30 Days of Pride

Monday, May 31, 2010 11:46pm

This year marks the second National LGBT Pride month as proclaimed by President Barrack Obama—originally Gay & Lesbian Pride Month in 2000 by President Clinton. While, I was simply satisfied to remember the Stonewall Riots and be thankful that our president recognized a month in our honor—in addition to LGBT History month, which has been October since 1994—this year I found myself looking for another way to keep this time in my heart.

I originally planned to simply use my facebook status updates as the medium to express my pride—and I will utilize them as a tool to pique interest and direct those, who want more information to the blog—however, I felt that leaving it at that would leave room for more questions than answers (and possible disagreements). So, this seemed the best method of expression. For the entire month of June, I plan to post once a day with something that gives me pride.

At this point, it is necessary that I make a disclaimer. The items that I am going to name are items that give me pride; they are personal and specific to myself.This means that there are items that you may disagree with on several levels—be it because they are frivolous; they do not coincide with your political/religious beliefs, or any other reason.My point is that we all have different things that make us proud, and often the thing that makes one person proud does just the opposite for another.

Lastly, I would like to extend you all an invitation to take this month and share your pride with everyone.While, I would love to see you all make your lists and share them with your friends/family/social networking buddies, I merely ask that you keep this month in your own way.It was not long ago that it was illegal and dangerous for us to be who we are—forget about being proud of it—and it still remains that way for many of us on this earth.

Reach out this month; come out this month; and most importantly take pride in everything you do and everything you are.


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Why YOU Should Come Out

Friday, June 5, 2009 5:03pm

So here's something I hope you guys will find interesting!


A poll released today by Gallup found that those who know someone gay are more likely to support same-sex marriage, while those who don't know anyone gay or lesbian overwhelming oppose gay marriage.

"While 57% of Americans oppose legalizing gay marriage, Americans who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian are almost evenly divided on the matter, with 49% in favor and 47% opposed. Among those who do not personally know anyone who is gay, 72% oppose legalized gay marriage while just 27% favor it."


Overall, only 58% of those polled say they have a friend, relative or co-worker who personally told them they are gay. If those 42% of Americans who THINK they don't know anyone gay, realize they DO, imagine the positive impact this would have, not just on gay marriage, but on the welfare of gays and lesbians in general:

"Of those who say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian, 88% say they are comfortable around these individuals, compared to 64% of those who do not personally know someone who is gay or lesbian."

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Gabby's Corner

Thursday, February 25, 2009 9:02am

We’ve been taking some beatings lately. We always do, but reading the headlines has been especially hard lately. This month:

• A senator publicly called us the biggest threat to homeland security.
• An Australian priest was dismissed for blessing 10 gay/lesbian unions in his extremely long career—oh yeah, and he was letting women take the pulpit.
• A bishop in Pennsylvania wants to close down Misericordia University’s Multicultural office because they had a gay rights advocate come speak to the students.
• North Carolina is attempting to put a ban on gay marriage up for popular vote—remember how that went in California?
• A Republican in Colorado lumped us in with murders and adulterers and said that if we don’t legalize their sin we can’t legalize ours.

And that’s not even the half of it. It seems like every time I turn on the news or look at my homepage, I see another loss that we’re suffering. I’ve been looking for some solace, and I found it somewhere I didn’t expect it: The Oscars.
Many of you will probably think that it’s silly of me to take any sort of comfort when watching a group that is completely out of touch with the rest of America, but I did. Amiss, all the recent hate speak and attempted encroachments on our unalienable human rights, the powers that be sent me two major victories in the form of Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn.

Their speeches touched me and gave me a hope that I have longed for. Perhaps, it is because they are living the dream—I want to stand right where they did and have the courage to say the things that they’ve said—but maybe it was the honesty of the things they’ve said.

Of course, not everyone will agree with me. India censored any mention of Black being gay from their broadcast. My father dismissed Sean Penn because of his wild past and made a crude joke about him being a method actor. A columnist for The Boston Herald called Dustin Lance Black “a pathetic martyr”—he obviously never grew up in an oppressive environment. A guy I went to high school with—he’s a truly great actor—decided that Milk could not be a story worth telling because San Francisco is such a liberal place and his position wasn’t essential enough to the country’s government. Nevertheless, I was filled with pride on Sunday night, and I am still moved by the beautiful things that were said.

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Milk (2008)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 2:10pm

Milk is a new movie coming soon to theaters about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to a public office in the USA; a true story.

Gay scenes are usually shunned from television and movies. Brokeback Mountain only showed a few pecks and a suggestive scene, and wasn't the most in depth movie... it was revolutionary because it was the first major movie with a gay relationship, not because it was any good.

Milk breaks some ground with more 'gay scenes'. Plenty of kissing, semi-nude scenes, and two 'kind of' sex scenes without suffering a NC-17 rating. Not to say this is a great thing, but it shows the beginning of equality, in movies, anyways. I mean, think of movies like Knocked Up or Forgetting Sarah Marshall where it is a testicle away from a porn scene, and only rated 18A/R... but the movie Imagine Me & You, which could have been mistaken for a Disney movie, was rated R for a passionate kiss between two women. Most movies that try to get in a gay scene or two have to cut the scene, or else they suffer the rating of NC-17.

So, perhaps this shows a little less anti-gay bias from the MPAA (the movie raters). ...?

But, that is hardly the point. A kiss, a sex scene, that is not what makes a movie! What made this a movie is showing the plight of LGBT people. It also shows a side to gay men which is almost never portrayed, which is a loving, caring side, versus the sex-craved side. It tells a story, a true one, of a great man who greatly helped the gay rights movement.

For those interested: PRIDE is considering getting a private screening of the movie when it comes out December 5th. We are hoping to be able to see it before Christmas break. We need 25 people for a private screening.

Please let us know if you are interested.

If we do not get the necessary numbers, we are still planning on going and seeing the movie, but it will be in a packed theater instead of just us.


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Proposition 8 Protest in Wilmington

Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:20am

Hey everyone,

Saturday November 15th, 2008 there will be a rally protesting the passage of Proposition 8 in Wilmington!

The protest is going to be at City Hall, which is at the corner of 3rd and Chestnut downtown. It is part of a nation-wide protest. LGBTIQ community members and our Allies will be gathering and protesting while we are around the country.

The protest will run from 1:30pm to 3:00pm EST.

So come out and support Equality!

Here is the Facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=47773806464

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Welcome!

November 7, 2008 2:58pm

Ok, so, for my first post, I'll describe how this blog will work for you, the contributor.

First, you request publishing access through pride@uncw.edu. Then, check your e-mail to see if access has been approved. Once you receive the e-mail from Blogger, the subject of which will say something like "You Have Been Invited To Contribute To The PRIDEblog!", click the link in the e-mail and register to post.

The beauty of the blog is, you can choose your own display name to protect the anonymity of members to the outside world. If you don't feel comfortable with others knowing exactly who you are, and that you're a contributing member of this blog (it's understandable, indeed), just pick a random display name. Also, you may want to choose the option that will not allow Blogger to give others the opportunity to see your profile. If you need any help with this, just ask me. :) It's an easy way to voice yourself.. and it's a very exciting outlet to pursue.

So, without further adieu, take a crack at it! The only thing you have to lose is your hermetic tendencies (those are tendencies of being a hermit, if you didn't catch that). Join up and contribute anything!

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About PRIDE

PRIDE was established on campus in 1986 as the Gay and Lesbian Association to meet the needs of the LGBTIQA community. PRIDE is a UNCW student organization dedicated to the recognition of students, faculty, and staff who have individual and unique personalities and would like to discuss current social issues. We primarily deal with issues concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and allied (LGBTIQA) communities.

For our community members who identify as such, we are an open safe-haven, resource center, and activist organization. And we really like to talk!

We whole-heartedly believe in the power of words. And while all of our members are not as outspoken as others, we encourage the presence of all members at events so that we may all learn something from others.