centred around writing for the Young Adult market, and specifically, on whether it is possible – or even necessary – for novels with queer protagonists to find a meaningful place on school reading lists. The consensus seemed to be ‘not any time soon’ – there was a lot of talk of concerned parents kicking up a stink, of how gay characters in young Adult Fiction, when they appear at all, are neutered and non-threatening, appearing somewhere on the periphery of the text. The discussion, while in some ways pessimistic, made me think back on my experiences as a teenage reader, and about the reasons I write in the first place.

More here
http://gaynewsnetwork.com.au/viewpoint/viewpoint/2572-alasdair-duncan-literary-awakening.html

[janjo]

It seems obvious to me that there should be fiction for young adults that reflects reality. If ten percent of the population is gay then they are not being represented in literature designed for that age group.
If we want our young people to be well integrated into families and society then fiction should hold up a mirror to their lives.
The idea that all parents would be scandalised by fiction showing the lives of gay teenagers, as long as it is not lurid or pornographic is not necessarily true at all.
Gay life is an eternal reality and not only would good quality "reading list" fiction be helpful for gay students it would help straight students to understand and empathise with their gay friends, brothers, sisters etc.

[lislis]

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/ten-reasons-why-being-gay-is-awesome/

Ten Reasons Why Being Gay Is Awesome

[lislis]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/11/gay-rights-civil-partnerships

...Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of Out magazine, looks forward to the end of gay culture

[CellarDweller115]

I suppose someone thinks this is funny.




Fake Taylor Lautner Coming Out Cover Story Hits Web


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/taylor-lautner-gay-out-twilight-people-276371

[Lyle (Mooska)]

It is these kinds of things that eventually convinced Neil Patrick Harris to come out, though.

[lislis]

http://www.queerty.com/wwii-codebreaker-alan-turing-finally-gets-the-stamp-of-approval-20120102/

Alan Turing, the gay mathematician who helped break the Nazi’s Enigma code in WWII, is being honored with a stamp in his native United Kingdom.

[tfferg]

Peter Roebuck was a famous cricketer, cricket commentator and writer. He sponsored the education of many young African men. He recently committed suicide when being investigated by police acting on a complaint by a young man that he had sexually assaulted him

Stalked by his shame
Dmetri Kakmi
January 4, 2012
Opinion
 

Peter Roebuck might still be alive if people did not frown upon homosexuality.

In the 1961 film Victim, Dirk Bogarde plays a closeted married lawyer who is pitted against a blackmailer. He has been caught in a compromising position with a young man, who commits suicide rather than risk exposure. While watching the film, I was reminded of the early 1980s, when a man leapt off a high-rise in the centre of Melbourne after his predilection for young men was exposed on national television.

If the '80s seem like another age, the '60s must be a different world altogether. And yet these things still happen. Cricket writer Peter Roebuck's death is proof. Aside from a timely reminder that not much has changed for gay people, his death raises the lid on some uncomfortable truths about the dangers of repressed sexuality.




Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/stalked-by-his-shame-20120103-1pjhh.html#ixzz1iRyBpGRE

[janjo]

Peter Roebuck sounds very troubled and quite predatory. It would be nice to think that if he had been loved, nurtured,and accepted as a young man he could have been happily married to a man of his choice and would not have been driven to these lengths, but who knows.