American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken has announced he is going to run for Congress in North Carolina. The seat Aiken would run for is currently held by Rep. Renee Ellmers.
Aiken’s decision to enter the race has already reshaped the field. Houston Barnes, a young attorney who lives in Durham, plans to announce Wednesday he is withdrawing from the race and supporting Aiken. That leaves former state commerce secretary Keith Crisco of Asheboro and licensed professional counselor Toni Morris of Fayetteville as Aiken’s primary opponents.
College football player Conner Mertens, of the Willamette University football team, last night came out to the world in a letter he posted to his Twitter account.
The letter was directed to his small hometown of Kennewick, Washington.
“You are not alone. You do not need to come out but you do need to know that you do not have to go at this by yourself. The aloneness you’re feeling is temporary and it will get better. This place is changing…changing for the better. I made the decision that if I could prevent one person from feeling that self-hatred, loneliness, desperation and a thousand other emotions that I felt, I would. I will be damned if I let anyone tell you that you are wrong or weird or not normal.
“Love yourself and allow others to love you. Be who you are and know you’re not alone.”
Before the tweet, Conner shared the letter with his team in a meeting last night.
The letter was printed and placed on desks facing down. At the same time, the players all turned the page and read in silence.
One by one the players shared what was on their minds. At one point, one of the bigger guys on the team had something to say. This was one of the players of whose reaction Mertens was most afraid. He has a reputation of seeking out fights, eager for fisticuffs, Mertens said. He laid it all on the line in front of the team.
“If anyone has a problem with Conner,” he said, “I’ll kick your ass.”
Every one of the team members who spoke shared the same sentiment. Mertens is a member of the team, he has a bright future on the gridiron, and it just doesn’t matter if he has a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
“It’s been insanely incredible,” Mertens said a couple hours after the meeting last night. Text messages and phone calls poured in from the team, all offering their love and support. “I’m speechless. That is the only word I can use to describe this. Even a lot of the guys on the football team I was most scared of are the ones who have been the most amazing.”
One team mate asked Mertens to meet him on campus. When he arrived, the player gave Mertens a big hug.
You can see Conner’s tweet, letter and the responses below.
And you can read Cyd Zeigler’s excellent article chronicling Conner’s journey to today at OutSports. I really urge you to head over and read the entire piece. It will give you a lift in terms of how great the next generation will be.
Congratulations Conner on a heartfelt and honest coming out, and for having great taste in friends and team mates.
I don’t ask for a lot of favors-but I’m cashing one in right now. Please take a minute to read this for me. pic.twitter.com/571c5v9NeO — Merts (@ConnerMertens) January 28, 2014
The White House announced today that NBA player Jason Collins, who made history last year by becoming the first male athlete playing in an American team sport to come out as gay, will be seated in the box with First Lady Michelle Obama, Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett for tomorrow’s State of the Union Address.
After coming out as gay in a Sports Illustrated article in April, Collins has enjoyed a strong relationship with the Obamas. On the day the piece was published, Collins received a personal phone call from Obama, who later said during a news conference he was “very proud” of the athlete.
Collins also appeared alongside Michelle Obama during the Democratic National Committee’s annual LGBT gala in New York City in May.
Collins is currently a free agent after 12 years in the NBA.
Earlier today I reported on the Indiana Speaker of the House’s “highly unusual” tactic of moving the current anti-marriage equality bill to a new committee because it looked like it might not pass in it’s initial committee.
In light of that move, Andrew Markle, a gay Republican running for the Indiana state House, has announced on Facebook that he is ending his campaign and quitting the Republican Party due to the “committee surfing” of the anti-gay bill:
It deeply saddens me to see the state that I have called home for the past 8 years plunge into a debate over a minority group’s civil rights.
It is with a heavy heart but with a clear conscience that I announce the end of my run for Indiana State House of Representatives, District 99, as a Republican. With today’s announcement by House Speaker Brian Bosma, that he is using extraordinary and unprecedented rules to change House Joint Resolution 3’s committee assignment, I have no choice but to resign my candidacy as a Republican.
As an openly gay male and a conservative, I find it deplorable that the state would choose to take such extraordinary measures to disenfranchise me and my fellow LGBT brothers and sisters. In an era where my party declared that it was the party of “small government” and “less intrusion”, it has been confirmed that it is not the party of small government or less intrusion.
I am not leaving the Republican Party; the Republican Party has left me.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker recently took four days off to marry her longtime partner Kathy Hubbard in Palm Springs.
Typically, Texas Republicans went on the attack saying her marriage was politically motivated, KHOU reports.
GOP State Senator Dan Patrick, currently running in a tough primary for Lt. Governor, said this of Mayor Parker’s nuptials:
“I am not shocked that Mayor Parker decided to elope to California for a marriage that is unconstitutional in Texas. This is obviously part of a larger strategy of hers to turn Texas into California.”
Parker responded to the criticism: “Dan Patrick’s running a political campaign. And he wants to make the gay community a whipping boy in that political campaign. And he thought I was an appropriate target. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And I don’t think that’s unusual….
Critics questioned the timing of her wedding, observing it occurred only weeks after being sworn into office for her final term. Mayor Parker pointed out that the couple married on what they have always considered their anniversary – January 16th – the date when they privately committed themselves to each other.
Says Parker, “You don’t commit 23 years of your life to someone to make a political statement…I took four days off. I had to leave my home state and make a little wedge of time to marry the woman I love. They can get over it.”
Robert De Niro the actor has never been particularly forthcoming about his personal life — nor anything else, for that matter. The very private New York-based Oscar winner rarely gives interviews or shows up at events.
But for the first time, he reveals a great deal of his youth and upbringing, his early family life, and his relationship with his father, the late figurative painter Robert De Niro Sr., in Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro Sr.
It will make its television debut in June on HBO, and its Sundance debut was met with enthusiasm, curiosity — and surprise. Robert De Niro Sr., we learn, was part of the post WWII set of New York painters — Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner, etc — and he enjoyed initial success by being championed by Peggy Guggenheim at her New York gallery Art of This Century in the ’50s.
Actor De Niro appears in the film, reading from his father’s very personal journals (which reveal he left De Niro’s mother, also a painter, when he realized he was gay) and talking about watching his father paint as a child.
John Grant is proud to share his unflinching and moving new video for “Glacier,” off his 2013 album Pale Green Ghosts.
The song’s lyrics tackle the experience of suffering from struggles associated with homophobia (John is publicly out and HIV positive) — but they are universal in how they tackle all types of oppression — and are ultimately uplifting and empowering.
The video juxtaposes these themes with footage from various moments in LGBT history. From news footage during WWII and Wizard of Oz, all the way through Stonewall and Harvey Milk, culminating with the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the legalization of gay marriage, and Blue Is The Warmest Color.
Brazilian Diver Ian Matos came out of the closet as a gay man in a recent interview with the Portuguese-language newspaper Correio.
“From a young age, I knew I was gay, but it was here that I got to live my sexuality,” said Matos, who is now living in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, according to a translation of his interview on OutSports.
The 24-year-old athlete said friends advised him to remain in the closet until after the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero.
But Matos said he felt the increasing pressure of having to keep his sexuality a secret — hiding boyfriends and avoiding gay parties. He also acknowledged that he was inspired to be open about his identity after British Olympic diver Tom Daley announced in December he was dating a man, who was later revealed to be Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
Born in Bethlehem, Pa., Matos moved to Rio de Janiero to pursue his diving career and became the Brazilian 3-meter champion in 2013. He also won a bronze medal in the event in 2012 in the US.
Former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger has revealed he is gay.
The 31-year-old, who won 52 caps for Germany and also played for West Ham and Everton, made the announcement in newspaper Die Zeit.
He is the most prominent footballer to publicly reveal his homosexuality and said it was “a good time” to do so. “I’m coming out about my homosexuality because I want to move the discussion about homosexuality among professional sportspeople forwards,” he added.
The midfielder said he has only realised “in the past few years” that he would “prefer to live together with another man”, adding: “I’ve never been ashamed of the way I am.”
“In England, Italy and Germany being a homosexual is no big thing, at least not in the dressing room… I was never ashamed of being who I am but it was not always easy to sit on a table with 20 young men and listen to jokes about gays. You let them get on with it as long as the jokes are somewhat funny and not too insulting.
“Being gay is topic that is ‘ignored’ in football and not ‘a serious topic in the changing room’. Fighting spirit, passion and winning mentality are intrinsically linked, that doesn’t fit the cliché: ‘Gays are soft’.”
Support throughout the sports world has been strong:
Congratulations to Thomas Hitzlsperger on bravely being the first player to have played in the PL to ‘come out’ http://t.co/9boXWNpnFZ — Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 8, 2014
Brave and right decision. Respect, Thomas Hitzlsperger. His outing is a important sign in our time. pic.twitter.com/c69Oml2Ocp — Lukas-Podolski.com (@Podolski10) January 8, 2014
Thomas Hitzlsperger has shown a lot of courage today. Sad times when people have to wait till they retire from their chosen profession… — Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) January 8, 2014
Congratulations to Thomas Hitzelsperger – welcome to the club! — John Amaechi OBE (@JohnAmaechi) January 8, 2014
Via Mediaite – CNN’s Don Lemon ended OutFront on Monday night by talking about Robin Roberts coming out and why it’s important for other famous people to publicly come out too. Lemon said, “Do people really need to do it anymore? The answer is yes.”
He spoke of his own struggles coming out to people close to him, and then coming out publicly years later, saying he was fearful at how the news would be received by viewers and others.
Lemon said he was “afraid of people like Phil Robertson who claim to love everyone while simultaneously thinking that everyone’s love is unequal.”
I’m thankful we have public figures like Don Lemon, Robin Roberts and Thomas Roberts to be out front and public with who they are both professionally and personally.
Great way to end the year knowing folks like this represent me in some way.
