Last night the American Foundation for Equal Rights hosted a historic night of theater when they live-streamed the West Coast premiere of the Dustin Lance Black play “8,” based on the Proposition 8 trials in Los Angeles, which sought to reverse a 2008 state-wide vote the declared same-sex marriage illegal in the state.
The premiere last night at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles was directed by Rob Reiner and the cast featured the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Colfer, Matthew Morrison, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Matt Bomer and George Takei.
Uncover the truth about marriage for gay and lesbian Americans. “8″—a new play by Academy-award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar)—demystifies the debate around marriage equality by chronicling the landmark trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Learn about the historical context of marriage from expert testimony. See the human cost of discrimination. Uncover the arguments used to justify bans on marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Using the actual court transcripts from the landmark federal trial of California’s Prop. 8 and first-hand interviews, “8″ shows both sides of the debate in a moving 90-minute play.
And here’s the “8″ trailer:
The play saw a star-studded staged reading (Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, John Lithgow, Rob Reiner, Ellen Barkin) on Broadway back in September to rave reviews, which has subsequently spawned a national phenomenon of sorts. Over the past few months AFER (the organization behind the plantiff’s lawyers during the Prop 8 trials) has been at the forefront of a nationwide marketing effort to promote the West Coast premiere that live-streamed on their website and YouTube.
Here’s a video of Reiner previewing the big night:
The big event last night was the kick-off to the “8″ national tour. AFER is also sponsoring staged readings at colleges and universities across the country. If you want your city to host a reading visit 8theplay.com for more information.
Now do yourself a favor and take the time to watch the full all-star West Coast premiere below:
Here’s the official announcement from Equality Ohio:
Equality Ohio is pleased to announce that Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman has signed the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry Pledge and the Ohio Elected Officials Freedom to Marry pledge supporting the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. We appreciate his willingness to discuss this issue with community leaders and reach the decision to support full marriage equality. Thank you Mayor Coleman, and we look forward to hearing your 200th anniversary State of the City speech and cheering for you as the Grand Marshal of the Columbus Pride Parade in June.
It’s been reported that Mayor Coleman has been dragging his feet on signing the petition after many mayors, both democrat and republican, across the state and the nation have already signed on. It was a move that was puzzling as Columbus is considered one of the country’s largest gay meccas and Coleman has always been very pro gay rights.
Many local gay rights leaders and organizations came together and put in many man hours to have petitions signed and meetings with the mayor to change his mind.
Whatever the motivations or reason the lag, I say thanks to Mayor Coleman for finally signing the petitions, your commitment to equality is a great example to the state and the nation! And special thanks to all those who tirelessly fought to make this happen!
UPDATE (2/16 at 2:11 p.m.): The Columbus Dispatch has picked up the story and includes the below quote from Coleman’s spokesperson, Dan Williamson, stating why the mayor changed his mind:
“One of the things that pushed the mayor over the top on this issue was a meeting he had with a city employee, a veteran who came back,” Williamson said. “He told the mayor he’s now openly gay, but he had to hide things from his fellow soldiers,” while the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy was in effect. “He said he was overseas fighting for everybody’s rights but his own.”
An new organization called Freedom to Marry Ohio has started a petition to have a marriage equality added to the state’s 2012 election ballot.
According to a press release for the organization, Freedom to Marry Ohio is a coalition of past and present elected officials, candidates, community and business leaders who are advocating for Marriage Equality in Ohio.The organization is led by Statewide Co-Chairs Tim Hagan (former Cuyahoga County Commissioner) and Andrew Ginther (President of Columbus City Council), and John O’Grady (Franklin County Commissioner). You can find out more by visiting their website, Facebook and Twitter pages.
As their first major project their gathering signatures to have same-sex marriage added to the 2012 ballot. They need 385,245 to make it happen.
The first big step to hitting that number is a goal of 1,000 signature by Wednesday, Feb. 22, which would validate the petition with the Ohio Ballot Board, said Ian James, Freedom to Marry Ohio’s volunteer outreach advocate. If the 285,000 signatures aren’t acquired by the July deadline the organization would be forced to shoot for the July 2013 deadline for the 2013 ballot.
It seems a major component of Freedom to Marry Ohio’s strategy is to included specific wording in the Ohio Constitution that would legalize marriages between same-sex partners, but while giving religious institutions the right to refuse performing same-sex marriage ceremonies. A long time argument for many against marriage equality has been that such laws would force churches to marry gay couples, thus impending or their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion.
If added to the ballot the decision for voters would be to amend the current same-sex marriage ban to read as follows:
In the State of Ohio and its political subdivisions, marriage shall be a union of two consenting adults and no religious institution shall be required to perform or recognize a marriage.
You can sign the petition at Mary Jo Kilroy‘s (who is currently running for Congress) Campaign Headquarters at 1349 E. Broad Street, Columbus. James also said there are now 200 volunteers committed to helping reach the petition’s goals. So get your pens ready!
Yesterday I appeared in a segment by NBC4 Columbus about a recent study showing 1 in 4 students in Ohio schools say they’ve been physically abused for being lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender, which is much higher than national statistics.
As I mentioned on NBC4, I’m not surprised at all by the results of the survey in Ohio. Because of my work with the It Gets Better Project, I talk to students and parents all the time who relay stories of torture faced by gay high school and middle schools students in small towns in Ohio. Just last month, after I spoke at a Coming Out Day event, a mother approached me in tears telling me about her son and the struggles she faced with trying to get the school to even recognize that her 13-year-old son was being bullied because of his sexuality.
We can no longer stand idly by and continue to watch or simply talk about the anti-gay bullying epidemic in this country. We have to start making it better now for our gay youth. It’s no longer just an issue of conservative versus liberal belief, it’s become an issue of safety. And all youth have the right to be safe at school. (Check out my new organization, the Make It Better Foundation, to see how you can help!)
Be sure to check out the full results from the School Climate in Ohio portion of GLSEN’s 2009 National School Climate Survey. Also here’s a story in Gay People’s Chronicle that takes a deeper look at the statistics in Ohio.
Police in Grove City, a suburb of Columbus, are investigating a gay hate crime. David Robins and his partner, Michael, awoke Wednesday morning to find the word “fags” scraweled in red across their garage door along with other slurs spray-painted on other parts of their property.
David Robins and his partner, Michael, have lived at their home on Castleton Street in Grove City for nine years.
Wednesday morning, Robins said, they awoke to find someone had spray-painted homophobic slurs on their garage door, home and fence.
“It’s extremely disappointing. Nine years we’ve lived here and not a problem. Now, all of a sudden this happens. It makes me kind of wonder,” he said.
He said they’ve never had any problems before.
“I kind of feel like it needs to stay up to make a statement, but at the same time, I don’t want to disrupt the neighbors, the perception of the neighborhood, but I also feel like I don’t want to cover it up either,” he said.
Robins is calling it a hate crime and Grove City police are investigating.
“My partner Michael is a little bit more fearful. I’m a little bit more aggressive than Michael is, but he’s fearful of it. He’s a little nervous about why it happened,” he said.
Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to call the Grove City Police Department directly at 614-277-1710.
Uganda gay rights activist and mister Mark Kiyimbaw will be speaking on Friday at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Columbus about his work to protest gays in Uganda and end the hatred in his country.
I’ve covered the terrorism happening against gays in Uganda extensively here on Queer Corner. You’ve probably heard about the Kill the Gays Bill that was buried by the Ugandan Parliament after an outcry from gay rights groups around the country. Homosexuality is still illegal there and is still very hostile for anyone who is openly gay. Kiyimbaw himself had to flee for fear of arrest or worse. During the height of the Kill the Gays Bill frenzy earlier this year, fellow Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato was brutally murdered and the government made a mockery of his death.
The Reverend Mark Kiyimba, minister of the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Kampala, Uganda, has been touring the United States to raise awareness of the persecution of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Uganda.
Rev. Kiyimba fled Uganda in March after threats on his life for being an outspoken opponent of the proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in his country. The persecution of sexual minorities in Uganda has been linked toanti-gay conferences and workshops promoted by U.S. evangelicals for the past several years.
Mark Kiyimba founded the New Life Children’s Home to provide a place for children who have lost parents to AIDS, who are themselves HIV positive, or whose families no longer have the means to care for their children. He also started theNew Life Primary School, located in the Kkindu village west of Masaka, Uganda.
Kiyimba will speak at First Unitarian Universalist (93 West Weisheimer, Columbus) at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11. This event is open to the public.
As planned, Ed Mullen of Equality Ohio and openly gay candidate for Cincinnati City Council Chris Seelbach were the event’s main speakers. The protest mostly took place at the Four Square Plaza in downtown Cincinnati. Here’s a quick Facebook video of the massive crowd. Marchers at one point did go past Occupy Cincinnati protesters, which produced this pretty powerful moment. (If you’re interested in a minute-by-minute breakdown of the day visit Tom Morgan’s Facebook page. He’s GetEQUAL‘s State Lead Organizer in Ohio and he has literally documented every moment of yesterday’s festivities.)
It looks like Columbus may be next on the list for a horde of marriage equality love. A Facebook event page already has nearly 300 “attendees” and it looks like the speakers will be Michael Loch, president of NKY Equality Now at Northern Kentucky University, and GetEQUAL Ohio’s Tom Morgan.
Check out more photos and video from Facebook and YouTube below.
Here’s a YouTube slide show of photos taken by a participant:
This is a speech by Michael Loch, president of NKY Equality Now at Northern Kentucky University:
Just a week after a Chillicothe, Ohio, student’s gay bashing made national news, a freshman boy at Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio, was brutally beaten because his sister came out the closet. His attackers assumed because his sister was gay that he must be too. According to reports they yelled gay slurs at him while attacking him at school.
The boy’s mother went to Equality Ohio with her story seeking help and told them her son suffered a concussion and has been taken out of school to recover.
EO’s Kim Welter (another local hero I admire that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting) was interviewed by 10tv, the local CBS News affiliate, about the incident, calling for Ohio’s legislatures to make some real changes before it’s too late. The mother of the attacker took her son’s side of the story to Columbus’ NBC4, saying that the issue wasn’t homophobic and gave the typical “boys-being-boys” excuse, an excuse that has been used for generations to ignore the real issue of anti-gay bullying.
Equality Ohio is currently at the forefront of lobbying Congress, calling for the passage of laws that protect LGBT students. There are three anti-bullying bills currently making their way through Congress, the most well-known of which is the Safe Schools Act (House Bill 208), which would add sexual-orientation to Ohio’s existing anti-bullying statute.
As for last week’s incident in Chillicothe, it was recently reported that the attacker has been charged by the prosecutor’s office. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Levi Sever has been charged with assault and will appear in juvenile court. This same Dispatch story also reports that no charges will be filed in the Westville case, saying “Westerville police said this afternoon that their investigation has found no evidence the fight involved ‘gay bashing.’”
This is no longer an isolated incident. Ohio is at the bottom of the list when its comes to states with LGBT friendly legislation in this country, and it’s becoming clear that our state’s youth are modeling this message that gay means second class. It’s time that the Ohio Department of Education get involved. Every child deserves to be safe at school. And our legislatures standing idly by and watching this situation escalate is only making the problem worse.
Mother of attacked 15-year-old in Chillicothe tells the local media her son was the victim of a hate crime while at school.
UPDATE (10/30): The Chillicothe Gazette is now reporting that the student who attacked the 15-year-old at Union-Scioto High School for being gay may face a harsher punishment. Principal Jim Osborne told the paper, “the discipline has been revisited based on the ongoing investigation and in light of the new evidence.” The evidence, no doubt, is the video of the attack that has gone viral. The paper also reports that the female student who took the video may also face disciplinary action. I hope there will actually be some real consequences for the attacker, and this isn’t just some way to pacify the media and the general public.
As for the criminal chargers pressed by the victims mother, the case is currently under investigation. According to the Gazette, “the extent of the injury and the medical records are needed for [Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt] to help determine if the assault meets the criteria to be considered a felony. His office is waiting on charging the juvenile until the additional investigation is completed.” I don’t quite understand why this is necessary. A full classroom of witnesses and video of someone beating you up isn’t enough proof to charge someone a felony???
And this tidbit in the last part of the story was interesting: “Since the story went viral, Schmidt, [Sheriff George Lavender] and Osborne reported they have been inundated with phone calls and emails….Osborne said Friday he came into the office to 40 voice mail messages and 500 emails.” Looks like the call-to-action is working.
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Thursday morning the Columbus ABC News affiliate posted video of their story about of a 15-year-old at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio, who was brutally beaten in the classroom because he was gay. The horrific incident was captured on a bystander’s cell phone and posted on Facebook. (You can watch the video below.)
The unidentified gay student suffered a possible concussion and a chipped tooth, but the shocking, and very unfortunate twist, came at the end of the report when it was revealed that the bully was only suspended for three days. The teenager’s mother called what happened to her son and hate crime and has vowed to press charges.
Less than 24 hours after ABC6 On Your Side ran their feature, nearly every gay or gay-friendly journalist/blogger in the country, and beyond, had picked up the story, including Perez Hilton, Queerty, Towleroad, The Huffington Post, The New Civil Rights Movement, Dan Savage’s SLOG and even The Daily Mail in the U.K. Many of them have featured contact information from the school, referencing a call to action, started by Equality Ohio and GetEQUAL Ohio, for people for contact the school and call for the student to be expelled.
Equality Ohio Executive Director Ed Mullen (a man I’ve met and consider one of my local heroes) posted this on his Facebook page: ”Disheartening that it takes a video of a 15-year old gay youth being beaten at school for people to stand up and take notice of bullying and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 9% of youth reported to GLSEN being physically assaulted in school. Unconscionable.”
Equality Ohio is also calling for supporters to contact members of Ohio’s House Education Committee to lobby for the passage of Ohio House Bill 208, a bill that would add “sexual orientation” to the state’s anti-bullying law, which is currently going through Ohio’s Congress. Here’s more from Equality Ohio:
Union-Scioto has no policy in place that specifically protects students from being bullied or attacked based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Union-Scioto Local School District does have a policy that prohibits harassment based on sex, race, color, national origin, religion, disability, among others, but it does not specifically protect against harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Ohio House Bill 208 would add sexual orientation, gender identity, and other enumerated protections to Ohio’s anti-bullying law without changing the general prohibition against any bullying or harassment. Research demonstrates that students feel safer and actually are safer in schools that have enumerated anti-bullying policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity. Proponents of the bill are seeking testimony in the House Education Committee, but the bill has not been a priority of the committee.
CLICK HERE for contact information to each of the legislatures on the House Education Committee. And below is contact information for the school and local authorities:
Union-Scioto Local Schools District Administration:
Superintendent: Dwight Garrett dgarrett@mail.gsn.k12.oh.us
High School Principal: James Osborne josborne@mail.gsn.k12.oh.us
Unioto High School Asst. Principal: Wilma Gillott wgillott@mail.gsn.k12.oh.us
Let’s hope that the outcry and the flooding of the school’s phones will lead to some positive change in Chillicothe. As someone who’s from Ohio and has been to Chillicothe on several occasions, I can say that, unfortunately, this kind of behavior is not unexpected from the that town. It’s a very conservative area that’s known for its institutionalized bigotry.
It’s hostile environments in school’s like this that lead to the suicides of students like Jamey Rodemyer and Jamie Hubley. This is exactly the reason why I’ve started the Make It Better Foundation. This happened in a classroom. The school can’t even give the typically used excuse of “it’s not our responsibility because it happened off school grounds.” If this bully had beat up a kid because he was black or Latino or disabled he would have been expelled. No question.
David Emerson (left) with a fellow protester outside Delaware Christian School
Last week it hit the news-waves that an out and proud Columbus DJ at Rewind 103.5/104.3 was removed from the Delaware Christian School’s alumni page on their Web site because it was “discovered” that his Facebook page listed him as gay.
David Emerson is a 2002 graduate of DCS and had been profiled on their alumni page for years, applauding him for is accomplishments in radio. It wasn’t until this past April that they pulled Emerson’s profile. And when Emerson found out last week he thankfully didn’t take the news lightly and took action.
He was interview by local Columbus affiliates Fox28/ABC6 and NBC4 about the travesty. The gay blogosphere has also picked up the story at Towleroad and Lez Get Real among others.
Emerson told ABC that when he called the school and spoke to DCS Principal Gordon McDonald, he simply responded with, ”you are a gross and immoral representation of my school.” And when NBC spoke with McDonald directly he had this to say:
“David Emerson is a fine young man of whom I think very highly. I am very proud of his professional accomplishments. I regret the deep differences that have occurred. However, speaking for Delaware Christian School I cannot approve of the lifestyle that he has chosen to endorse as posted for public viewing on his Facebook site. Based on David’s posting last April I removed David’s photo and comments from our alumni website. He has publicly chosen to identify himself with a lifestyle that is not in keeping with the biblical belief taught at Delaware Christian. I respect his right to choose and live out his belief but do not want to convey the message that I approve that lifestyle.”
It’s become obvious to me that Mr. McDonald is more of a “gross and immoral reprsenation” of the school than Emerson could ever be. When did it become O.K. for school principals (be it at public or private schools) to condone hate?
Emerson held a protest at the school on Friday, calling for the principal to reinstate his profile on the site. (The photo above in from said protest.) Oh, how, I wish I could have been there.
Many of you may not know this, but I also attended Delaware Christian School. It was during my 7th and 8th grade years. And it was by far the worst two years of my K-12 experience. As a student there I was relentlessly bullied for being “feminine,” and when I told the administration it was suggested that I change my “gay actions” if I wanted the bullying to stop. The bullies were never punished. If it weren’t for my transferring to another school I’m not sure I would have survived the hate.
My experiences at DCS are actually the memories I reference most, as examples of the hate I experienced growing up, when I’m writing or speaking out against anti-gay bullying on behalf of the It Gets Better Project.
It is principals like Mr. McDonald who run schools under this type of bigotry who are causing gay youth to kill themselves. His ludicrous actions are basically teaching his students that disregarding those who are different is a principle to live by. Ultimately, the school is producing bigots and standardizing hate. Is this really the type of administrator we want running a school?
Wouldn't this be perfect for a Coming Out Party! I must find a cupcake shop that makes these.
Today is National Coming Out Day, a day that recognizes the courage it takes to live openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual, and reminds us that there are many out there who still can’t be open because of the intolerant communities in which they live. It is more important now more than ever for the lgbt community to stand up and be counted. I’ve always had the same philosophy as the great Harvey Milk: If they know us they are more likely to vote for us.
I do recognize that each individual should come out in their own time and there are many communities where coming out can be down right deadly, such as in Uganda, where they are still considering the Kill the Gays Bill or Jamaica, where it is socially acceptable for citizens to abuse gays openly in the streets. But now more than ever, those who can need to stand up for those who can’t.
Today I’m going to be speaking at a Coming Out Day event at West Virginia University in Parkersburg, a city that I’ve heard is less than accepting. I’ve had many people ask me, “Why are you going down there? You aren’t going to change their minds, and it seems dangerous.” My mother has been trying to talk me out of it all week. She did finally convince me to a least take someone with me. (Being her baby boy has these occasional consequences.)
I’m going because small town communities in states like West Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, are where the most closeted of us live. If we don’t start creating communities of inclusion in the most conservative of areas we’ll never win at the ballots, we’ll never see true equality.
That’s why I’ll continue to go to areas that aren’t the most accepting, to encourage their gay citizens to stand up together and be counted, to show the bigoted that we’re not the monsters they think we are. We have families we love, we have jobs, we’re dealing with this shitty economy just like you. Because if I can convince one person to help make their community safer for lgbt people, if I can make one parent see that there’s nothing wrong with their kid, if I can make one preacher come to the realization that we’re not an abomination, then any of the ugliness that I ever endured because of coming out will all be worth it.
Last night Anderson Cooper hosted a groundbreaking national town hall meeting broadcast on CNN call “Bullying: It Stops Here.” It was held at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where Tyler Clementi attended school before committing suicide last year after his roommate broadcast his sexual encounter with a man on the internet.
The special featured experts, celebrities and kids from school districts around the nation that spoke about bullying and how it can be stopped. Cooper also premiered eye-opening statistics from a report he conducted with The Bullying Project.
Dr. Phil, Kelly Ripa and Jane Lynch were just a few of big names that attended, but the heroes of the night were the youth who came forward and shared their emotional stories.
I’ve been meaning to write about Jamey Rodemeyer’s suicide for some time now, but just haven’t had the words. My first reaction was anger and I think I just needed to calm down before being able to write about it coherently.
As many of you know i was featured in the book “It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying and Creating a Life Worth Living,” put out by the It Gets Better Project back in March. Since then I’ve been traveling to high schools and colleges in my spare time speaking about the tragic effects of anti-gay bullying and how creating “communities of inclusion,” especially in small towns, can save a child’s life.
When I first heard about Jamey’s death I started to feel as if I’d been fighting a loosing battle. If kids keep dying what’s the point right?
What’s most devastating about Jamey’s is he had done everything right. He’d taken the advice of he It Gets Better campaign. After coming out in Junior High he’d faced the bullying head on, he’d told his parents, he’d addressed it with the teachers and administrators at his school. He’d found friends hat had supported him, and like many of had to at an early age, he’d created his community of inclusion.
And after all of this, after getting through the terrors of middle school, he even created an It Gets Better video to give hope to other kids like himself. So what happened? We have thousands of videos on YouTube promising kids it’s going to get better, from the President on down. Why didn’t it get better for Jamey?
CNN’s Anderson Cooper was one of the many mainstream talking heads that covered the Jamey Rodemeyer tragedy. During a couple interviews (see video below) it was mentioned that the message from society is partly to blame. Personally, I think it’s fully to blame.
When “Christian leaders” and “moral politicians” are able to say hideous things like this, and then have their hate speech on rotation on the nightly news, how else are our youth supposed to respond? It has been found time and time again by child psychologists that bullying is a direct reaction from the environment in which the bullier is grown. Kids aren’t born with hate, they are taught it.
If our religious leaders and media-hungry politicians don’t start changing the message, I’m afraid the bullying will only intensify and our lgbt youth will never be safe. Telling them “it gets better” will never be enough. We have to start at the top, we must re-educate our educators. Or all hope may be lost.
I must admit, every time I hear of another kid who becomes the casualty of our intolerant society, I do want to give up. But now, more than ever, we need to spread the message of acceptance. Which is why I’ll continuing to speak at any school that will have me. I’ll keep telling my story until the hate in our schools becomes unacceptable. Until people who say things like this are shamed by their ignorance.
The closeted solider who has been popularly documenting his coming out process on YouTube for nearly six months has finally shown his face to the world.
I’ve featured him on Queer Corner a few other times. He’s 21, from Alabama, a servicemember who was serving in Afghanistan, but is stationed in Germany, and was deeply in the closet. Before his first video April 18, he’d never told anyone, not even his parents, and obviously not his girlfriend.
At about 3 a.m. this morning the now famous, yet still nameless, recruit filmed himself back in in his quarters on base in Germany coming out to father over the phone, to celebrate Obama and the military officially lifting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This time, however, he showed his entire face. It was probably one of the most powerful YouTube videos I’ve seen. His father, who sports a thick Southern accent, was great, reiterating the fact that he would always love his son, no matter what, throughout the call.
I’ve been watching this soldier’s YouTube videos for some time now and am happy to see he’s finally coming into his own and embracing his true self. He’s obviously gone viral and his chiseled features have also made him pretty popular in the gay blogosphere. I still maintain this is the most revolutionary piece of activism I’ve ever seen. This dude is definitely changing the game and changing lives in the process.
You can check out the moving video below:
Check out all of his videos at his YouTube page, AreYouSuprised, and you can also follow him on Twitter.
Air Force Airman Randy Phillips
UPDATE (9/21, 2:08 a.m.): The “headless soldier” has gone mainstream. He was featured on CNN last night, where his name was revealed (Randy Phillips) and he talked about his experience coming out to his mother. Click HERE to check out the CNN report
For the first time in America’s history gays can now openly serve in the military.
Sept. 20th marks the official repeal date set by President Obama, the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs. And the press has been having a field day with the coverage leading up the momentous occasion. Here are few stories that have popped up already:
HBO aired a new documentary at midnight entitled “The Strange History of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (Here’s a review from AfterElton.com)
I’m sure there will be lots more coverage throughout the day to get soldiers’ coming out stories, interviews with new gay recruits and reactions on bases across the world.
We’ve still got a long ways to go where gay rights is concerned, but if only for today, I’m going to revel in the historical beauty.
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