Tag Archives: LGBT

The Gay Rights Movement

12 Replies

I just stumbled upon this video through a friend’s Facebook update and immediately felt compelled to share here. It’s a trailer for a documentary titled “Second Class Citizens” which you can sponsor via Kickstarter.

This documentary is something that is very near and dear to me; someone who is considered by my state and country a second class citizen. By extension, I am a second class citizen to all my friends and family members who continue to vote for people who fight against equality, donate money to organizations and churches who cast aspersions on who I am and look the other way all the while.

Explaining what it is like to be gay isn’t easy. I kept it a secret until I was 18 years old because I feared that I might be made a victim of harassment beyond what I was already experiencing in junior high and high school. I was so stressed out about being gay that I became physically ill; acid reflux, debilitating migraines, panic attacks & major depression.

If it wasn’t for the friends I made in college, I don’t know that I would have survived to be where I am today. Far too many people like me don’t make it through the bullying. They are commit suicide or are murdered because they or someone else was unable to accept the person they were born to be.

I can’t tell you the number of times I was verbally or physically harassed, my property vandalized and my life threatened. My first semester in college a neighbor in the dorms threaten to hang me in the stairwell because I was gay. Try explaining to your parents why you have to switch dorms when that is your reason. I never did because I never had the courage to do so.

Ryan James Yezak is hoping to produce a documentary titled “Second Class Citizens” and has created a Kickstarter campaign to help fund it. I implore you to check it out and if you find it worthy, to invest in his film. I am going to do that right now.

Related articles

It’s Time to End Marriage Inequality

2 Replies

My Twitter friend Gabe retweeted a link tonight from @Padbury that simply read, “Please watch this, ‘It’s Time’”. I stopped what I was doing and decided to click the YouTube link. What followed was one of the best marriage equality videos I have ever seen. Zero dialog, remarkably real and absolutely magical. This is what matters.

Please share this post, this video, this message with the people in your life. Also, check out http://www.getup.org.au/marriagematters. There are half a dozen ways below this video to share this with all of your friends. Take this step for marriage equality.

That is all, thanks so much.

Tom Goss “Lover”

Leave a reply

“Lover” tells a story very rarely told: of the loss endured by partners of gay servicemembers who are killed in battle.

The video features Goss as the bereaved partner of an army soldier (DC actor Ben Horen) killed while on duty in Afghanistan.

Among those playing medics who come to the aid of the wounded soldier are several former service members who were discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy: Mike Almy, David Hall, and Danny Hernandez, all of whom are active members of SLDN. Keith Bryant stars as a fellow soldier.

The video, Goss’s fourth, was filmed in DC and Alexandria. is being directed by DC residents Aram Vartian and Michael Key of DC; Dylan Comstock is director of photography.

Another Beautiful Day

Leave a reply

It seems like the awesome fun time that happened last night continued its positive energy through the following day. Today I was efficient at getting stuff done at work, able to make it to the grocery story to prepare for a healthy week of meals and had enough free time to socialize with friends off and online.

A brisk walk through the Castro finished off the night putting me into one of the most wonderful moods. It is from days like these that I’m reminded how amazing San Francisco is. Too often stagnation and expectations blind us to the wonder that surrounds us everyday. Lucky for me there are views like the one above that remind me how lucky I am.

Out Country

12 Replies
My friend Stacy bought this photo at an antique store and shared it with me last night.  It is an amazing photo of a gay couple in the late 1800s in America.  These two guys, presumably, paid a photographer to set them down in front of a tintype camera and shoot a photo of their love and intimacy.

Yes, an out, gay couple in America over one hundred years ago.  Incredible. It definitely gives me hope and the strength to be out and proud in a modern America.  Yes, I can’t get married, share employment benefits or adopt (easily) a child, but if these two guys were able to live their lives together, in America, two hundred years ago, I sure can!

It should be inspiration for anyone, not just in the LGBT community but anyone who faces adversity, bigotry and challenges in this modern day America.  Which I’m pretty sure is all of us.

I hope this aside from my usual blog post has given you a little hope to overcome whatever obstacle finds its way into your path.

UPDATE: Since so many people have claimed this to be a fake, which is first offensive to me and second offensive to the purpose of this post, here is the original scan, untouched by Photoshop. The original image above was cleaned up in Photoshop to repair some of the damage 100+ years can have on a photo, I ran a “remove dust and scratches”, adjusted curves and uploaded that photo to Flickr. I personally scanned this file in using an Epson Perfection Scan V750 Pro at 4800dpi.  It’s a 1.27gb scan at well over 12000 pixels wide when at 300dpi.   I have downscaled it to 4800 pixels wide at 300dpi for this post but have done nothing else to it.

Photo links to 1920px version

You are more than welcome to download the large file here (7.2mb, 4800x7016px)

I’m not sure why so many people on Twitter and Facebook, especially one from an equality group would cast aspersions, call this a fake.

My professor who dated, preserved and revived photos like these for museums looked at my scan and said he has no reason to believe it isn’t the real deal, that the problems with the photo, the eyes, the focus, the peeling and deterioration all are elements of proof it is a legitimate image.  Hopefully we will have it in class on Monday for him to examine in person. Meanwhile, here are 12 tintype images I found on the Internet all ranging from 1860-1920. Notice the similar wear, the oxidation, corrosion, rust, scratches, peeling, the backgrounds, the density, the gradations of light, the compression of the lens and the varying clarity and focus.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]