Rick Santorum on Marriage
I apologize ahead of time for circling the airport a little with this post. Last week I shared a photo on facebook with someone named Greg Ball. It was something like national teacher day and I thought Greg Ball looked like a nice guy who had posted a nice photo honoring teachers. I’d accepted a friend request from him earlier in the month and I hadn’t seen many updates because facebook only shows what it wants to show in my news feed. I just thought Ball was a guy on facebook, maybe even a reader, and I’m not one of those who vets each an every person on facebook. It’s social media and I want to get to know people I don’t know. Isn’t that the point? The last thing I’m interested in is getting reacquainted with people from high school. Been there done that.
But then something clicked in my head and I went back to check out Greg Ball’s timeline on facebook, just to make sure I didn’t share anything controversial. These days you can’t be too careful and I stay out of politics and religion unless it involves gay rights. The last thing I need is to have people coming after me on facebook for something I didn’t even realize I did. I once posted I ordered flowers for someone from 1-800-Flowers.com and didn’t know they were anti-gay at the time. In any event, Greg Ball turned out to be a New York Senator. I didn’t see anything controversial on his timeline and he still seemed like a decent guy, but I figured I’d do a quick search just in case. And sure enough, once again, I found a few articles about Ball that date back to 2011 stating he’s anti-gay marriage. So I deleted the photo share and moved on to something else. We’re still friends. I’m not going to block him. We just won’t be sharing each other’s updates and braiding each other’s hair.
It’s not that I have anything against Greg Ball, or his beliefs. I just don’t get why some politicians like Ball seem to think that gay marriage is such a huge threat to society or religion. Doesn’t he think there are religious gay people? Seriously. I often think it’s because they don’t really know real gay people. They only see the loudest voices that don’t always represent gay people all that well. But that’s not a good excuse either, because if you’re a political leader of any kind you should make a point to know these things.
For some reason, Greg Ball now reminds me of Rick Santorum. Santorum is the conservative poster boy for all things anti-gay. Ball is much better looking and in much better shape than Santorum, but he even resembles Santorum to a certain extent. And even though Ball hasn’t been as vocal as Santorum on gay marriage, I can’t help but associate Ball with Santorum from now on. Maybe that’s just as hooded on my part as it is for conservative straight people to think we’re all like the gay guys on Modern Family. But I suppose it’s only natural, especially considering the latest comments from Rick Santorum on marriage.
‘What we need to do is have the father and mother raise those children and that means a man and woman bringing to a child what a man and woman can bring and that’s what we should be focused on,’ Santorum told host Neil Cavuto during an appearance on Fox News Channel.
Personally, I think these are interesting times for all politicians. And a lot of what they say and do now will be following them around for the rest of their lives. Think George Wallace and the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.
You can read more about Santorum here. Greg Ball was just an example of how paranoid I’ve become when it involves sharing or reposting anything on social media.
And just to keep it real, this is what Greg Ball said in 2011. If it comes to my attention that he’s changed his views, I’ll update the post. But I couldn’t find anything recent.
“Knowing that marriage equality was likely to pass, I thought it important to force the issue of religious protections. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the distinct opportunity of listening to literally thousands of residents, on both sides of this issue, by holding an undecided stance. I thought it was important to listen to all of my constituents and hold an undecided position until the actual bill language was written and everyone’s voice had been heard. Now that the final text is public, I am proud that I have secured some strong protections for religious institutions and basic protections for religious organizations. The bill still lacks many of the basic religious protections I thought were vital, and for this reason, and as I did in the Assembly, I will be voting ‘no.’”
Gay marriage is legal now in New York.
Gays Closeted At Work
Unfortunately, when a lot of straight people think of gay men and what they do for a living they think hairdresser, florist, interior designer, or waiter. I’m not knocking these respected professions. It’s a dangerous stereotype that’s been around for a long time, and the saddest fact of all is that most gay men don’t work in any of these stereotypical industries and they almost always tend to remain in the closet at work. Tony, my own husband, worked in corporate America for twenty years and he never mentioned me or that he was gay. It’s just not something gay men are willing to take a chance on, especially when they have families, car payments, mortgages, and lives that depend on their salaries. And the same goes for women. One of my best friends from Brooklyn is a lesbian and she has been with her wife for thirty years. She didn’t let anyone know about her wife until she retired a year ago from teaching school. I could go on endlessly with examples.
53% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees say they feel uncomfortable to come out, despite support for LGBTI rights continuing to grow.
According to the poll of 806 LGBT people published the Human Rights Campaign, the percentage has barely budged from 51% in 2009.
One in four LGBT responds said they continue to hear offensive comments, including ‘that’s so gay’, in the workplace.
If you’re surprised you shouldn’t be. There’s more here. I think this will change, but up until now only the most privileged like Ellen and Neil Patrick Harris have been able to come out freely without losing their livelihoods.
Zack Efron Seth Rogen In Drag
Maybe it’s just me once again, but I thought it was funny the first few times I saw Seth Rogen camping it up in gayface with James Franco. I even posted about it a few times. But frankly, it’s starting to get on my nerves and I think it’s time for Rogen to move on to something else. It’s getting tired. I’m sure there’s something else a big, strong, strapping straight guy can do for amusement other than gayface.
Fallon occasionally dresses up as a teenage girl on The Tonight Show to host ‘Ew!’ – a series of spoof skits of programming on the TeenNick cable channel.
Previous stars to appear as friends of Fallon’s teenage girl alter ego Sara have included Lindsay Lohan and the skits have Fallon shooting the show out of Sara’s bedroom.
There’s more here with a photo. I think it would be wiser for Rogen to focus more on those painful roles he’s been taking on in recent years rather than focusing on drag as a straight man. If you don’t believe me just try to sit through The Guilt Trip or This Is the End. A few wasted hours of my life I’ll never get back.
