14-year-old Graeme Taylor, You Are Amazing

Watch and listen. I can't wait to see how awesome this kid continues to be.

Your Friday Awesome: It Gets Better

I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.

But gay adults aren't allowed to talk to these kids. Schools and churches don't bring us in to talk to teenagers who are being bullied. Many of these kids have homophobic parents who believe that they can prevent their gay children from growing up to be gay—or from ever coming out—by depriving them of information, resources, and positive role models.

Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don't have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better. We can reach these kids.

The It Gets Better Project was started by Dan Savage in response to the news that one more gay teen saw suicide as the only way to stop having to endure harassment in school. The project asks adults to submit videos talking about how "it got better" for them.

Your Friday Awesome: How To Be Alone

I was a Congressional intern during the summer of 2000. I was the only underage student without a fake ID at AU so it was the first time in my life I had to learn to be alone once in a while. It helped that I was also a member of the District's teeming masses of summer interns studying for the LSAT which necessitates being alone sometimes. But besides learning that I did not want to go to law school, the best lesson I learned was how to enjoy being alone. A town full of amazing free museums and cozy coffee shops helped, but it is pretty awesome to be okay with just being awesome on your own once in a while.

via Feministing.

Update: In the Epic Battle of YouTube vs. Teh Gays...

GAYS WIN!

There is an update to my post about boys with beach balls, Katy Perry's ejaculating bra, and YouTube's adult content double standard up at Mother Jones.

Unfortunately, Yezak never got a clear answer from YouTube about why the warning went up. But the good news is it has been taken down and people love watching boys in shorty shorts.

Music Monday: Music To Wake Up To

I am not sure how this song came into my life, but it was used to cue us to cut the cake at our wedding and we now wake up to every morning thanks to the wonders of the iHome.

Why share this potentially embarrassing secret? (sorry, honey) Well, because neither my husband or I are morning people. I repeat. We are NOT morning people. But I dare anyone to wake up to that song and not be in a good mood.

However, in posting this, I discovered that in the grand expanse of the internets something has been forgotten. No one has uploaded video of said baby elephants walking to this music! Sure there are still pictures, but that simply will not do. Someone in the internets needs to rectify this situation immediately. The fate of humanity rests in your hands.

YouTube Loves Boobies, Hates the Gays

Today I was made aware of this awesomeness:



It gets pretty epic in the second half - camp and choreography and bears, oh my!

The first time I watched it at Jezebel it played just fine, but when I clicked through to YouTube I got an "18+" warning. Hmmmm...

So, being surrounded by investigative journalists and with two degrees in spotting the kyriarchy at work, I hopped on over to see if the original Katy Perry video had the same warning.

Yeah, nope. I emailed the director of the parody, Ryan James Yezak, just to make sure that YouTube was to blame for this censoring of superfun gaydom and this was his response:

YouTube put it up & I don't know how to get it off. There's nothing inappropriate & so I don't know why someone would flag it. You should TOTALLY blog about it. What about the video is inappropriate? I'm going to look into it.

Well, you bet I will, Ryan! For reference, here is the original:



So, YouTube deems boys in short shorts dancing with beach balls and maybe a very, very, very, very veiled reference to boy on boy beach action as "adult content," but a bare-naked Katy Perry dancing with a whipped cream ejaculating bikini top and a not at all veiled message that she and the women (and all "California Gurls" to which I as a woman from California take offense) in the video only exist for your consumption, is not?

Sounds like a homophobic double standard to me, YouTube.