Spread the Message That #LoveCantWait This Valentine’s Day
How are you celebrating love this Valentine’s Day? HRC wants to know.
HRC.org
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College Swimmer Celebrates Coming Out By Partying With Teammates At Chipotle
College Swimmer Celebrates Coming Out By Partying With Teammates At Chipotle
Last month, 19-year-old Villanova University swimmer Ryan Murtha (pictured) gathered his teammates together before practice to share a secret he had been living with for years, OutSports reports. It was a secret he had didn’t think he could ever tell anyone, given his Roman Catholic upbringing, his work with the Boy Scouts of America, and the fact that he was on a college sports team.
Standing in front of the entire Villanova men’s swim team, Murtha pulled out the letter he had written beforehand. After nervously clearing his throat, he read:
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.
When he was finished, the room was absolutely silent.
“I was pretty terrified,” Murtha tells OutSports. “Forever I had played this in my head over and over again. That little pause after I finished speaking, all of the worst-possible scenarios played through my head. What if they didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore?”
Much to his relief, none of those scenarios happened.
Moments later, one of his teammates broke the silence by clapping. Then another one joined in. And another. Soon, everyone was applauding, offering Murtha’s hugs and high fives and letting him know that his sexuality wouldn’t have any impact on how they felt towards him.
“Obviously, it turned out well in the end,” he says.
So well, in fact, that the whole team decided to hit Chipotle for a burrito-infused, post-coming out fiesta.
At Chipotle, his teammates again reassured Murtha that everything was cool and that they accepted him no matter what.
Murtha says that since coming out to his teammates, he’s also found the courage to come out to his parents, though he admits they are still struggling with it. He also had to quit the Boy Scouts, since the organization bans openly gay people from working with youth.
“It seems hypocritical not letting gay leaders into the Scouts,” he says. “The Scout Law lays it out pretty clearly. ‘A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.’ The policy prohibiting gay people goes against a lot of those points.”
But he’s not letting that get the best of him. Murtha says he hopes that by sharing his story will help encourage others to do the same.
“I want to be able to help people going through the same thing that I did,” he says. “If sharing my story can help just one person, then it will be worth it.”
Related stories:
Olympic Rower Robbie Manson Shares His Inspiring Coming Out Story
Ian Thorpe’s Coming Out Receives Highest Praises On Twitter
Teen Tennis Ace Tweets Amazing Coming Out Note, Receives “Phenomenal” Response
Graham Gremore
Azealia Banks Calls Out Gay Male Misogyny, Defends Her Use of the Word 'Faggot'
Azealia Banks Calls Out Gay Male Misogyny, Defends Her Use of the Word 'Faggot'
Azealia Banks took to Instagram yesterday to revisit the conversation about her language choices, reaffirming that her supposed homophobia was matched only by gay male misogyny.
Wrote Banks:
“Why is it okay…..For a gay man to colloquially use the word “Bitch” to refer to women, but is it not okay for me to colloquially use the word “Faggot” to refer to myself or an opponent? Do gay men get a special pass to say misogynist things simply because they Like dick? The argument is that countless gay kids hear the word “faggot” before they are beat to death…But do you know how many women hear the word “Bitch” before their husbands beat them to death? Before they are murdered/raped?
Though many of Banks’s fan have lauded her willingness to speak frankly about her thoughts on white rappers, she’s caught a considerable amount of flack for her use of derogatory terms like “faggot” in the past. The bi-sexual rapper famously exchanged words with Perez Hilton in 2013 and drew GLAAD’s attention for called the gossip blogger a “messy faggot” via Twitter.
Banks unapologetically defended her use of the word in an interview with the Guardian back in November in which she reasoned that gay men had no business being indignant at her use of the f-bomb.
“It’s like, y’all sing along to my words when I’m saying ‘nigga’ and ‘cunt’, but as soon as I call this one white man a faggot the whole world exploded,” Banks stated. “ Listen, I didn’t say all gay men are faggots; I said Perez Hilton is a faggot, so don’t try and bring the rest of the gays down with your faggotry.”
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Deaf LGBT
Deaf LGBT
DEAF LGBT.
National Conference on LGBT Equality
Megan Hilty: Life After 'Smash'
Megan Hilty: Life After 'Smash'
Broadway’s blonde bombshell reflects on being a new mother, an LGBT activist, and battling antigay Internet trolls.
Adam Sandel
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/music/2015/02/06/megan-hilty-life-after-smash
Supermodel Patricia Velasquez Comes Out As Gay
Supermodel Patricia Velasquez Comes Out As Gay
Venezuelan supermodel Patricia Velasquez has come out as gay in a new memoir.
Velasquez, who has been dubbed the “first Latina supermodel,” opens up about her sexuality in her new book, Straight Walk. She writes that while working in the modeling world in the 1990s, she was living a lie that was “tortuous” and “eroding my soul bit by bit,” according to Yahoo Parenting.
The 43-year-old was inspired to talk publicly about her journey by her 8-year-old daughter, Maya.
“It’s very difficult to face your past, so I put off doing anything like this for a long time,” she told Yahoo Parenting. “But as my daughter started growing up and I was teaching her to be honest and proud, I knew it was time for me to set an example — and that meant facing my truth. For me, living life with truth and honesty is the one thing I want to make sure she understands.”
In Straight Walk, Velasquez discusses her life-altering relationship with comedian Sandra Bernhard, whom she met backstage at a fashion show, according to excerpts obtained by the New York Post. After they hooked up, Velasquez struggled with what had happened and slept with a male fashion photographer.
“In my head I thought, ‘I just wanted to prove one thing, and I did.’ There was no middle ground for me — a person was gay or not gay. Being gay was not for me.” But she went on to date Bernhard exclusively, without labeling herself. “I was deeply in love with Sandra in a way I’d never experienced before.”
When the relationship ended, Velasquez “cried for two years,” according to the Post.
She has modeled for Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, Chanel, Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated. She also appeared in “The Mummy” and “Arrested Development.”
Straight Walk hits shelves Feb. 10.
Carnival Corporation Joins Group to End LGBT Discrimination in Florida
Carnival Corporation Joins Group to End LGBT Discrimination in Florida
Carnival Corporation has joined the Florida Businesses for a Competitive Workforce (FBCW) coalition working to end LGBT discrimination in businesses across the Sunshine State.
HRC.org
Lance Bass Feels Like A Whole Human Now That He Has A Husband
Lance Bass Feels Like A Whole Human Now That He Has A Husband
As if being the world’s most famous gay newlyweds wasn’t enough, Lance Bass and Michael Turchin want you to watch their wedding. On television.
And we’ve got to be honest and say that we can’t wait.
The adorable couple, whose wedding extravaganza Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding will be the first-ever network special featuring same-sex nuptials, sat down with GLAAD’s Claire Pires to discuss what it what it was like growing up gay in the south, why they were afraid to invite Lisa Vanderpump to one of their dinner parties, and the importance of having put a ring on it.
“Once you’re able to say husband, it just means so much more,” Lance told GLAAD. “You feel like a whole human being … no longer a second class citizen.”
Michael agreed. “You’re just looked upon as a full person that can live a life just like anyone else, and that’s so important.”
See the full interview below.
Watch Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding tonight (and probably every night for the next six months) on E!
Winston Gieseke
Rachel Maddow Shows Some Love to Gay Tech Bears Who Own Jeb Bush Presidential Campaign Website: VIDEO
Rachel Maddow Shows Some Love to Gay Tech Bears Who Own Jeb Bush Presidential Campaign Website: VIDEO
In a segment on an odd set of stories from Oregon, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took a look at CJ Phillips and Charlie Rainwater – the self-described high-tech bear couple who bought www.JebBushForPresident.com back in 2008 and are using the site “as a platform to educate our friends and family about political impact to LGBT families.”
Maddow, who called the story “the single most amazing thing you need to know about Oregon today”, also used the segment to educate her viewers about bears – or as she calls them “everyone’s favorite happy gay subculture.”
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…
[h/t jmg]
the bear segment starts at 11:00
Kyler Geoffroy
