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LGBTQIAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

11K views 151 replies 37 participants last post by  uxyzapenje 
#1 · (Edited)


http://www.glaad.org/spiritday?sid=28603
Millions wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy -- participants are asked to simply "go purple" on October 19th as we work to create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are. Learn more & go purple at www.glaad.org/spiritday.
 
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#56 · (Edited)
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

Nice thread. My wife is bisexual, and I have several bi and gay friends, so good shit :cool:



This song symbolizes how I feel.
I thought Katy Pretty was generally disliked by the LGBT community? As far as I know, all the bi and gay people I know love Lady Gaga (who I despise either way) but absolutely loathe Katy Pretty :confused:
 
#51 ·
Re: Stand up against bullying & for LGBT youth by going purple for Spirit Day on 10/1

Thanks for the support for all who has participated! Remember, acceptance and love for others are things we need to act out 24/7, not just one day! 10/19 has been meant to show bullied teens that we love them and we care but to make a change, we all have to be the change. No time for apathy. Support human rights and do your part to ensure human beings from all walks of life are treated equally :)
 
#52 ·
Re: Stand up against bullying & for LGBT youth by going purple for Spirit Day on 10/1

Yesterday gave me an insight on who the good people are on this forum and who I will never associate with. Thanks to everyone who supported and fuck everyone who didn't.
 
#60 ·
Re: Stand up against bullying & for LGBT youth by going purple for Spirit Day on 10/1

Yesterday gave me an insight on who the good people are on this forum and who I will never associate with. Thanks to everyone who supported and fuck everyone who didn't.
So anyone who didn't write in purple is a bad/evil human being? What a great logic.
 
#53 ·
Re: Stand up against bullying & for LGBT youth by going purple for Spirit Day on 10/1

http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
The Trevor Project is the leading national
organization providing crisis intervention and
suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.



History of The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project was founded in 1998 by James Lecesne, Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone, the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR. Set in 1981, TREVOR is a timeless coming-of-age story about love, loss, and learning to be yourself.

Trevor is an exuberant, happy 13-year old who has a crush on the most popular boy in school, Pinky Faraday. When Trevor's classmates discover his true feelings for Pinky, they tease and mock him. Sad and friendless, Trevor decides the world would be better off without him and tries to take his own life. But Trevor is no victim. By the end, it's clear his developing sense of self and undeniable enthusiasm for life will always see him through.

When TREVOR was scheduled to air on HBO®, the filmmakers realized that some young viewers might face the same kind of crisis as Trevor and could use support. They searched for an appropriate lifeline number to broadcast with the film but no such number existed. On August 8, 1998, James Lecesne, Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone opened the Trevor Lifeline. Since that time, The Trevor Project has become a national leader providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth.

In addition to operating the only national crisis lifeline for LGBTQ teens and young adults, Trevor offers unique suicide prevention services to youth in digital spaces, including counseling via instant message through TrevorChat and the largest online social network specifically for young LGBTQ people, TrevorSpace.

Recognized as a national leader, Trevor has played a key role as an appointee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, and has been a leading crisis resource for anti-bullying initiatives, including StopBullying.gov. The Trevor Project is also a Champion of Change, an honor presented by the White House for our innovative work to save the lives of LGBTQ young people.
 
#54 ·
Re: Stand up against bullying & for LGBT youth by going purple for Spirit Day on 10/1

If you know any non-heterosexual or questioning/confused teen out there struggling with their sexuality, please direct them to this organization. It is truly a life saver.
 
#57 ·
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

Filo!

I hope yesterday was a triumph for you and everyone else associated! :hug:

Let's go PURPLE again next year.
Yesterday was an amazing day and I think an amazing reflection of how much we've progressed socially in regards to acceptance for all people. Things are getting better and we're gaining more true allies every day. It's truly exciting times! Of course we have a long way to go but I feel that for the first time, there is light at the end of the tunnel :)

We're going purple next year without doubt! Hopefully next year is even better than this year :cheerleader:
 
#71 ·
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

I know who the allies are and aren't. I have nothing to offer non-allies.
Unless you consider the possibility that non-allies are potential allies.
 
#74 ·
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

Four states will be deciding on whether to ban marriage equality or not on November 6th. Maine, Minnesota, Washington and Maryland all have the potential to go down as the first state where marriage equality has won a popular vote on ballot, and things are getting ugly:



The hate side has gotten extremely divisive realizing they very well could lose this time in more than one state. If you have friends in these four states, please make sure they get out to vote for marriage equality! Every single vote matters!
 
#81 ·
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/cross-closet-bigotry-empathy-17442808
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cross-...s-year-gay-man/story?id=17443219#.UInS_MVG8bQ

Cross in the Closet: Straight Christian Lives a Year as Gay Man

In his Nashville Christian church, Timothy Kurek was taught the lesson of God's wrath in the Biblical story of "Sodom and Gomorrah," and he believed that homosexuality was a sin.

"You learned to be very afraid of God," said Kurek. According to the preachings of his church, "The loving thing to do is to tell my friend who is gay, 'Hey, listen, you are an abomination and you need to repent to go to heaven.' I absolutely believed in that lock, stock and barrel."

So devout was Kurek as a teen that friends' parents would often call him to set their kids straight if they misbehaved or broke what they believed to be God's law.

"I would be the one on the phone until four in the morning, asking them to repent for their sins," he said.

But about four years ago, when a lesbian he knew from karaoke night confided to him that her parents had disowned her when she came out, Kurek felt that he failed her.

"I feel God really kicked me in the gut," he said. "She was crying in my arms and instead of being there for her, I was thinking about all the arguments to convert her."

Kurek's reaction ate away at him, and he wondered what it felt like to be gay and so alone. So even though Kurek identifies as straight, he embarked on what one religious writer called "spiritual espionage." He would live like a gay man for a year.

"It finally clicked," he said. "I needed to empathize and understand."

Now 26 and no longer homophobic, Kurek writes about his journey -- one that included hanging out in gay bars and facing the disappointment of his family and rejection of his friends -- in his memoir, "The Cross in the Closet."

He chose today, National Coming Out Day and LGBT National History Month, to launch book sales and has pledged to give some of the proceeds to a charity that helps LGBT youth who are homeless.

He says he hopes to change minds, not just in the Christian community but in the LGBT one as well, and to bridge the divide in the debate over gay rights.

Some experts say his attitude reflects those of other young Christians.

Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York City psychiatrist who has an expertise in LGBT issues, says the younger generation is less anti-gay than some of their elders.

"The question of 'love the sinner and hate the sin,' is an idea they are being forced to question," he said. "Some of the sound bites [on homosexuality] are not working so well for the younger generation ? Condemnation has a human cost."

Kurek had been homeschooled by parents who never taught him to shun or hate gay people and who admitted they had wrestled with the church's teaching on homosexuality.

He said he had always wanted to write a book, but never finished his studies at the Christian Liberty College in Lynchburg, Va.. But Kurek had kept a daily journal for months, and it was "beginning to read like a book."

By 2009, the idea to go undercover, as a way of documenting and learning about homophobia, was born. For six months he plotted and planned. "I had to make sure the timing was right," he said.

But one day, sitting in a café in a part of Nashville where the gay bars and Christian hang-outs intersect, Kurek had his first confrontation. While reading a gay-themed book, he became aware of the "snickers and sneers."

"A guy came up to me when he saw the cover and said, 'You know that is fundamentally false -- you can't be gay and Christian,'" said Kurek, who responded, "I am gay and I love God."

The project to become gay had begun for real.

Only three people knew the truth, and he needed them to carry out his audacious project: his closest friend, an aunt and Shawn, a gay friend whom Kurek also met at karaoke night.

"My aunt is my mom's best friend and is more liberal in her faith," Kurek said. "She was also able to listen to what my family was saying behind my back ... If my mom went off the deep end, I needed to know."

After a week, he realized he also needed help warding off the advances of gay men.

Kind-hearted Shawn, whom Kurek described as "a big black burly teddy bear," became his "pretend boyfriend."

"I needed protection to keep me balanced and teach me the nuances of gay culture and how they flirt, and to give me an excuse when guys hit on me," said Kurek.

For credibility, Kurek learned to hold hands and embrace.

But most of all, Shawn was the "first gay person that I let into my heart," said Kurek. "He was totally there for me through emotional turmoil ... I trusted him.

"He knew I was straight and he didn't take it too far -- and he taught me not to be afraid."

Eventually the initial "revulsion" disappeared, according to Kurek. "Early on if a guy pinched my ass, I would have punched someone in the face."
 
#82 ·
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

To read the rest of the story, click on the second link. And if you want to hear the straight man behind this experiment interviewed, click on the first link.

What does everyone think? For me, he's saying nothing I didn't know, obviously, but it's still interesting in that it's a perspective of this issue we haven't seen too much----reformed homophobes. So I may read up on his book on the web. But this is more aimed at homophobes and the unenlightened than gays/pro-gays.
 
#84 ·
Re: LGBTQAP MTF posters and straight allies unite!

Beloved Gay Leader Savagely Attacked, Near Death in Sunnyside
http://gaycitynews.com/beloved-gay-leader-savagely-attacked-near-death-in-sunnyside/

Lou Rispoli, described by friends as the heart and soul of the gay community in Sunnyside, Queens, where he has lived for more than 30 years, was attacked by two men with whom he was seen walking at 2 a.m. on October 20 outside 41-00 43rd Avenue. He was hit in the head with a blunt object with such force that neighbors who heard the assault but did not see it thought he had been shot.

Rispoli has been removed from life support and is now in hospice care at Elmhurst Hospital.

“He will not survive, and this will be a homicide,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, fighting back tears, at an October 25 press conference.

Van Bramer, who is gay and represents Sunnyside, said the assault on Rispoli, whom he knew as a friend and someone who worked on his 2009 campaign, “is a tragedy for our neighborhood and our city.”

The victim is 62 years old.

The one eyewitness who has come forward has not been able to provide much of a description of the two assailants other than that they were likely in their 20s. A third man, who stood lookout by a car that the group, including Rispoli, may have emerged from prior to the assault, was tall. The car has variously been described as an SUV or a white two-door.

It is not yet known whether this was an anti-gay bias attack.

Police have released a photo of the victim in the hopes that anyone who may have information about the attack will call the NYPD hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. But police are not yet giving out any details about the crime, saying only that “the investigation is ongoing.”

Rumors were flying around the community about the nature of the crime, according to a local reporter, but nothing has been substantiated beyond the testimony of the lone witness, who apparently did not have a good view of the attackers. There were no surveillance cameras outside the building where the attack took place, but Van Bramer said police are checking cameras in the area in an effort to track Rispoli’s movements and those of his assailants.

Mark Horn, Rispoli’s good friend for decades, read a statement on behalf of the victim’s husband, family, and community of friends, many of whom gathered for Van Bramer’s press conference.

Describing Rispoli as “loving and generous,” Horn said, “He touched so many so deeply. That he was struck down so violently leaves us all speechless with grief.”



Horn told Gay City News that even before there was God’s Love We Deliver, Rispoli was cooking meals and delivering them to people with AIDS in the neighborhood. Rispoli’s involvement in LGBT rights went back to the Gay Academic Union in the 1970s. He was also secretary to the legendary out gay composer Virgil Thomson for many years. His family has requested privacy and that his spouse’s name not be used in the press.

Horn said that at holidays, Rispoli opened his home to gay and non-gay friends who did not have family and served sumptuous meals.

Rispoli and his husband married on their 31st anniversary in August 2011, having met on the subway in 1980. The couple raised two daughters together.

Eric Lehman and his partner Gerry Oxford came to the press conference for their friend of ten years.

“He was a force of nature,” Lehman said, “with a very big personality.”

Rispoli seemed to have been a beloved figure among Sunnyside residents, gay and straight alike. His ill-fated midnight walk was not thought of as unusual since he often had trouble sleeping and roamed the neighborhood and its late-night shops. But there is no good information on why he took this particular walk and whether or not he knew his assailants or had had previous trouble with them.

Van Bramer said, “He was not robbed to our knowledge.”

Recalling the day he met Rispoli at a house party for his 2009 Council run, Van Bramer said, “He said he was thrilled that an openly gay person was running. He was a great volunteer and became a friend to us.”

The councilman added, “Lou was a proud gay man. He fought for full equality for our community. But I don’t know if he was attacked because he was a gay man. This is a good and safe neighborhood where gay men and lesbians can walk the streets and be who they are.”

Horn said, “He was a pillar of the gay community and he was a pillar of this community [of Sunnyside]. Lou was not afraid. He went where he wanted when he wanted.”
 
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