Son comes out to family, gets physically abused and disowned

Very sad story. A young Georgia man comes out to his family - probably one of the most vulnerable moments in his life.

From the clip description, Daniel was given two choices - attend a "pray the gay away" intervention or be disowned by his family.  The discussion quickly escalates to shouting and then physical abuse.

It's tough to listen to but this is how coming out can go for some folks. And it's hideous. From the grandmother:

“Since you have chosen that path, we will not support you any longer. You will need to move out and find wherever you can to live, and do what you want to. ‘Cause I will not let people believe that I condone what you do.”

I do encourage everyone to listen and hear the bile in his family's voices. It's important to understand the hate young people coming out can face. Then, please share this link.  If you ever wondered why LGBT advocates raise their voices, here you go.

A post on Reddit by someone who says they are his boyfriend wrote this:

Bros, my boyfriend got kicked out of his home and disowned yesterday. It's been a really traumatic experience for him, and I feel so terrible and angry that this happened.
Fortunately, he's living with a friend for now. Seems like he can be there long-term until he's able to support himself.
I'm so sad that so many people have to go something like this. For any of you that have, what's the best way I can support him?

A fundraiser has been set up to help Daniel get on his feet since he was kicked out of his home.

Thinking best thoughts for Daniel. Please do the same.

Twelve year-old Taylor Smith's "letter to self" goes viral after her passing

Like many kids today, 12-year-old Taylor Smith wrote a special letter to herself last spring, to be read in 10 years’ time.

No one knew that the letter would be read just a few short months later as she passed away from unexpected pneumonia.

Taylor’s parents found the letter after she died last spring. In hopes of inspiring other parents and families, they posted the letter to Facebook.

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Starbucks would like to thank NOM for boycott leading it's stock to 12 month high

On one hand, you have to give a little credit to "sticking with it" I guess.

On the other hand?  Well, on the other hand, after 12 months of the National Organization for Marriage's "boycott" of Starbucks the company's stock is at a 12 month high.

Oh - and congrats on Delaware, too, NOM - great work.  See you in Minnesota.

(h/t JMG)

Ten years ago today: May 1, 2003

• 4,474 soldiers dead
• Nearly 32,000 wounded US soldiers
• Veteran suicide rate now at 22 per day
• At least 112, 000 Iraqi civilians dead
• Total direct death tol of at least 176,000
• Estimated excess death toll of more than 650,000 Iraqis
• $1.7 trillion spent by the USA
• Projected total expense of more that $6 trillion
• Still no WMDs

But remember - "Mission Accomplished..."

Son of anti-gay marriage lawmaker: My father loves me

Matt R. Salmon, the openly gay son of conservative congressman Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), talks to Anderson Cooper about still being loved by his family, although his parents campaign against his right to marry.

"I finally realized that no matter what our differences and opinions are, we have to love and support each other. And since then, our relationship has really grown stronger. And I've watched as my dad has just really been a huge supporter of me....Yes, he doesn't support gay marriage, but that's no reason that I shouldn't love him, or just accept him for who he is. I hope that he changes his position" on marriage rights for same-sex couples."

Watching the interview, I get an air of melancholy. Maybe I'm right on that, or maybe he's just got low blood sugar or something. But his demeanor seemed to carry a sense of sadness about it.

Listening to younger Salmon's reasoning, the situation seems to be: he respects his parent's views and opinions but they don't have to respect his. 

I'm not sure how you live in a great head space knowing your parents sent you to "reparative therapy" hoping to change who you intrinsically are.

And when Anderson asks if Matt's family would be "ok" meeting someone he was dating, note the pause in his answer: "I, I believe so... yeah."

"I believe so"?

In other words, it hasn't happened?

Sadness just hangs over the whole thing...

Olympian Oscar Pistorius will not be a part of South Africa's "It Gets Better" effort

Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius recorded a video message for South Africa's "It Gets Better" website launching this week, but it will not be included due to his current legal troubles.

TimesLive reports:

Organisers of the "It Gets Better, South Africa" campaign against homophobic bullying, due to be launched tomorrow, severed Oscar Pistorius's connection with it yesterday.

In his video, which will no longer be included in the campaign, Pistorius said: "Just remember that you're special. You don't have to worry. You don't have to change. Take a deep breath and remember 'It will get better'."

At a preliminary hearing today for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Pistorius pleaded "not guilty," and insisted it was an accident based on his mistaking her for an intruder.

Las Vegas: Young boy killed for not reading the Bible

Porn star Erik Rhodes dead at 30

Industry insiders are reporting across Twitter that gay porn star Erik Rhodes died of a heart attack this morning at the age of 30.

I didn't know of Rhodes until today but I moved by the sadness of his story.

Rhodes was a prolific blogger and frequently wrote of his heavy usage of both club drugs and bodybuilding steroids.

Reading through Rhodes' blog, you can see that he had been in a dark place for a long time. To say his posts were "troubled" would be a huge understatement.

He wrote frequently about his heavy usage of both club drugs and bodybuilding steriods: "I’m waiting until i pop. Or my liver to fails… which every comes first."—posting negative emails from readers and seemingly openly courting death with statements and images.

From Erik Rhodes' blog, posted 2 months ago:

For the first couple months, really up until last week, after my break-up, (which i’m sick talking about) but my strange lifestyle right now seems to be a direct result of it, well, anyways i was abusing Meth… and i mean hard… and since i’m not small boy and i wanna feel my high… i was shooting up syringes full of the shit… .8 - .9… ask any meth head and they get retarded off .3… but i got myself to the point where if my high didn’t feel like a partial seizure i wasn’t happy with it.

But it was fucking up my body and my brain… so much so that i was placed in Bellevue under 72 hour observation because i was considered a threat to myself and others… police escort, the whole 9 yards…

Bellevue psychiatric is more like a homeless shelter… i thought it was kinda funny when my bed just happened to be next to the weird guy with a tattoo on his face i see everyday when i buy my fat ass fast food at the Burger King across from Port Authority. I befriend him of course, in a “we are both crazy” non-verbal way… now when i see him i buy him something to eat… i feel like we have some sort of bond…well, maybe not for him…

I mean it was miserable experience but a good in a way because it let me sleep… which was long overdue at that point. I do admit it made me uncomfortable that i felt so comfortable there… But after 48 hours, i did start to feel crazy and tried to convince them to release me… Imagine cornering a psychiatric doctor and telling her “listen i’m not crazy”. The look on her face was priceless… it read… “holy shit, the roided out one crashing on meth is gonna kill me”. Once i could see she was scared, i stood aside and realized that i’m sure everyone of these crazy fucks have probably at one point or another told her the same thing and it was useless getting pissed and talking my way out them holding me… i was just gonna have to ride it out.

Finally, maybe 70 hours in, i met with a doctor who was gonna be in charge of my release … he basically asked me all questions that i have answered in explicit detail on here… of course without joking about hurting myself or others, which i tend to regularly do… and at the end of it… he says to me “Well James, i don’t think we are going to be able to release you unless we can get someone to collaborate this story”… He didn’t believe me…

He thought my fucked up life was me play make believe, funny. I relaized he was just sitting there trying to build a case about how crazy i was… he thought the more i talked the more i was digging my grave.

Since i don’t have many close people in my life, he said he would only consider a release if he talked to my twin brother… which in my eyes was the last option… nothing upsets me more then upsetting my brother. .I know he’s waiting, afraid to get the phone call that i’m dead, i know each time he get a call that i’m in the hospital, his heart sinks in his chests. Anyways, i realized the only other person that he could call would be my ex and given our recent nasty break up, along with paranoia i was convince he would be happy to have me locked away there so my only option was to give him my brother number…

When the Doctor came back in the room, after getting a hold of my brother, the look on his face changed… the stone face he had sat with, for hours grilling me was now replaced by one that just said to me that said he felt sorry for me, he walked to my side and put his hand on my shoulder and said “Its okay, we are gonna help you”… I started to cry.

It was like my porn career and this blog coming to life… he was so quick to judge but after all was said and done, he saw someone completely different, someone he pitied.

I claim crashing off meth for getting all emotional… i guess i never saw that type change in person… i wasn’t sure how to handle it. I hope to never have to experience that again.

Anyways, now thanks to a mandated psychiatric appointment once a week, i’m kinda forced into keeping it clean… well enough within reason that i can pull it together to see this woman.

Worst parents ever

Thanks to blogger F*ckYou40.com for the tip to this collection of parenting pics.

Now remind me again - who are conservatives protecting children from?

New Orleans to be largest US city without daily newspaper

From Newsy: The saying “out with the old, and in with the new” is hitting home in New Orleans. The city’s daily newspaper, The Times-Picayune, announced starting this fall it will only publish Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Jobs will also be cut as the paper makes some more modern changes. CNN explains.

“The publisher said in a memo the Time-Picayune needed to dedicate more resources to its online presence. He announced a new media group including NOLA.com which will continue to report seven days a week.”

A new company called NOLA Media Group will include the Times-Picayune and its affiliate website. Forbes.com says according to the paper’s publisher the...

“...best path to success lies in a digitally focused organization that combines the award winning journalism of the Times-Picayune and the strength of NOLA.com”

The Times-Picayune received international recognition for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But many of its subscribers were forced out of the city by the storm, never to return. Today, the paper reaches about 155-thousand doorsteps on Sundays and 134-thousand on weekdays. But Poynter says it was double that before the storm.

“...circulation in March 2005, before Katrina flooded the city and shrank the population: about 285,000 on Sundays and 257,000 on weekdays.”

On Twitter, David Hammer, the investigative reporter at the Times-Picayune told his followers...

“...It’s like a morgue in the newsroom today.”

But According to Gambit, a New Orleans Weekly newspaper, it may be the way the announcement was made that had people so upset. The website says...

“...Even longtime senior writers and editors — said they learned of their fates from The New York Times report. One employee said, ‘I had to find this out by Twitter. Do I go into the office tomorrow? Do I even have a job to go in to tomorrow?’”

That same report says about a third of the paper's reporters will be fired, along with top executives. When the change is made, New Orleans will become the largest U.S. city without a daily newspaper.

TMZ: Bobby Brown arrested for DUI

 

From TMZ: Bobby Brown has just been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Los Angeles

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, Bobby was pulled over in Reseda, CA at 12:20 PM PST for allegedly driving while talking on a cell phone.

Bobby is currently in custody in Van Nuys jail. It's unclear what substance cops believe Brown had been using before he got behind the wheel.

Whitney Houston's ex-husband already has a DUI conviction on his record stemming from an arrest in Georgia in 1996. He eventually pled guilty to DUI and served 8 days in jail.

Brown has been back in the news ever since Whitney died in a Beverly Hills hotel room on February 11. Bobby was turned away from the death scene and left the funeral service early after a disagreement with Houston's family.

Three year old boy in wheelchair searched by TSA agent

In recent years, the Transportation Security Agency has come under fire for what many perceive to be unjustified and unnecessary searches. Now a video has surfaced, reportedly shot in 2010, in which a three-year-old boy in a wheelchair with a broken leg is subjected to an extended search from a TSA agent.

The three minute clip, which was shot by the boy's father Matt Dubiel, shows the boy looking increasingly concerned as a TSA agent swabs the boy's hands, legs, and back for residue from explosives. Apparently, the child's parents were not allowed to comfort him or hold his hand during the process. You can hear Dubiel assuring his son that everything will be OK and trying to keep his son from having a panic attack.

According to Fox News Radio, the video was shot by Dubiel. He and his family were flying to Disney World when they were stopped. While speaking to Fox News Radio, Dubiel said he found the footage over the weekend and decided to post it.

Jessica Simpson naked and pregnant on the cover of Elle Magazine

I don't know why, but this immediately strikes me as one more sad attempt by Jessica's father Joe Simpson to pimp out his daughter.  I don't know why she would see the need to do this.

Just something sad and desperate about it all...

British woman arrested for racist rant

From Raw Story: A 34-year-old woman has been arrested by the British Transport Police after a video surfaced of her berating ethic minorities during a tram ride, according to BBC News. (warning - explicit language)

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, the woman can be seen swearing at several passengers for not being British.

“None of you are fucking English,” she says while holding a young boy on her lap. “Get back to your own fucking [country.]… Britain is nothing now, Britain is fuckall.”

“You ain’t British, you’re black,” she shouted at one passenger who confronted her about her swearing.

Within 48 hours, the video received more than 350,000 views on YouTube.

British police arrested the woman on suspicion of a "racially-aggravated offense."

I believe in free speech, but is there good justification for THIS kind of speech?

Map of US: Same-sex marriage vs. marrying your cousin

Click to view larger

It just gets sooooo ridiculous.  Notice the increase in color as the subject turns to marrying 1st cousins...

Sad.

London rioters help injured man up - to steal from his backpack

This is really sad.

Jay Garner has left the building...

The first Broadway show I appeared in was the 1995 revival of "Hello, Dolly!" with Carol Channing. The leading man of the show, and Carol Channing's comic foil, was the incomparable Jay Garner. He was funny, warm, funny, talented, and very very funny.

Jay never ceased to make me laugh. To this day I smile and laugh out loud at the memory of him backstage.

Often, during a very quick costume change I had going into "Before The Parade Passes By" he would walk past me, Jon Bantay and Stephen Bourneuf quickly stripping our costumes off to change into our "Parade" costumes. With the driest of readings he would walk past, without stopping, and say "whores." I laugh as I type this.

He was so dear to all of us, and especially Carol. It's not an easy thing to hold the stage with Carol Channing. And especially Carol Channing in HELLO, DOLLY! - but Jay did, and with absolute ease, charm and pure Broadway talent.

Jay would laugh and joke with everyone.  Everyone.  And he loved to find a little time to head to a casino and gamble.  And damned if he didn't win most of the time.

Among other roles, he created the role of the Governor of Texas in THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS, and the politician "Dindon" in the original LA CAGE AUX FOLLES. Additional Broadway roles included "Benjamin Franklin" in the Tony Award-winning 1776 and the role of "Sir John Tremayne" in ME AND MY GIRL. He would later play kindly "Ben", the gardener, in the first national tour of The Secret Garden in the early 1990s.

I was just watching a rerun of the movie of BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE and was telling Michael how Jay created the role of the Governor. It was only in looking up his many other credits that I just learned Jay left us this past January 21, 2011 at the age of 82.

I will laugh and smile at the memory of his talent and amazing warmth forever.  RIP Jay.