indyam:

So I went to a concert last night. Where a woman stood on stage and talked about Love, Unity, and Equality. She talked about how Jesus loved everybody (no, really, her words). She said we WERE BORN THAT WAY - and an audience of thousands screamed. She sang about gay pride, about ending DADT, about sexuality and friendship. She covered all the hits and I LOVED IT. 

The biggest Gaga fan I know is Blake. Of course, this morning, during a cigarette break I called him to discuss. He saw her at Lollapalooza. We were going to compare notes, gush together… but he’s shaken on the other line. Upset.

Instantly I realized he wasn’t in a mood for chitchat. Turns out two of his friends were walking home from a party last in Cincinnati night and got shot at. Thank God no one was actually hurt. But the guys were walking home. Down a residential street. Two boys. Holding hands. The guy who shot at them screamed FAGGOT from his house. He took a gun and fired bullets. A gun. An honest to God, killing machine, gun and shot it. At people. At two guys. Because they were holding hands.

I don’t know the guys. But I know Blake. He’s a young, good-looking, fun-loving guy who lives in Cincinnati. It could have been him. Dozens of late nights, partying, enjoying youth. Walking home, singing, holding hands… embracing experience. It could have been him and his friends. It could have been Richard, or Alex, or Cameron, or Chris, or Caleb, or Bennett and Andrew… or god knows how many people I know. And it is sickening. My stomach turned. And I was speechless.

I don’t have any magical illusions about the way LGBT people are seen in this country. I know we get the shit beat out of us, or we run away from home, or we take our own lives. 

It was nice to be in a bubble last night. And I’m so thankful that no one, in the instance got hurt. But in the three hours I was at that concert 3 people lost their lives or were seriously injured as a result of a hate crime, statistically. 3 people who won’t see Lady Gaga or George Strait or the 6:00 News or the next Harry Potter Film. 3 people who won’t wake up or raise children or open Christmas presents. And those are only the crimes we know about. Imagine all the people who aren’t as lucky as Blake’s friends. 

And I can’t help but cry. What are we supposed to do?

(Source: amindy07)

notthatkindagay:

On April 13, the “rent boy” (whom we’ll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by an old man with an atavistic mustache and a desperate blond comb-over, pushing an overburdened baggage cart.

That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy’s client and, as it happens, one of America’s most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera.

Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.” (Though medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)

Yet Rekers wouldn’t deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com — which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks — and Lucien confirmed it.