I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.

— “Why NBA Center Jason Collins Is Coming Out Now” by Jason Collins with Franz Lidz in Sports Illustrated

There really is a festival in Seattle, and it’s called HUMP!, and it was founded a few years ago by Dan Savage, and it really is this idea of having fun with your sexuality and being an exhibitionist just for a night — instead of this mainstream porn industry, actually celebrating sexuality on screen in a more personal and artistic and maybe comedic way. And I had a friend who went to the festival and saw gay porn for the first time. And he was really fascinated by it. And I saw his response as a straight guy to this gay porn was really interesting, and that was where the wheels started turning for me. I thought, ‘Well, this relationship between straight men and gayness in general is really rich territory.’

— Lynn Shelton on her 2009 film Humpday.

I had read a beautiful story in The New York Times about the couple who were getting married, and that Mayor Bloomberg was going to preside over their wedding at Gracie Mansion. And my friend called me and said, ‘They’d love to have you come and sing.’ And I was floored. I was so honored. And I cried like a baby at that ceremony. And I brought my daughter. And it was a very moving moment and a very teachable moment having my daughter there. And as far as she was concerned, it was just another wedding. She doesn’t really see the issue, which is great. So that’s how it came about. It was a beautiful day.

— Audra McDonald on performing at the first legal gay wedding in New York City. [full interview here]

I miss a lot of it. I still work closely with the Church. I still have family in the Church. I think that they need to move on gay and lesbian issues, and I keep those channels of communication open in hopes that we can understand each other better and create that change. … I feel like it is a religion that has shown an ability to change with the times and I hope they do so on gay and lesbian issues. Because they’ve hurt a lot of young people in this country. They hurt me with the words I heard in the church on Sundays. And I think with understanding, it can [change].

— Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, on the Mormon Church.

We have a generational divide in terms of vocabulary. People ask him, ‘Do you think J. Edgar Hoover was gay?’ And he says, ‘I don’t know.’ And for a man who just directed this film, that’s a surprising answer, because I think the audience walks away with a clear impression [that he was]. But for Clint Eastwood and his generation, to be gay means a sexual act. And for him to know means that he would need proof of that sexual act. And I’ve had this conversation, and I’ve said, ‘For my generation, you don’t ever have to have sex to be gay or lesbian. It’s a part of your nature. It’s who you are. It’s who you bond with, who you fall in love with.’ So we have a divide in terms of vocabulary.

— Dustin Lance Black on how he and Clint Eastwood, who directed the film, differed on their vocabulary

veronica-wasboyski:

Dustin Lance Black | Best Original Screenplay- Milk | 2009

Remember this? It breaks my heart every time I watch it.

If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told they are less than by the churches, by the government, by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.

On today’s Fresh Air, Dustin Lance Black talks about crafting the story of J. Edgar

Today we’re talking to screenwriter Dustin Lance Black about his movie J. Edgar. He was on Fresh Air once before, in 2008, to talk about how Harvey Milk helped him come out. Thought I’d post it in case you’d like to listen to it.

This is a man who had defused himself, who had tamped down his desires. And when he came out, it was the beginning of him becoming more vivid and hot and present, which was often messy but always wonderful.

— Filmmaker Mike Mills talks about his father, who came out when he was 75.

Air Force 1^st Lt. Josh Seefried: “When ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ existed, everyone was assumed to be straight. The discrimination was invisible. So when you were kicking out someone from the military, everyone got to turn an eye to it. But now that there’s actually openly gay troops, that’s visible. And it’s very different how gay troops are being treated than straight troops.”

Barack Obama signs the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell into law

Tomorrow: 1st Lt. Josh Seefried and 1st Lt. Karl Johnson on the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Seefried blogged under the pseudonym JD Smith (for The Daily Beast) and Johnson wrote under the pseudonym Officer X (for Time) before DADT was repealed. Seefried is one of the co creators of OutServe. 

The Fresh Air Interview: Journalist Jeff Sharlet -- 'Finding Roots Of Anti-Gay Sentiment in Uganda' : NPR

Congrats to Jeff Sharlet who just won the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association feature prize for his Harper’s Magazine piece “Straight Man’s Burden.” Sharlet came on Fresh Air in August 2010 to discuss the piece and his reporting.

His coming out was actually this gesture, of him saying ‘I want life. I want more life. I want something.’ And this was a man who was so self-denying for so long — this very polite, quiet man. And he [wanted] sex. … It’s just weird, to think of your parent that way … This is a man who had defused himself, who had tamped down his desires. And when he came out, it was the beginning of him becoming more vivid and hot and present, which was often messy but always wonderful.

— Filmmaker Mike Mills on his father coming out at the age of 75, after his wife died. [complete interview here]

The day before, he said, ‘Michael, I’m going to throw you a ball and I hope you catch it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, no, he wants to move in with me.’ … The next day, we’re sitting on the couch and he said ‘I’m gay.’

— Filmmaker Mike Mills talks about his father Paul, who came out when he was 75. Mills’ new film Beginners is based on his relationship with his dad.

In middle and high school, there’s an awareness that some of us must be gay and we don’t know who’s gay or how you become gay. A huge part of what animates homophobia among young people is paranoia and fear of their own capacity to be gay themselves. I write “Savage Love” and everyday I get letters from 14 and 15-year-old boys, primarily, who are worried that they’re gay because they don’t understand how you get to be gay — how that happens. And in almost all cases, these letters are from boys who are straight — who are not gay — who are not going to be gay. But they believe that gayness is like some sort of cancer and it grows on you if you’re not careful and not vigilant. Where do they get that idea that gayness is chosen?

— Dan Savage, on the fear and paranoia that exist in middle and high schools about being gay. 

Dan Savage, on his own experiences growing up as a gay teenager: [full interview on Fresh Air here] “The bullied straight kid goes home to a shoulder to cry on and support and can talk freely about his experience at school and why he’s being bullied. I couldn’t go home and open up to my parents. I did think about suicide briefly — not because the bullying had gotten so bad, but because I thought that it would be the good Catholic-son thing to do for my parents.”