JOEL BURNS:
Have you seen this yet? Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you. This almost made me cry, and I’ve had my feelings surgically removed. Fort Worth councilman Joel Burns took his speaking time in a city council meeting to take a stand on Gay Bullying Crisis 2010, and make one of the most amazing It Gets Better stories possible. For God’s sake, just watch it. “Burns fought through tears as he told those attending Tuesday’s meeting that he’d like to give his 13-year-old self, who struggled with being gay, glimpses into the future. “Yes, high school was difficult, coming out was painful, but life got so much better for me,” Burns said. “And I want to tell any teen who might see this, give yourself a chance to see how much better life will get, and it will get better. … Life will get so, so, so much better.” Later in his speech, he added, “Please stick around to make those happy memories for yourself.” (@star-telegram)
AWESOME CHILDREN AND FAMILIES:
Seventh-grade Marco Melgoza has been bullied mercilessly by his classmates, and he and his dad are doing something about it. Namely, they’re protesting in front of his school, so that the community can’t ignore what’s going on. They are fucking awesome. (@advocate)
Other awesome families include Dyson’s, who are fiercely protective of his right to dress/present however he wants, including pink sparkly dresses. His mom, Cheryl, wrote a book called My Princess Boy, to be used as an anti-bullying tool in his school system. Dyson and his mom are fucking awesome. (@jezebel)
SMACKDOWN:
This is the kind of thing we would have written an angry article about, but someone else has already done such a good job we can just pass the savings on to you. When the Washington Post published Tony Perkins’ opinion that homosexuality is to blame for gay suicides, not bullying, they said it was because they need to present “both sides.” Jarrett Barrios of GLAAD does an excellent job explaining that this is bullshit because there are no “sides” when it comes to kids killing themselves. Thanks for playing, though! “By letting Tony Perkins stand on its soapbox, the Washington Post is telling today’s kids, their parents, and the educators whose job it is to prepare them for life, that it’s perfectly reasonable to claim (as Perkins does) that those dark thoughts are caused by simply being gay – and not by the fact that people like Perkins have made it their lives’ work to deny gay people the opportunity to live freely and peacefully.” (@wapo)
FACEBOOK:
Technology was a major part of Tyler Clementi’s horrific outing, and while the Facebook memorial pages put up to dead gay youth are a small comfort, the comfort is kind of outweighed by the number of homophobic comments and attacks they’ve been receiving. Facebook has stepped up with a commitment to respond quickly and definitively when hate speech is used on their site, and maintain it as a safe space for gay people and gay youth. It would be nice if the people making that commitment were, you know, schools or something, but still, kudos to Facebook, I guess. (@cnn)
