I Didn't Know A Blog Could Be Gay?

It's been a while since I've done this, but I saw a video today that was just too fantastic not to share. This is Ash Beckham speaking out against using the term "gay" in a negative sense.

Why does it matter if someone says "That's so gay" to someone else? Maybe those two people are buddies and talk to each other like that all the time. Maybe they have friends who are gay. Maybe they are totally accepting of the LGBT community. Maybe you were the only person who heard them say it. But maybe someone struggling with their sexual identity heard it, and that comment hit them hard. 

What can you do? Say something. It shouldn't be acceptable for people to say "That's so gay," so don't let it be. Say they're talking about a t.v. show... You can approach it in different ways - with a joke like "I didn't know t.v. shows could be gay." Or "What, are you in 5th grade? Who says that anymore?" Or just be blunt. At least make them think about what they are saying. 

And after, continue the conversation.

It's not easy. It might be awkward. You're not punishing the other person, you're just urging them to chose another word next time.  We have to push ourselves to change the social norm, it's not going to happen overnight, but it might happen a little quicker if you and I can stand up for this.

Special thanks to Anya at PARN for talking at my work tonight and getting me back into this.

Obama Supports Marriage Equality

On May 9th, President Barack Obama interviewed with ABC news in support of marriage equality for the LGBT community.

Pretty awesome right? He came out to say this after VP Joe Biden supported marriage equality on Meet the Press.

In the fight for marriage equality, religion is being put before the rights of people. Obama said about the discussions he had with his wife "...in the end the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people." I'm not sure that I can word it any better - the LGBT community isn't asking to be treated differently, they are asking for equality. Personally, I prefer to use the term "Marriage Equality" rather than "Same-Sex Marriage" because it's exactly what we're trying to achieve, equality.

Where does your country stand on marriage equality?

In the U.S., same-sex marriage has been passed in nine states. Thirty-one states have banned same-sex marriage through law or constitutional amendment. Just this week, North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage.

In Canada, same-sex marriage has been legalized since 2005, and was legally recognized as early as 2003 in Ontario. It is also legally recognized in Argentina, Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands (who were the first in 2001), Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden... but that means there are still over 185 countries left to legally recognize same-sex marriage.

Say Thank You to Obama
AllOut, which runs multilingual real-time campaigns to inform, educate, and engage the public, wants to thank Obama. Sign the thank you note here: Thanks Obama!

A little humour to end it off....  

A quote from Rush Limbaugh (with a little commentary) and Comedian Louis CK's view on gay marriage:

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

Help Miss Canada Spread Her Message

Miss Canada Needs Your Help!

In February I talked about Jaclyn Miles, Miss Canada and fellow teacher-candidate at Althouse College. She was a victim of domestic abuse, and she shared her story with some of our classes.

Jaclyn was a university student studying family studies when she was in an abusive relationship. She told us how she was studying the signs of abuse but it took her a long time to realize that she was in an abusive relationship. She was embarrassed, scared, and alone.

She won the title of Miss Canada 2012 not because she's beautiful and well spoken (which she is) but because she wants to create change for victims of domestic abuse. The first step is to Break the Silence, which is the name of her campaign. While Miss Canada is helping her to travel across Canada, Jaclyn still needs to raise funds.

But What Can You Do?

Jaclyn recently entered a contest, Who Inspires U?, which is giving $10,000 to one young Canadian woman to support them in achieving their dreams. She needs over 3000 views to qualify, and only has until May 18th to get up to that number! Please help support her by watching and sharing the video... Just copy/paste this into your status to help her (and don't forget to watch the video too!):

Jaclyn Miles (Miss Canada 2012) is doing everything she can do to #breakthesilence against domestic violence. She needs 3000 views for a chance to win $10,000 to travel across Canada and share her story. http://youtu.be/dQc2ak-G-sg

You can also attend her Zumbathon on May 12th if you are in the London area - more information can be found on the facebook event by clicking here. 

Visit her campaign website at breakthesilencecampaign.ca.

 

A million thanks from Jaclyn and I... Just clicking the youtube link gets her one step closer to her dream.

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

To My 7th Grade Self

Western University's anti-homophobia group, Get Real, recently posted a video titled "To My 7th Grade Self"

It's a really great watch because we hear the stories of students who were bullied for being gay or were bullies towards their gay peers. We see how they were affected. 

I know most of my readers are post-secondary aged, are pretty open-minded, and can probably relate to these stories, looking back to when they were in elementary and high school. For those of us who were bullied, it seemed like it would never end. For those of us who bullied, we didn't realize the impact our words had. All we ever wanted was to love and be loved, but our differences sometimes blinded us to understand what that really meant.

Share Your Stories

What I'm asking is that, just like in the video, you share your stories. If you were affected directly or indirectly by bullying, your story should be shared. Comment below, anonymously or by name, because you never know who is going to read it and who it may bring strength to.

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

Ashley Judd's Conversation

Between social media, television, and advertisements, it's easy to forget that everyone, deep down, is human, just like you and I. 

Ashley Judd was recently ripped up from news magazines about having put on weight (or was it plastic surgery?). She wrote a letter and posted it on The Daily Beast about media, and more specifically society's view on body image. We're all guilty of it, myself included (and Ashley Judd too, as she wrote in her letter), but why is it 'normal' for us? We do it to women and men... no sex is safe. 

Ashley Judd writes:

"The insanity has to stop, because as focused on me as it appears to have been, it is about all girls and women. In fact, it’s about boys and men, too, who are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to heteronormative definitions of masculinity that deny the full and dynamic range of their personhood. It affects each and every one of us, in multiple and nefarious ways: our self-image, how we show up in our relationships and at work, our sense of our worth, value, and potential as human beings."

It is so ingrained in us to judge others (and ourselves) based on their looks, race, age, disability, and everything else. We do it to make ourselves feel better. We do it to have something to talk about with each other. On top of everything else, with the internet we feel like we are also allowed to remove any sort of filter because we can be 'anonymous.'

Some of the criticism of Judd's letter was that it was feminist and was not a topic worthy of being read. But she's trying to shed light on an issue that we are plagued with for a huge part of our lives and that we think about, consciously or not, all the time.

I don't think by any means that our society will stop functioning in this way anytime soon. It's ingrained in everything, in society and in ourselves. Stopping every once in a while to think about it is all that I can ask, and for you to read Ashley Judd's letter and share your opinion.

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

Open Your Mind Before Your Mouth

Recently I liked Get REAL on Facebook, whose mandate is "Reaching Equality At Last" and is a student-run organization at Western University who are trying to eliminate homophobia. 

I think this is a great organization, but there was a status post that irked me a little, mostly for it's vagueness and lack of thought:

"From a good friend and out-going VP Campus Issues, Marissa Joffre: 

'I'm extremely upset and disheartened to hear that a friend of mine and his partner were treated inexcusably at Jack's last night. Shortly after embracing, my friend was asked to leave the bar without much explanation.

It is 2012, and this is inexcusable. If you feel as disgusted as I do that a bar that gets as much business as it does from Western students would treat them so poorly because of their sexual identity.. then please post your distaste in your facebook status. Jack's should be ashamed of themselves.' 

This behavior is most definitely inexcusable, on the part of Jacks and these employees involved. Feel free to share so that other students are aware of this."

When I first read this I was upset. Why would Jacks do that? Then, keeping that in mind, I re-read the post. The explanation is vague at best, we don't really know anything about what happened. Then, I read Stephen Krull's reply, stating he worked at a bar as security and he says "I eject patrons for not only being too intoxicated, but appearing intoxicated, on a nightly basis... To the patron, it may seem like they just got kicked out, and without being provided a reason, attribute it to the most recent action they can recall (which in this case was them embracing one another). To the staff members, they were kicking out a person who was, or appeared to be, intoxicated."


While we don't know the full details yet, (a full story will be appearing in the Western Gazette, the newspaper for the school. Stay tuned, I'll be on the look-out for this) if in fact this was a homophobic action, I will definitely be on board for boy-cotting Jacks. But I just can't see why or how this would happen at a bar as popular as Jacks. I'm sure this wasn't the first time two men "embraced" at the bar.


What do you think? I'll post the story from the Western Gazette when I find it!

Stay Beautiful,
Lisa

The "Natural Born" Case

I have been reading a lot about Jenna Talackova who was recently disqualified from the Miss Universe Canada competition. On their website it is written that she was disqualified "because she did not meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form." Many news articles/blog posts on the internet are making it sound as though she was disqualified because she is transgendered (although I can't find proof of that anywhere).

While you cannot see Jenna's profile anymore, I took a brief look at a few of the profiles on the Miss Universe Canada website. The majority of the girls come from supportive families, have university degrees or are in progress, travel the world, and seem to do little philanthropic work. To apply you have to submit a face photo, and a swimsuit photo.

So... what exactly is Miss Universe Canada looking for? What are these women judged on? Can't find the answers to these questions on the website. 

In the spirit of what I am trying to promote with this blog, shouldn't inner beauty be way more important than outer beauty? DTowner wrote a comment on thestar.com in reply to their article about Jenna: "...Naturally born female? Fine. But, then, do we exclude women who wear make-up? Wigs? False eyelashes, bras? None of these are 'natural'. Shaving body hair? Not 'natural', and all very cultural. So, what is natural and what is unnatural?"

Maybe I just don't understand the reasoning behind pageants. Maybe I'm crazy for thinking that what people do makes them more beautiful than what they look like. 

Stay Beautiful,
Lisa

UPDATE: April 6 2012

Jenna has been invited back to the competition and they will be changing their rules to include transgendered individuals  "provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions"

Excellent! I was very happy to hear this :)