Beautifully written and visually realized.
It goes without saying that the message is important and spot on.
Congrats to Shane Koyczan for great work. Learn more about the project at www.tothisdayproject.com
Flash mob dances at Vancouver hockey game for anti-bullying
In British Columbia, the Vancouver Giants and over 1,800 students teamed up for promote upcoming Pink Shirt Day on February 27, which has a message to fight bullying.
Various videos of the anti-bullying flash mob that stole the show at the Vancouver Giants’ game Sunday are popping up on YouTube.
Just over 1,800 students, all in pink shirts, were part of a dance number in the north end upper deck to One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful.
Giants vice-president of business development Dale Saip said it involved schools from “five or six districts,” and Sunday was the first time that the entire group was together.
“It was an amazing amount of work and an amazing production and a tribute to the people who put that together,” he said. “We’re happy to accommodate and it works well with our message of anti-bullying.”
Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation: $200K to anti-bullying efforts
Via press release, Ben Cohen shares that his foundation to fight bullying – The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation – has proved $200,000 in support to anti-bullying programs.
The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation today announced nearly $200,000 in support provided to anti-bullying efforts since launching less than two years ago, in April 2011. Of the $198,900 in support, $58,200 was given in direct grants to 18 anti-bullying groups across the US, UK and Ireland. Another $140,700 went to support StandUp’s international anti-bullying awareness and education campaign.
“Our mission is simple but will take time to fulfill. We are off to a strong start,” said Ben Cohen, MBE, chairman. “We exist to raise awareness of the long-term damaging effects of bullying, and to fund those doing real-world work to stop it.”
Ben Cohen, a rugby World Cup champion, is the first sports superstar to dedicate his philanthropic efforts to anti-bullying. He founded the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation in memory of his father, Peter Cohen, who was beaten to death when he stood up for an employee who was being attacked.
Ben Cohen launches StandUp Magazine
This guy is so good looking (I can’t breathe he’s so good looking), and has the heart of a lion.
Ben Cohen, rugby superstar, anti-bullying advocate and LGBT ally today announced the launch of StandUp Magazine.
From the StandUp Magazine website:
StandUp Magazine features the best in sports culture: the role models who make a difference in their games and in their communities, too.
Focused on the positive stories around professional, collegiate and community sports, StandUp Magazine reaches mainstream sports fans, professional athletes, cultural influencers, and LGBT athletes and community leaders.
Make sure you stop by the website and subscribe.
On bullies, high school and men of character
I have to share: my years in high school (which in many ways were awful except for some dear friends) were saved by my surprising and unforeseen friendship with two amazing men who somehow found me interesting and funny. To this day they are terrific friends of mine who I can call at any hour and time will have not budged. I value their friendship more than they know because I can count on them no matter what the distance between us.
I mention all this because, when I saw this pic, I thought of them. Both were football players, popular in high school, who didn’t need the “weight” of a rumored ‘gay guy’ to bring them down in the social strata of high school life. And yet, they became my friends and never moved away from that position. I know there were times when they took a stand in my defense. These are truly moments of high school when you see what stuff guys are made of. Sometimes this defines the word “character.”
I’ve never taken their friendship for granted, and I always know I was lucky that they knew their own character at such a young age. 30 years later, I’m still amazed I factored in somehow. They have sometimes flown hundreds of miles to see me perform on Broadway or on stages across the country.
With that said, I hope every guy out there who might not “know who they are” at a young age finds guys confident in themselves, as I did, to be their friends. Friends who really are friends.
Thanks John Bell and David Burke for being who you are. Your confidence inspired me to be who I am.
Ben Cohen on what you wear
Fabulous for so many reasons.
Ben Cohen is featured today in the New York Times:
When the noted British athlete Ben Cohen — the David Beckham of rugby — walked down the runway this month for an AmFAR benefit at the New York Public Library, odds were that many in this audience thought he was just another handsome, muscular model. With his easy smile, buzz cut and 6-foot-3 frame, Mr. Cohen fit the mold and the clothes.
One of the highest-scoring players in British Union rugby history, Mr. Cohen, 33, was being honored that night. Taking the microphone, Mr. Cohen explained to the crowd that instead of signing a three-year contract, he quit rugby last year to devote himself full-time to battling homophobia.
In 2011, he started the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation to combat bullying, especially the bullying of children who might be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender — an issue that has received heightened attention in the last two years after the suicides of several gay teenagers who had been bullied by peers.
And btw – you may have noticed he’s very, very good looking 🙂
Make sure you visit the StandUp Foundation, which he founded, to see what you can do to help Ben Cohen end bullying.
Ontario passes anti-bullying bill
Ontario’s legislature has passed a landmark anti-bullying bill opposed by Catholics and conservatives by a vote of 65-36, the CBC reports:
Ontario’s anti-bullying bill, also known as Bill 13 or the Accepting Schools Act, passed through the legislature just before noon today by a margin of 65-36. Only the Progressive Conservatives voted against the legislation.
Catholic educators and church leaders oppose the bill because it requires schools to allow students to call anti-homophobia clubs gay-straight alliances if they wish.
[Ontario Premier]McGuinty (pictured) said the issue of protecting kids from bullying transcends all faiths and partisan politics. He added Catholics would understand the true significance of the bill is to build a stronger, more cohesive society.
Sioux City Journal devotes entire front page to anti-bullying editorial
In a rare and forceful act of advocacy, an Iowa newspaper devoted the entire front page of its Sunday edition to an anti-bullying editorial after a gay teen committed suicide.
The Sioux City Journal’s front-page opinion piece calls on the community to be pro-active in stopping bullying and urges members to learn more about the problem by seeing the acclaimed new film, “Bully,” which documents the harassment of a Sioux City middle school student. It notes that while many students are targeted for being gay, “we have learned a bully needs no reason to strike.”
Relatives have said 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. suffered intense harassment, including threatening cellphone calls and nasty comments posted online, after coming out to family and friends about a month ago. He died April 15 from what the local sheriff’s office described only as a “self-inflicted injury.”
“In Kenneth’s case, the warnings were everywhere,” the editorial said. “We saw it happen in other communities, now it has hit home. Undoubtedly, it wasn’t the first life lost to bullying here, but we can strive to make it the last.”
Bravo to the Sioux City Journal! Click here to read the entire editorial.
President Obama endorses Student Non-Discrimination Act
The White House has just announced that it is endorsing the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) and the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA), two bills that will protect LGBT students in the U.S.
“The President and his Administration have taken many steps to address the issue of bullying,” White House spokesperson Shin Inouye informed Metro Weekly. “He is proud to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act, introduced by Senator Franken and Congressman Polis, and the Safe Schools Improvement Act, introduced by Senator Casey and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. These bills will help ensure that all students are safe and healthy and can learn in environments free from discrimination, bullying and harassment.”
Metro Weekly further explains the two pieces of legislation that have just received Obama’s support:
The SSIA would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying- and harassment-prevention programs, including ones based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The SNDA, modeled after Title IX, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal education nondiscrimination law.
The timing of the news couldn’t be better for the White House, which is fighting off harsh criticism after refusing to protect LGBT workers from discrimination in federal contracting employment.
(Source: Metro Weekly)
Ben Cohen in the new issue of Metrosource
Metrosource has a new interview and photo shoot with straight LGBT ally Ben Cohen.
As many of you may know, Ben Cohen is a world-class, top ranked rugby player who left his career in rugby to create the StandUp Foundation, an organization created to combat homophobia and bullying among schoolkids. I can him a hero.
Here’s just an excerpt from the interview:
Ultimately, Cohen doesn’t have a definite explanation for what initially drew his gay fans to him over other sports stars, but he’s immensely grateful that they were. “If it wasn’t for the gay community finding me attractive in the first place,” says Cohen, “I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this.”
Cohen was in the midst of a Q&A session with a gay-positive student group called True Colors. “The interesting thing about True Colors — it was 14 women and one gay chap,” Cohen says. The kids let him know that their group was not well respected by their fellow students. Cohen asked them, “Who would give credibility to your organization?” The kids named two of the school’s star athletes, and Cohen decided to meet with them.
So Cohen decided to meet with these particular athletes — along with a group of their fellow teammates. “I’m not here to point fingers,” he explained to them, “but as a sportsman, you need to know how to be a role model whether you like it or you lump it.”
By the time Cohen finished with them, the school’s sports teams had agreed to wear not only the StandUp Foundation’s patches on their jerseys but also patches supporting the True Colors group. He hopes the patches will help them continue the conversation. “We are leaving that little bit of legacy behind,” he says.
Read the rest of the interview at Metrosource.
You can support Cohen at standupfoundation.com
