I had a pretty good day off yesterday, taking care of some things that needed it and catching up on my rest. I caught up on some of my reading also and I ran across some things I thought I would share with you today. From The Daily Dot come the story '5 Things you can do to counter protest Michael Sam trolls'. When the Dallas Cowboys signed Michael Sam to their practice squad, there was a lot of positive feedback. There was also a lot of negative feedback from Internet trolls, homophobes and red neck assholes. Author Samantha Allen discusses this and then gives some really good recommendations for actions anyone could take to combat the trolls who would otherwise cast severe shade over the Cowboys in general and Michael Sam in particular. There are some people around here we are going to have to drag kicking and screaming into the 21st century. (either that or just kill em all and let God sort them out, lol!)
Then there was the story on Mind Body Green, 'I'm An Otherwise Straight Man (Who Fell In Love With His Best Friend)'. Author Mike Iamele tells the story of how he, an ordinary yet open minded straight man, suffered a debilitating illness only to be nursed back to health by his roommate and best friend. In the process, somewhere along the way, he fell in love with his best friend. He goes on to relate how they both worked to build a relationship that would weather the storms of life together. Interesting and romantic, you will be glad you read this one.
The final story I would like to share with you today is from the current issue of Rolling Stone: 'The Forsaken: A Rising Number of Gay Teens Are Being Cast Out by Religious Families'. Through a series of interviews with homeless Gay Teens, Rolling Stone shines a much needed spotlight on this growing problem. As the love and dogma fight it out in the hearts and minds of many religious families when confronted with the inconvenient truth of their child's Gayness, a great many Gay Teens are cast out of their homes and left to their own devices for survival. There are some success stories of youth who have made it off the streets and into a better life, there are far, far too many stories of neglect, abuse, drugs, violence and even murder of those who really are to young to be where they are. The sad truth of the matter is summed up in the concluding paragraphs by one of the interviewees who put it this way:
"(She) doubts she'll ever speak to her family again, though it's still hard to
think of holidays spent without them, of childhood stories that will
remain untold, of the jarring lack of continuity between her existence
then and now. "I spent the past four years paying for that one sentence I
uttered," she says quietly. "People ask me all the time if I hate my
parents for everything they've put me through, but I really don't. If
anything, I just feel sad for them because I'm sure it hurts so bad to
have chosen their religious values over their child. I mean, in the
grand scheme of things, they suffered through it just as much as I did,
just in different ways." She sighs and looks out the window to where the
shadows will soon lengthen into night. "I think, in the long run, no
one won.""
A sober but important story to which we all need to pay more attention, if we don't take care of our own Gay Youth, who will?
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Your Tuesday Musical Moment features the Music of Giuseppe Tartini. Tartini took a gavotte written by Arcangelo Corelli and wrote 50 variations on Corelli's theme. Today's featured works are those 50 Variations for Violin on a Gavotte by A. Corelli written by Tartini with a marvelous performance recorded in 2005 by Nikos Karagiannis. You may also hear Tartini's Concerto for Cello, 2 Horns, Strings and Basso Continuo with a performance by Ensemble 415, on period instruments featuring Roel Dieltiens as the Cello Soloist over on my tumblr.
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