A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia 2012

Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), celebrated every May 17 to garner support for the human rights of LGBTQI persons worldwide.

Dan Savage & “Savage Love” return to UAA on February 9

Dan Savage, author of the wildly popular sex advice column “Savage Love” and cofounder with his husband Terry Miller of the It Gets Better Project, returns to University of Alaska Anchorage on February 9, 2012 with his honest and funny question and answer session on everything sexual. Tickets available at UAATix starting January 20.

Dan Savage, journalist & author (LGBT History Month)

Dan Savage is an award-winning author, journalist, newspaper editor and political commentator. He launched the “It Gets Better” video project to combat bullying and prevent LGBT teen suicides. Bent Alaska presents his story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

Dan Savage

“I thought, when I was a kid, that my mother and father would be devastated if I ever told them I was gay.”

Dan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an award-winning author, journalist, newspaper editor and political commentator. He launched the It Gets Better video project to combat bullying and prevent LGBT teen suicides.

Born in Chicago, Savage was the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family. He attended Quigley Prep, which Savage describes as “a Catholic high school for boys thinking of becoming priests.”

At 18, Savage came out to his family. After initially having a difficult time, they became supportive. Savage enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theater.

In 1991, Savage’s sex-advice column, “Savage Love,” first appeared in The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle. The internationally syndicated column has been called funny, sarcastic, informative and outrageous.

Savage’s columns were compiled into a book, Savage Love: Straight Answers from America’s Most Popular Sex Columnist (1998). He has also written The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant (1999) and The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family (2006) and won a Lambda Literary Award for Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America (2003).

In 2010, reacting to the suicides of bullied LGBT youth, Savage started the It Gets Better Project, which encourages adults to submit videos assuring gay teens that life gets better. As of 2011, the project generated more than 5,000 video submissions, including testimonials from President Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Gunn, Anne Hathaway, Ke$ha and other celebrities. For creating It Gets Better, Savage received a Webby Special Achievement Award, the leading international award honoring online excellence.  With his husband Terry Miller, Savage compiled a book based on It Gets Better videos, It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, about which Bent Alaska wrote in March. Introducing the book, Savage expressed the frustration LGBT adults have had as they were forced to stand idly by while homophobic parents, ministers, teachers, and kids battered  the bodies and spirits of LGBT youth:

The culture used to offer this deal to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people: You’re ours to torture until you’re eighteen.  You will be bullied and tormented at school, at home, at church — until you’re eighteen. Then, you can do what you want. You can come out, you can move away, and maybe, if the damage we’ve done isn’t too severe, you can recover and build a life for yourself. There’s just one thing you can’t do after you turn eighteen: You can’t talk to the kids we’re still torturing, the LGBT teenagers being assaulted emotionally, physically, and spiritually in the same cities, schools, and churches you escaped from. And if you do attempt to talk to the kids we’re still torturing, we’ll impugn your motives, we’ll accuse you of being a pedophile or pederast, we’ll claim you’re trying to recruit children into “the gay lifestyle.”

That was the old order and it fell apart when the It Gets Better Project went viral.  Suddenly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender adults all over the world — all over the world — were speaking to LGBT youth.  We weren’t waiting for permission anymore. We found our voices.

Savage has been a contributor to Out magazine and HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” As a political commentator on LGBT issues, Savage has appeared frequently on CNN and MSNBC.

Savage and  his husband Terry Miller, who married in 2005, live in Seattle with their adopted son.

The It Gets Better project got its start when Dan Savage and Terry Miller uploaded a video on September 21, 2010, in response to the suicides of teenagers bullied because they were, or were believed by their peers to be, gay. Watch:

For more about Dan Savage, visit his column, LGBT History Month page, or Wikipedia article.

Photo credit: Dan Savage, 12 June 2005. Photo via Wikimedia provided by Dan Savage; used in accordance with Creative Commons license.

Denise L. Eger, rabbi (LGBT History Month)

One of the first openly gay rabbis, Denise Eger served as rabbi for the world’s first gay and lesbian synagogue. She is the first female and the first openly gay president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. Bent Alaska presents her story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

Denise L. Eger

“I believe God made me just as I am. That is all I need to know, that I am exactly who God created me to be!”

One of the first openly gay rabbis, Denise Eger (born March 14, 1960) served as rabbi for the world’s first gay and lesbian synagogue. She is the first female and the first openly gay president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

Eger was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. Active in her synagogue, she taught religious school from the time she was 12. She studied opera as a teen, intending to be a voice major in college.

Eger received a bachelor’s degree in religion from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree from Hebrew Union College (HUC) – Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1988, she was ordained a Reform rabbi.

Following ordination, she served as the first full-time rabbi at Congregation Beth Chayim Chadashim, the first gay and lesbian synagogue. In 1991, Rabbi Eger cofounded West Hollywood’s LGBT-welcoming Congregation Kol Ami, which means “all my people.”

Rabbi Eger was the founding president of the Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Interfaith Clergy Association. She worked with the Central Conference of American Rabbis to pass the resolution that allowed Reform rabbis to officiate at same-sex commitment ceremonies.

A noted speaker on Judaism, spirituality and LGBT and family issues, Rabbi Eger is a frequent commentator on radio and television. She has written extensively for periodicals, including the Los Angeles Times, The Advocate, Huffington Post and The Jewish Journal. She has also contributed to a number of books, among them Twice Blessed: On being Lesbian, gay, and Jewish, Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life, and Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation.

In 2008, Rabbi Eger officiated at the first legal wedding of a lesbian couple in California. The National Women’s Political Caucus named her one of its 12 Remarkable Women in 2010. The Human Rights Campaign presented her with the Community Equality Award in 2011.

Rabbi Eger lives with her son in Los Angeles.

In 2010, Rabbi Eger recorded a video for the It Gets Better Project. Watch:

For more about Denise Eger, visit her page at the Congregation Kol Ami website, LGBT History Month page, or Wikipedia article.

Photo credit: Rabbi Denise Eger at Meet in the Middle for Equality, Fresno, California, 30 May 2009. Photo by Paul Schreiber; used in accordance with Creative Commons license.

John Berry, government official (LGBT History Month)

John Berry is the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). He is the highest-ranking openly gay federal employee in U.S. history — and has a mountain in Antarctica named after him! Bent Alaska presents his story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

John Berry

“Each time we act against discrimination, we add a ring of life to the American tree of liberty.”

John Berry (born February 10, 1959 ) is the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). He is the highest-ranking openly gay federal employee in U.S. history.

Born in Rockville, Maryland, Berry is the son of two federal government employees. His father served in the U.S. Marine Corps and his mother worked for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Berry earned his Bachelor of Arts in government from the University of Maryland and a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University. His first federal government job was as legislative director for U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer. Thereafter, he served as deputy assistant secretary for law enforcement at the U.S. Treasury Department.

After two years as director of government relations at the Smithsonian Institution, Berry was appointed assistant secretary for policy, management and budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior in the Clinton administration.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, Berry pursued his interest in environmental conservation as the director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and subsequently as director of the National Zoo.

In 2009, President Obama appointed Berry to his current position, where he is responsible for recruiting, hiring and benefits policies for 1.9 million federal employees.

With Berry’s appointment came accolades from the LGBT and mainstream communities. “The selection of John Berry is a meaningful step forward for the LGBT community,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Humans Rights Campaign. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, described Berry as the “perfect choice for the OPM. He’s smart, courageous, and has all the right experience in policy and in politics.”

In 2009, Berry served as the keynote speaker for the International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference in San Francisco.

One of the few Americans to stand on both the North and South Poles, Berry’s government career has taken him around the globe and literally to the ends of the earth. There is a mountain in Antarctica named after him: the Berry Bastion.

In December 2010 John Berry recorded a video for the It Gets Better Project. Watch:

For more about John Berry, visit his LGBT History Month page or Wikipedia article.

Photo credit: John Berry, official portrait, 13 April 2009, United States Office of Personnel Management.

Bent News, 9/28/11: Census data on same-sex married couples

Bent Alaska tweets the news, data from the 2010 U.S. Census on same-sex married couples, a “This Gets Better” video, and more in this edition of Bent News.

Tweeting the news

• Bent Alaska has added (we think) Selective Tweets to our FB profile (as well as page), so we can share news when we’re out & about. #

Bent Alaska has added the Selective Tweets app to our Facebook profile, so we can easily share news with our Facebook friends when we’re out and about — merely by adding a simple #fb hashtag to any tweet we wish.  You can also follow us directly on Twitter @bentalaska.

But what if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter?  We’ve also added a plugin called Twitter Tools to our blog, which will automatically creates a daily post from our tweets.  And suddenly Bent News is reborn: a daily (at least when we tweet) summary of some of the interesting stuff we’ve found around the web.  As we’re able, we’ll also supplement it with other news, photos, videos, etc., to try to make it interesting & informative.  Our Bent News posts will post the day after the tweets were made.

Let us know how we’re doing!  Write to us at bentalaska [at] gmail [dot] com.

Census data on same-sex married couples

• Census Bureau reports 131,729 same-sex married couples, and 646,464 gay couples in the country overall. http://t.co/NdHUdImC #

One of our Facebook friends asked, “Was there a category for LGBTQ persons overall?”  Our answer:  Not yet. Single people couldn’t self-identify as LGBTQ on the 2010 Census, so there’s no data on how many of us live in the U.S. We’ve got to get that added for 2020!

There’s a campaign by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGTLF) to do just that, called Queer the Census (Facebook page). In its blog post about the Census Bureau’s newly released data on same-sex couples, the Task Force writes,

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force played a key role in getting the U.S. Census Bureau to report the number of married same-sex couples in the 2010 census, and continues to work with policymakers to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are included in a broad swath of federal surveys and data collection.

See the U.S. Census Bureau’s official press release on the data.

Other tweets

• Biblical arguments for LGBT equality? Yes. @LambdaLiterary reviews God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality http://t.co/nPGV8TRw #
• Right wing claims TX student’s religious freedom being violated by teacher he harassed b/c he thinks teacher is gay http://t.co/i4lAVL2H #

Shared on our Facebook wall

“All the bullies I’ve known were insensitive jerks.” — so says Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia in this video for the It Gets Better Project. Watch:

It got better: A gay youth’s gratitude

Earlier today, Box Turtle Bulletin posted a video today from a gay teenager named Dylan thanking a gay couple for their “It Gets Better” YouTube video.

Zack Ford at Think Progress tells us more:

Dylan found an “It Gets Better” video from YouTube user “depfox,” gay couple Jay and Bryan Leffew with their kids Daniel and Selena. Through the Leffew family, Dylan saw that he didn’t have to pray away the gay or repress his identity. He could, in fact, grow up to have the loving family that he has dreamed of.

Watch (and be sure to read the comments on Dylan’s YouTube page):

Zack Ford continues,

Since posting his thank-you to the Leffews last month, he has since made a follow-up video telling his own coming out story in which he also talks about how important Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns’ video was for him as he was figuring out his identity.  Dylan’s journey is far from over, because though he came out to the world at large on YouTube, he still hasn’t talked to his family about his identity. Still, by coming out, he is already on a better path.

Is it fair to suggest that IGB saved Dylan’s life? Yes. Nobody will ever know what his story might have been, but if some Internet videos helped him avoid a life of denial, depression, and psychologically harmful ex-gay therapy, that is surely a victory. It’s pretty hard to call something “useless” that has saved a life, and it would be foolish to assume Dylan is alone. “It Gets Better” is making it better one video at a time just by being there for young eyes to see. Keep them coming.

Dan Savage has described “It Gets Better” as a “message in a bottle” to LGBT and questioning youth.   Sometimes that message makes all the difference.

It Gets Better for Native American Youth

“This is for all the LGBTQ Native youth throughout the country. From the villages in Alaska, to the Islands in Hawaii, to every corner of Indian Reservations across America… It Gets Better… we are living proof!!”

If you or someone you know is feeling alone, call the Trevor Project, they can help: 1-866-4U-TREVOR.

Watch the new It Gets Better video from the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center:

A Big Wild Lesbian at Netroots Nation

In which our erstwhile reporter dons her Radical Arts for Women t-shirt, which confers superpowers sufficient to push through another day of (mostly) interesting sessions at Day 2 of Netroots Nation, despite far too little downtime and an overabundance of stress hormones.

San Francisco Giants make “It Gets Better” video in support of LGBT youth

Today, the San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports organization to take a stand against bullying in the It Gets Better campaign. Will the Boston Red Sox follow suit?