Young Love

In March, I saw an article about a young gay black couple who got married on January 18. They were both 19 at the time and their wedding was featured on My Teenage Wedding. I haven’t seen the show so I don’t know what channel it was on, but the article did provide the following clip:

The show’s description read: David and Tre'Darrius, both 19, are young, black, and gay, and getting married in not-so-progressive Memphis. But the odds are stacked against them. Once very popular, David's friends ostracized him after he came out in high school. Neither mother is responding to the wedding invite. And their only adult supporter, Tre's uncle Theo, thinks they're too young to marry ...

Though David and Tre’Darrius reminded me of Keith and D (Bump This), I felt conflicted about the wedding. The logical part of me agreed with the uncle, but the hopeless romantic in me was pulling for them. I love hearing stories about couples who fell in love as teenagers and are still in love forty years later. Something about those stories confirms the power and the strength of love and gives credence to the Disney idea of true love. I haven’t tried to find out how they are doing as a couple, but I truly hope they are doing well and I wish them luck.

O beautiful

It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been sick and tired and just overall miserable, but I’m feeling better and I’m ready to get back to writing and blogging. 

I sometimes appreciate artsy movies. Creative filming or storytelling inspires me and makes me want to work that much harder so that I can create something beautiful too. By now you know that I search YouTube for videos quite frequently. I found this one and it wasn’t a great story but the filming combined with the story made it impossible for me to look away. It kind of reminded me of my old story, The Science of Us because you got to see the events unfold from both boys’ perspectives.

I’ll warn you in advance that the story is a bit “off,” but there is beauty throughout the awkwardness and the filming alone will keep your attention. The summary of the short film is: A young man is left in a field after a brutal attack by some of his fellow classmates. A classmate comes to help the boy after the beating, but all is not as it seems.

O beautiful

B.S. in Action – Pun Intended

I just watched the following interview:



I don’t know where to begin. Is this guy not aware that the Boy Scouts of America covered up allegations of sexual abuse? That doesn’t sound like an upstanding group to me. His argument isn’t worth the time it took him to say it. If “straight” scout leaders have abused boys and your only argument against openly gay scout leaders is that they will abuse boys or have inappropriate relationships with them, then clearly the organization needs to be disbanded because the boys aren’t safe with anyone. I do find it surprising that the host seems genuinely blown away by the guy’s ignorance. I like that she tried to insert a few facts in to their discussion and he skillfully skirted around them and kept going as if they were insignificant.

LGBT Money: Not Accepted Everywhere

An Arkansas restaurant owner canceled an LGBT fundraiser because he did not agree with the lifestyle. When I saw the headline, I didn’t understand why it made the news. The restaurant owner is not the first person to reject LGBT money. LGBT money is the new Black money (there was a time when places regularly refused to do business with black people). When the owner was interviewed about the situation, he said, “I’m not gonna have a fundraiser here for that or, like I said, for the KKK or the Nazis or, you know, any group that would be a controversial group.” His statement is an example of someone talking too much. You shouldn’t compare an LGBT rights group to the KKK or the Nazis unless they have done something to warrant the comparison. I wish people would take more time to think before they speak. The article didn’t say much about the circumstances surrounding the cancelation, but one of the comments alleged that the restaurant owner had worked with the River Valley Equality Center in planning the event for two months and only canceled it after an advertisement for the event appeared in a local paper. My initial take on that piece of evidence is that someone called the restaurant owner and took him to task for hosting an event for “those people” and the owner caved and canceled the event. I wish the owner had more guts, but ultimately, he runs a business and he made a decision which he thought was good for his business. I can’t be mad at him for that, but I can be sad that discrimination is still such a major part of our society. I can’t help but wonder if we will always find a group to discriminate against.

Pure Heart

I like movies that grab my attention and movies that are a bit “off” but in a way that intrigues me instead of pushing me away. Junjou Pure Heart is about a couple who loved each other from a distance in high school then meet again years later. The movie has English Subtitles.

Gay Rights = Civil Rights

“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” – President Barack Obama

What does this quote mean to you? When I watched the inauguration and heard the President of the United States saying those words, I was in a state of shock. It is one thing for Obama to come out in favor of gay marriage, but it is something completely different for Obama to not only mention gay people in his inauguration speech, but also to make the case in that same speech that gay rights is a civil rights issue. I loved that his speech was inclusive and I loved that he took a few steps forward in his support of the gay community. There was a little backlash, but the country seemed more concerned with Beyonce-gate than with the content of the president’s speech. I’m not sure what that says about our country. Are we ignoring things that we don’t want to talk about or do we really think that a pop star allegedly lip-syncing at the inauguration is more important than the president joining the ever increasing chorus of people who argue that gay rights is a civil rights issue?