Days Of Our Lives Fans Accuse Openly Gay Producer Greg Meng & Writers Of Homophobia Because Will Horton’s Explicit Sex Scene With A Woman!!!
I noticed on the internet today many fans of the American soap Days Of Our Lives are upset about yesterday’s episode. The character Will Horton had an explicit sex scene with his female friend Gabi. The main complaint of the pro gay audience is, why would Days invest so much time and energy for Will to come out for him to suddenly have sex with a woman? If Will was so upset to see Sonny getting close to Brian why not have Will have sex with another man? The reason Will didn’t have sex with another man is because Days Of Our Lives is avoiding broadcasting gay men kissing and being intimate on television.
The dangerous message Days Of Our Lives is sending to the audience is being gay is a choice and it is not! Homosexuality is a sexual orientation it is not a choice.
Would Days allow the heterosexual hunks Chad, Brady, Rafe, EJ, or Daniel to have sex with each other if they were upset over a woman?
Greg Meng the executive producer of Days Of Our Lives is an openly gay man! It is shocking and disappointing that despite Greg Meng having incredible power that he allowed this homophobia to engender itself on television. What does it say that a gay man in power at a high profile television show doesn’t even stop the homophobia?
Earlier this year the gay rights organization GLAAD praised Days Of Our Lives for the gay storyline. However, online fans complained that the character Will Horton didn’t have to do much except cry a couple of times. Will only kissed one guy Neil back in February prior to Tuesday’s gay kiss with his best friend Sonny.
Neither Will or Sonny have had a gay sex scene on Days. It appears that Days wants their cake and eat it to which is abhorrent! Days Of Our Lives wants to appear progressive while still promoting homophobia that young gay male characters are prohibited from having sex on television.
A lot of heterosexual women and lesbian women actually WANT to see Will, Sonny, and Brian have love scenes on television! The old excuse that women don’t want to see attractive gay men on television have sex is false! For instance, Brokeback Mountain crossed over and appealed to heterosexual women the film grossed over $178 million dollars world wide. Women weren’t freaked out by seeing hot actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger have anal sex on the silver screen. Women loved it!
One argument is, Will is not accepting of his homosexuality and so he turns to Gabi for comfort. Also, in yesterday’s episode Will is jealous and upset because his potential love interest Sonny is spending time with his friend Brian. Will enters the coffee house and sees Brian removing creme from Sonny’s face.
However, since I started watching Days I noticed that the character Sonny has never had a sex scene! Sonny is supposed to be openly gay and proud yet he only kissed a guy for the first time earlier this week! If Days Of Our Lives doesn’t want to treat gay characters with respect why have them on the show? It doesn’t make any sense! The double standards and the homophobia is offensive!
Will the audience ever get to see Brian, Sonny, or Will roll around in a bed in their underwear making out in an intense sex scene on a bed? Everyone already knows the answer to this question. It is the year 2012, and gay men are still treated as second class citizens compared to heterosexual male characters on television.
It is only fair that Sonny, Will, Brian, are allowed to kiss passionately and make out on a bed just like the straight characters Chad and Melanie!
There is this reticence from the Days Of Our Lives producers which is deleterious, hypocritical, and pernicious! The audience already knows Sonny, Brian, and Will are gay so why not give the gay male characters the same respect in relation to the sex scenes?
Coming out of the closet is only one part of being openly gay the other part also deals with sex and relationships. Soap Operas focus on the love lives of the heterosexual characters yet the gay male characters are treated like they exist in anterior time.
It is time for Days Of Our Lives to step into the twenty first century and stop insulting the intelligence of the audience!
Soap Drama: Y&R Star Greg Rikaart Calls Days Of Our Lives Star Melissa Reeves An Anti Gay Bully For Supporting Chick Fil A!!!
His rap sheet already includes arson, computer hacking, kidnapping and bank robbery and nowThe Young and the Restless‘ Kevin Fisher is once again a wanted man. Only this time he’s innocent! Well, sort of. The mousey man-child — played by the hilariously touching Greg Rikaart— has been implicated in the sudden death of blackmailing shrink Tim Reid (Aaron Lustig). Kevin’s only real offense here was being coerced by his pal Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) into helping her relocate the corpse, a la Weekend at Bernie’s. But tell that to the Genoa City cops! TV Guide Magazine spoke with the Emmy-winning Rikaart about his latest run-in with the law and — of course! — his controversial Twitter beef withDays of Our Lives star Melissa Reeves.
TV Guide Magazine: Is Kevin ever going to grow a pair? Then again, do we want him to? It’s always such a blast watching him squirm and twitch and sweat.
Rikaart: Oh, I think Kevin has a pair but he’s malleable. He can be a real sucker, especially with a powerful lady like Phyllis. He is so easily manipulated and prone to bad decisions but that’s what’s fun about him. He’s best when he’s in panic mode. It’s never interesting when things go his way.
TV Guide Magazine: He wouldn’t be in this current mess if he was a better liar. Claiming he was an encyclopedia salesman when he got spotted at Tim Reid’s apartment wasn’t the best idea.
Rikaart: [Laughs] He is a dreadful liar! Leave it to Kevin to raise suspicion by coming up with an occupation that hasn’t been relevant since 1985! He’s really going to freak when he finds out Tim’s landlady, Beth [Brett Butler], has described him to the authorities. Now they have an extremely accurate police sketch.
TV Guide Magazine: So accurate that I hear even Kevin’s brother, Michael [Christian LeBlanc], will think he has a shady connection to Reid’s death.
Rikaart: Kevin is so ethically challenged it was only a matter of time before he and Michael were on opposite sides of the law, especially now that Michael is the D.A. Before this, Kevin always went to his brother for help. Not this time. He decides to lie to him, which only make things worse. Michael will insist that Kevin come down to the police station and meet with Beth face-to-face. But it’s really no crime to move a dead body…is it?
TV Guide Magazine: Uh, I think it might be obstruction of justice. Or close enough.
Rikaart: Yeah, but compared to some of Kevin’s other crimes, it’s nothing.
TV Guide Magazine: Like the time he was the Chipmunk Bandit?
Rikaart: [Laughs] That became such a joke between me and [former head writer-exec producer] Maria Bell. Whenever I would see her during that bank robbery storyline I would say, “Uh, did I do something? Are you mad at me? Do I need to apologize for something?” That story was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was hard to make it make sense.
TV Guide Magazine: So what’s your feeling on the big exec producer-head writer switch at Y&R?
Rikaart: Oooh, that’s a loaded question, Michael Logan!
TV Guide Magazine: It is?
Rikaart: Let’s see…what can I say?
TV Guide Magazine: Jeez, I didn’t mean to throw you.
Rikaart: Well…I always enjoyed Josh Griffith’s writing when he was here last time and I’m looking forward to working with him again.
TV Guide Magazine: And your new exec producer Jill Phelps…?
Rikaart: I’ve known her casually over the years and it’s exciting to get a chance to work with her.
TV Guide Magazine: Alrighty then. Let’s go to a topic you do have lots of opinions about — your Chick-fil-A war with Melissa Reeves. Your tweets and follow-up piece in the Huffington Post won you a lot of support, yet you also heard from people who thought you were unfair and out of line. Where you at with all that?
Rikaart: It was very disappointing to read some of the responses. I did get a lot of support but the general tone of political discourse in this country is very disheartening. I was getting challenged by some people for having attacked Melissa Reeves when, frankly, what I said was anything but an attack. I expressed my disappointment that she has aligned herself with a company that promotes hatred and bigotry, and I stand by that. I welcome a conversation with her. It’s the only way people on different sides of an issue can meet in the middle and understand each other’s point of view. I would have loved that opportunity with Melissa but she blocked me from her Twitter account. [Reeves subsequently blocked everybody by shutting down the account.]
TV Guide Magazine: Is Twitter the best place for such discourse? Isn’t all that short, hot, frenzied commentary, much of which can be misinterpreted, only adding to the discord? Just throwin’ it out there.
Rikaart: Well, maybe, but on the flip side I feel like I have this tiny bit of notoriety and it’s my soapbox. Because of what I do professionally, people are interested in what I have to say on Twitter and it’s nice to be able to stand up for the things I believe in.
TV Guide Magazine: Some folks feel you attacked Reeves’ right to free speech.
Rikaart: No one is saying that Melissa Reeves doesn’t have a right to free speech. Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, is also entitled to his opinions and beliefs but he’s funding organizations that are hate groups, organizations that want to criminalize homosexuality in this country and throughout the world, and that’s where Melissa Reeves’ alignment is really disappointing to me. I am proud to stand up and be an advocate for LGBT rights. This is the last hurdle of the civil rights movement. I’m glad this is such a hot-button issue. I’m glad people are so impassioned about it, even the people who are against equality for all Americans because they are reacting out of fear, fear that the LGBT community is winning. And it is winning! Part of why I stand up and am proud to be an advocate is because this is less about grownups than it is about children. This is no different than kids being bullied in a schoolyard. People wonder why there is an epidemic of bullying in this country. Well, it’s because kids are learning it from the grownups, from people like Melissa Reeves who is a grown-up bully. I believe in respecting everyone’s religious beliefs but those beliefs don’t belong anywhere near my rights or anyone else’s.
Bad News Soap Fans: Spoilers Indicate Next Week On Days Of Our Lives Gay Character Will Horton Has Sex With A Woman & Sonny Gets Gay Bashed!!!
According to the spoilers next week, for the NBC soap Days of Our Lives the gay character Will Horton played by Chandler Massey is going to have grief sex with his ex girlfriend Gabi Hernandez! Gabi and Will broke up last year because she suspected he is gay. So now Gabi and Will are going to have sex? It doesn’t make any sense! The logical conclusion is, Days of Our Lives is trying to appease multiple audiences and NBC is afraid of upsetting their sponsors.
It is strange to see this kind of homophobia by NBC because I am a Canadian. On Canadian television gay and lesbian characters have thrived since the 1980s.
Canadian television is a million miles ahead of American television in relation to the topic of homosexuality.
I remember watching Degrassi Junior High in the 1980s and Caitlin thought she was a lesbian and had a crush on her teacher Miss Avery.
One of Caitlin’s friends, Kathleen accuses Caitlin of being a lesbian because she was jealous of her.
Even Suzy, Caitlin’s best friend asked her if she was a lesbian.
At the end of the episode, Caitlin realized she isn’t lesbian and Miss Avery is not gay.
In the mid 1980s, lesbianism discussed in an honest and truthful manner on mainstream Canadian television!
Degrassi Junior High dealt with a serious topic of a young girl questioning her sexuality in a mature and honest manner.
Sometimes, I forget that America is not as progressive as Canada in relation to LGBT issues.
Another point to consider is, on Days of Our Lives, Freddie Smith his character Sonny who is Will`s love interest gets gay bashed by this homophobic jerk Tad.
So why couldn’t Days of Our Lives allow Sonny and Brian to have killer hot sex? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Sonny and Brian got to roll around in a bed naked all sweaty, panting, and making out? Well, since Days of Our Lives is an American soap it will be a cold day in hell before the audience gets to see an authentic gay male sex scene!
A lot of people online are very upset because for the past year Days of Our Lives promised the soap fans that Will and Sonny will have a gay romance.
Since Will just came out this year, his character has grown more confident in accepting his homosexuality. So why would Days make Will have sex with a woman?
Days of Our Lives is destroying Will and making him bisexual instead of gay.
Meanwhile, Will`s love interest Sonny is basically asexual. Sonny is supposed to be gay yet he has never kissed another guy until next week or had sex.
The hypocrisy of daytime television in America is abhorrent. The heterosexual characters can have sex scenes rolling around in bed together but Sonny, Will, and Brian can’t have a love scene in a bed!
The spoilers indicate next week Monday, Sonny kisses Will but he is rejected. Will tells Sonny he only sees him as a friend and not as a potential boyfriend. Of course, Sonny is hurt and he accuses Will of being a closet case and not proud to be gay. Will runs off to his grandmother Marlena the town shrink to figure out his feelings. Marlena tries to get Will to see he is sexually attracted to Sonny and give love a chance.
Meanwhile, on the next episode next week Tuesday, Sonny runs into Brian an attractive openly gay man played by Brant Daugherty. Brian warned Sonny in July that Will Horton has a lot of baggage and he is wasting his time with him. Will sees Brian and Sonny and he freaks out and runs away.
Will runs off and he somehow ends up in Gabi`s bed and they have sex. The only reason I can think of Will and Gabi having sex is she is going to get pregnant. The beautiful Camila Banus is the scheming Gabi Hernandez. Gabi`s last storyline she attempted to smash Chad and Melanie`s relationship by hiring a stalker to chase her around Salem. However, the stalker Andrew turned out to be psycho and he kidnapped Melanie. Chad finds out next week that Andrew and Gabi worked together and he kicks her out of his apartment.
The anger many soap fans have is, Days of Our Lives is promoting homophobia. Gay men we are sexually attracted to other men not women! Will having sex with Gabi promotes a homophobic message that all a gay man needs is a hot woman to turn him straight.
Also, Sonny getting gay bashed is a recycled storyline from One Life To Live two years ago! In the year 2009, the character Nick got gay bashed and he used the bashing incident to come between the gay couple Kyle and Oliver. Kyle and Oliver are the only gay male couple on American daytime television to have a gay sex scene! In fact, on One Life To Live Kyle and Oliver had multiple kissing scenes and they even talked about safer sex and using condoms.
Days of Our Lives is upsetting a lot of soap fans it is the year 2012 it is time for NBC to treat gay men with dignity and respect. I am cognizant that Days of Our Lives core audience is heterosexual women. However, since Days decided to have a couple gay men on the show of course the audience demands the gay male characters be treated just like the straight characters. If Melanie and Chad can have sex then so can Will, Sonny, and Brian!
Interesting Article: From Anderson Cooper to Frank Ocean, the Closet Door Opens – But Where are the A List Gay Movie Stars?
By Brent Lang | The Wrap – 51 minutes ago
Are there no gay movie stars?From Anderson Cooper to Jim Parsons, gay celebrities have been gently pushing open the closet door with shockingly little fanfare over the past year.
Their statements have been so understated that a recent piece in Entertainment Weekly on the new politics of being publicly gay noted, “What was impossible 60 years ago and dangerous 40 years ago and difficult 20 years ago is now becoming no big deal.”
That may be true, but there is one big exception.
In the nearly a decade since Tom Cruise won his second of two “I’m not gay” lawsuits in 2003, Hollywood movie stars remain uniformly heterosexual even as American society and public perceptions of sexuality have visibly changed.
Also read: Anderson Cooper: ‘I’m Gay’
Despite the recent matter-of-fact statements from the likes of Cooper, Parsons and Zachary Quinto, no A-list star on the level of a Brad Pitt or Robert Downey Jr. has come out, even though statistically it seems highly improbable that no major actor is gay. Meanwhile, the rumors and lawsuits that have dogged such actors as John Travolta or Cruise may lead the public to their own conclusions.
Even emerging stars like Tom Hardy, who once implied that he had flirted with bisexuality, are quick to quash the rumors if they get out of hand.
“We don’t have a leading man who is out,” notes Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com and a publicist who has guided stars through coming-out announcements. “We don’t have anybody in a major professional sport. There is plenty of room to get further along.”
Also read: Obama’s Gay Marriage Support a Hit in Hollywood, But Will It Help Fundraising?
It seems there are still enormous pressures for big-name stars — especially those tied to romantic or action careers — to remain guarded about their sexuality.
And there’s an added element: The international market is not as accepting as America is becoming.
The movie business is a globalized enterprise, one that is increasingly dependent on foreign audiences. The question is less about America’s changing attitudes towards gays and lesbians, than the views of places like China, a country that boasts a big population of moviegoers, but one that is not exactly progressive when it comes to same-sex relationships.
Also read: Dustin Lance Black Mulls Obama Fundraiser After Shift on Gay Marriage
For the film business, not much has changed since “My Best Friend’s Wedding” star Rupert Everett told the Daily Mail in 2009 about his coming out: “It just doesn’t work, and you’re going to hit a brick wall at some point.”
“The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business,” Everett said.
Although Anne Heche made waves when she went public as Ellen DeGeneres’ girlfriend in the mid-’90s, her career faded along with their relationship, and the major movie actors who are openly gay remain supporting actors like Ian McKellen and Quinto.
It is no coincidence that the majority of the household names who have come out publicly have been television stars. After all, from DeGeneres’ ground-breaking declaration that she was a lesbian 15 years ago up to the portrayal of a happily married gay couple on ABC’s “Modern Family,” the small screen has been one of the most open, accepting and barrier-shattering parts of Hollywood.
That may have to do with demographics. Television’s prize age group is viewers between 18 to 34 years old, and a recent Gallup poll shows that 66 percent of people in that age bracket believe gay marriage should be legal.
“Young people set the ad rates,” Bragman told TheWrap. “These were the kids that grew up with ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Queer Eye.’ Well, you can’t watch ‘Will and Grace’ and ever be threatened by a gay person again.”
The same is not as true for the world of athletics, movies nor music genres like rap and country.
Also read: Hip-Hop Singer Frank Ocean Comes Out in Love Letter
Similarly, despite the public pronouncements of, say, Elton John and Michael Stipe, certain sectors of the music business remain stubbornly resistant to gay artists.
“There are pockets of acceptance that are more robust than others, but [coming out] is not a non-nonchalant thing,” Chely Wright, an openly gay country singer, told TheWrap.
Wright came out in 2010 to an onslaught of media attention, but also softer record sales, demonstrating that, at least in terms of country singers, there is commercial risk to being openly gay.
That makes Frank Ocean’s revelation this week that he is bisexual all the more extraordinary. Ocean is not only African-American, but he is a hip-hop singer — two constituencies that have historically been slower to accept, even openly hostile to gays and lesbians.
That may have been the reason for the unusual way in which Ocean choose to come out. Instead of issuing a statement or sitting for an interview, he wrote a lyrical blog post about his attraction to a male friend when he was 19. Wright argues that Ocean’s decision to provide such a personal look at his own sexual awakening had a lot to do with his audience.
“His constituents were a lot like mine,” Wright said. “Country and hip-hop are on the same latitudinal line on LGBT issues, so when you give the news to a fan base that might not understand, you have a responsibility to explain yourself and to explain what gay love is about. It’s not just who you have sex with, it’s who you go to a movie with or play Scrabble with.”
In contrast, Cooper, Parsons, Quinto and “White Collar”s’ Matt Bomer seemed to take pains to downplay the drama surrounding their announcements. That may have to do with the fact that being gay and a celebrity is no longer novel, but it may also be that many of them were, to borrow a phrase from Slate’s June Thomas, “openly closeted.”
That is partly attributable to the rise of snarky blogs like Gawker and Perez Hilton that both capture celebrities in private moments with loved ones and feel none of the compunction about speculating about stars’ sexual orientations that once constrained the press.
With the internet, any closet, it seems, is made out of glass.
“We live in a very transparent world,” Bragman said. “It used to be someone would say privately that they saw so-and-so in a gay bar or had sex with them, now we have text messages and emails, and that changes things.”
In turn, more traditional media outlets have abandoned the non-aggression pact when it comes to closeted celebrities. When OutWeek Magazine chronicled Malcolm Forbes’ gay lifestyle in 1990 shortly after the media baron’s death, it set off a wave of hand-wringing. But things have changed dramatically.
Media publications rushed to publish that Jodie Foster had come out of the closet when she thanked a female friend in a 2007 speech at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, even though she never said she was gay. Foster continues to keep her sexual orientation private.
Yet the growing ease with which stars of the small screen are opening up about their sexuality may eventually inspire some of their big screen brethren, as well.
“It wasn’t that long ago that playing a gay character was practically the kiss of death for an actor’s career,” Bil Browning, founder and publisher of the gay politics and culture blog The Bilerico Project, told TheWrap.
“[That was] a concern even as recently as ‘Brokeback Mountain’ where Mark Wahlberg turned down the lead because he was ‘a little creeped out’ by the gay theme and worried about his future career. Celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris, Anderson Cooper, Matt Bomer, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are proving daily that LGBT people are simply a part of the fabric of life.”
BBC News: The Reality Is Regular Gay & Lesbians Still Have To Deal With Job Discrimination When Coming Out At Work.
By Kate DaileyBBC News Magazine
Should sexuality be water-cooler conversation?One of the biggest names in US TV journalism, Anderson Cooper, has confirmed that he is gay. But should regular professionals come out to those they work with?
Long before Anderson Cooper confirmed it, evidence of his sexuality was apparent for anyone who cared to look. He was photographed on holiday with the owner of a popular New York City gay bar. In 2007, a man in a Cooper mask was featured on the cover of Out Magazine, which named Cooper as the second-most powerful gay man in America.
Indeed, in an era when the US president endorses gay marriage and the most popular TV chat show hostess in the US, Ellen Degeneres, is a lesbian, there seems to be little reason to make an official declaration of sexuality in a public forum.
So why does it matter that Cooper is now “officially” out?
“In a perfect world he should be able to go about his business and it not be an issue,” says Canadian broadcaster Rick Mercer, host of CBC’s The Rick Mercer Report.
“But there’s no doubt about it: him acknowledging that he is a gay person who is successful and happy and loved means an awful lot.”
Mercer made waves last year when he released a YouTube video calling on gay adults to come out as a way to fight back against bullying and provide a positive example for gay children.
“If you have a life that’s a public life, whether you choose it or not, or a position of responsibility, it makes a difference to be out at that level, whether you’re Anderson Cooper or the chief of police,” he says.
But in 2012 how easy is it for that chief of police – or even the assistant manager of a FootLocker or a call-centre worker – to come out?
‘Permissible discrimination’
In a survey of gay employees conducted in 2011, the Center for Talent and Innovation found that about half of respondents were closeted at work.
“The sad reality is that it’s still perfectly legal in the US to be fired for your sexual orientation in 29 states; [the] same is true in 34 states for gender identity,” says Michael Cole-Schwartz, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
“The laws give licence to discriminate and there are real risks for people’s careers and their livelihoods.”
Anderson Cooper’s reveal
The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.
I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.
In the UK, where employment discrimination based on sexual identity has been illegal since 2003, laws have not managed to eliminate homophobic behaviour in the workplace.
“Our survey found that 800,000 people in the workplace witnessed physical homophobic violence, and 6% of the UK workforce have witnessed homophobic bullying. It may be a comment like ‘I hope you go to hell and your children too’,” says Colleen Humphrey, director of workplace for Stonewall, a gay-rights organisation in the UK.
“People who work in fields with safety equipment tell me that the safety equipment has been tampered with.”
There are other hazards in the professional world: -a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently resigned once his sexuality was made public, drawing vicious online taunts, and a lawyer in Virginia was denied a judicial position because legislatures worried he could not be impartial on issues like gay marriage.
But those were political casualties. Both Humphrey and Cole-Schwartz say that the corporate culture is shifting rapidly.
“Huge majorities of Fortune 500 companies forbid discrimination outside of what the laws require. On one hand you have permissible discrimination from a legal standpoint, but increasingly that kind of discrimination is not tolerated,” says Cole-Schwartz.
Some corporate fields are shifting faster than others.
“Anecdotally, the fields you think of that are not perhaps as accommodating for other diverse groups are similar for the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community,” says Karen Sumberg, executive vice president of the Center for Talent Innovation, singling out “heavy industry, engineering”.
“Finance is ahead of the game on this topic, but law is not,” she says.
Double lives
In explaining his silence on the issue, Cooper said he was at least partly more interested in reporting the news than reporting on his private life. Many LGBT employees feel the same. “A lot of people are private people,” says Mercer. “I understand the reluctance to discuss sexuality at work.”
But the pressure many people may feel to keep their private life extremely private can be detrimental both to employee and company.
“Instead of concentrating on having to switch switch pronouns, tell lies, and conceal details of their lives, they can concentrate on their professional lives,” says Sumberg. “For companies, there’s more trust and better talent retention.”
While the HRC and Stonewall emphasise the importance of companies creating safe environments for a diversity of employees, gay workers in some firms can face a Catch-22.
“Support for LGBT issues has such a strong correlation to whether not people know LGBT Americans,” says Cole-Schwartz. “I think that the more someone can be out, the more he or she is going to be able to influence the perceptions of the people around them.”
In some cases, though, that means being put in the position of office trailblazer, a role not everyone finds themselves comfortable with.
That dilemma may be a temporary one, with the current “Generation Y” workforce described as being more prominently out at work than their predecessors, according to Karen Sumberg.
As people come out at younger and younger ages, experts say they are more likely to enter the workforce out of the closet and less likely to go back in for professional appearances – which will create a more inclusive work environment for employees of all ages.
“Over a 20-year span it’s been an incredible change,” says Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester in New York. “It’s one of the most fast-lifting stigma that I can think of.”
Interesting Article: The Sports World Is Not Ready For Gay Male Athletes To Come Out There Is A Code Of Silence.
  Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press Antonio Cassano drew derision for his homophobic comments. Italian striker Antonio Cassano may be good at opening up defenses, but opening up his big mouth is a problem. His dumb comments on gay soccer players drew derision at Euro 2012 earlier this month. He hoped there were no “queers” on the Italian team. Later, he issued the predictable mea culpa apology, most likely written by someone skilled in the verse of damage control. An estimated 500,000 professionals have kicked soccer balls across the globe. So far, only one top pro has come out as gay, the late Justin Fashanu of England. Tennis, rugby and other sports have witnessed gay athletes coming out. So what of soccer? English academic Ellis Cashmore, author of “Making Sense of Sports,” published research last year in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. Ninety-three percent of participants in the broad survey, which included average fans and people involved professionally in British soccer, opposed homophobia. So I asked him this week: Why have no openly gay players emerged? “Gay players are already known by the clubs’ front offices as well as other players, perhaps game officials and agents; they observe a code of silence,” Cashmore said. “Reason? They assume it is in none of their interests to make it known if a player is gay. Other players think they will be mocked by players from other teams, front offices think it will hurt the club’s ‘brand’ if it is seen as the only club to have an openly gay player, refs and other officials have members of their own fraternity who are gay and wish to remain in-closet, and agents mistakenly assume their own commissions will take a hit if one of their clients is known to be gay. When a player comes out or is outed, they will all reflect on how wrong they were. Fans’ reactions will be surprisingly muted.” But the reaction is unlikely to be silent at first. “There’s no doubt that the first one or two players who come out will experience what British soccer fans call ‘stick,’ i.e. good-humored reprimands or chastisement, which can often be sharp but is essentially not malevolent,” Cashmore told me last year. “They will also encounter more serious forms of bigotry from sections of the crowd. It will be mean, nasty and wounding.” Who wants to go to a job and be publicly berated every week? Ace German strikerMario Gomez, in an interview last year with German magazine Bunte, said, “Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic.” Cashmore believes the spectacle will be less cruel over time. “Once the players show their mettle, their sexual orientation will recede in importance. Fans the world over are interested principally in performance on the field of play.” So where can we find gay soccer players? San Francisco Spikes is a predominantly gay soccer club playing in Bay Area leagues. Jay Higa plays defense, a veteran of 20 years. So how is it being a soccer player who happens to be gay? “It’s changed a lot,” Higa said. “On the field it doesn’t really matter. Every year it is getting easier. Soccer is not so much a blue-collar sport so I think soccer players in the U.S. might be a little more tolerant. I see some soccer stars coming out in the next 10 years. It won’t be as difficult as a football or baseball player coming out. And it will give us another person to look up to.” — A short film about the club, “Beyond the Team,” directed by Tim Kulikowski, is featured at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. It’s showing Saturday at 4:15 p.m. at the Victoria Theater, 2961 16th St., San Francisco. |
Former Gay Porn Star Dakota Cochrane Is Now Attempting To Break Into FX Reality Show Ultimate Fighter.
News broke a few days ago that former Sean Cody gay porn star Dakota Cochrane has made the final thirty two for the FX reality show Ultimate Fighter. The top fifteen will appear on Ultimate Fighter and compete for a contract. Cochrane used the name “Danny” when he appeared in sixteen gay porn films for Sean Cody. A simple google search and visit to http://www.seancody.com and you can see Cochrane in all his glory. Cochrane claims he made $80,000 dollars performing in gay porn but he says he hated it.
I am guessing some gay men see Dakota Cochrane as some hero because he did not deny he appeared in gay porn. However, everyone knows on the internet there are no secrets. Cochrane is distancing himself from his gay porn past he says he was desperate for money.
Dakota also says he is completely straight and he plans to marry his girlfriend. I believe the producers of the Ultimate Fighter will allow Cochrane to appear on the show due to ratings. Although Dakota Cochrane claims he is straight, he can still appeal to gay viewers. The controversy will provide FX with a ton of press.
I am a bit disappointed though that Dakota Cochrane states he is completely straight. There is so much negativity in society still about male homosexuality and I think a gay athlete that is proud to be gay would break a lot of barriers. I think Dakota is at least bisexual, but that’s just my personal opinion.
Link to article:
Pics of “Danny” Dakota Cochrane from Queer Click.
Lindsay Lohan & Clay Aiken What Is The Difference?
Last week, the second season American Idol runner up Clay Aiken finally admitted he is gay. The news is not exactly earth shattering since everyone knows Aiken is homosexual.I notice after reading various articles the media actually are very sympathetic to Aiken.
However, actress Lindsay Lohan is being treated differently like a complete joke. There seems to be this negative attitude towards lesbianism that it is not possible for two women to love each other.
I don’t know Lindsay Lohan, so obviously I don’t know if she is a lesbian or bisexual. However, I think it is interesting how society treats lesbianism and male homosexuality differently. It appears to me that society doesn’t really believe that young women can be lesbians unless it is some kind of publicity stunt.
What do you think? Isn’t Clay Aiken coming out also a publicity stunt to garner public sympathy? What is so special about Clay Aiken anyway? I don’t understand why Aiken is so popular sure he’s a decent singer but he’s not that great a singer. He didn’t even win American Idol. I read a rumor that he got paid in the six digits range for coming out to People’s Magazine.
Do people think Aiken is noble now? Aiken danced around “coming out” for years. Lindsay Lohan has been photographed kissing Samantha Ronson, holding hands, hanging out with her but she has not declared she is a lesbian.
Maybe Lindsay Lohan doesn’t feel the need to “come out” to make a big “production” and let the media create the hysteria anyway. In showbiz, any publicity is good publicity. Lindsay didn’t tell the press to write about her personal life she didn’t tell the media to follow her around and take pictures she is just living her life. It appears to me Lindsay Lohan is being smart by saying “nothing” while “not hiding” because she’s letting the public arrive at its own conclusions.
Aiken didn’t come out until he was able to profit from coming out and acquiring some free publicity. Lindsay Lohan hasn’t hidden the fact she is close to the female DJ Samantha Ronson but I don’t see Lindsay selling her story to the media either. Maybe Lindsay is using the press by not saying “anything”. Wasn’t Clay Aiken playing games with the media as well?
So why is Aiken being treated as some kind of hero and Lindsay Lohan is scorned? Everyone already knows Aiken is a homosexual it is not rocket science even Stevie Wonder knows Aiken is gay LOL!
Could it be because Lindsay Lohan is a woman society doesn’t treat lesbianism as seriously as male homosexuality? Society has a love and hate relationship with lesbianism some people view lesbianism as a form of sexual titillation for heterosexual men. However, I don’t recall Lindsay talking to People’s Magazine about her love life either.
Is A Kiss Just A Kiss?
I was talking to my friend on the phone the other day and he was watching You Tube. My friend was laughing at the Sasha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell kiss during an award show. I should point out we are both gay men. My friend urged me to watch the clip. I have to admit I laughed as well. I looked at the audience in the clip there were also laughing. Cohen and Ferrell are rolling around on the ground kissing but it was meant for shock value.
I began to question myself and wonder why is the clip funny? Why was I laughing as well? Am I homophobic too? Was the joke funny because it was just two comedians making a joke or is there a more deeper and subversive issue taking place here? Is society trying to say two men cannot have a loving, passionate, relationship with each other?
After all would the audience laugh if two attractive women were kissing? Would the audience have been so shocked? Was the audience really laughing at the kiss or was the audience laughing in attempt to hide their own fear and prejudices about male homosexuality?
Here is another clip from the gay storyline on the American soap opera As The World Turns. For the past six months Luke and Noah have been in an intense and passionate gay romance. Luke and Noah have only kissed two times in the past six months. The heterosexual couples on As The World Turns get to have sex so why can’t Luke and Noah? Everyone knows Luke and Noah are gay so were is the passion? The kiss between Noah and Luke although very short demonstrates the passion between them. You are not supposed to laugh when Luke and Noah kiss you are supposed to yearn that their relationship works and that their love survives and thrives. Fans of the show As The World Turns are upset at CBS because they believe homophobia is the real reason Luke and Noah haven’t been allowed to kiss more often.
Here is a third clip from the lesbian drama the L Word. The scene is from the first season of the L Word a passionate and erotic kiss between Jenny and Marina. You can tell from their body language that Jenny and Marina are yearning for each other. I know some people don’t like Jenny but I love Jenny! I kind of wish Marina was on the show more often. Marina was such a mysterious and amazing character. I thought the kiss here was very important it was the first time Jenny and Marina acknowledged they are sexually attracted to each other. The L Word is on Showtime in America and that’s a cable station so there is more freedom to explore lesbianism, love, passionate sex, breaking up, making up, and all that jazz.
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