Category Archives: The South

October 15, 2010 · 10:30 pm

It Get’s Better…

I’m not sure everyone realizes how deeply the recent epidemic of suicides by young, gay people have touched so many of us older gay people.

Honestly, we understand what they felt. Most of us have been there and we got past it.

We just want them to know, it does get so much better.

The guy in this video puts it all so well. I thank him for that and hope others will listen…It’s worth watching the entire thing.

Many of us have been there with him and come out on the other side. It really is a fairly universal story…

These gay kids need to realize how great life as a gay person can be once you work through all the crap…

And, believe me, you can work through it…No, it’s not easy, but just hang in there and look for support.

It’s there. We’re here. We made it…and we are willing to help you make it,too.

Remember, the bullies will probably end up driving beer trucks in small towns while you have a wonderful life. It may take a few years, but hang in there.

Also, remember, people who are popular in High School have probably peaked too soon. Your time is yet to come…

It does get so much better…

And life is so good….

Grab it and hold on to it like the something precious it is….

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Filed under Education, Gay, Politics, Religion, The South

October 12, 2010 · 10:27 pm

Staged Reading of plays by Steve Willis, Oct. 25 at 7pm

Just a note to let you know about an evening of plays from the Great American Playwright Steve Willis.

Who just happens to be my partner!

I hope you will mark your calendars and plan to be part of a special event on Monday evening, Oct. 25th, when Paper Lantern Theatre Company presents a staged reading of two plays by Steve Willis: The Shadow of Eldorado, a play he wrote a few years ago that won several awards; and an excerpt from a new play he started writing this summer about Dorothy Kilgallen. Check out the attached flyer for all the details.

Paper Lantern has lined up a terrific cast of excellent local actors, including Michael Kamtman, Tennille Foust, and Beth Ritson. The event is free and we would love it if you could be there.

Feel free to spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested.

Hope to see you there.

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Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, New York, North Carolina, The South, Theatre, Virginia

October 7, 2010 · 10:53 pm

Secretariat’s Gallop into Greatness, Movie Fame has W&L Tie – Roanoke.com

I saw this on my alma mater, W&L’s,website earlier today…

And I’ll never forget going to the Kentucky Derby with my Washington and Lee friends in 1978 when Secretariat was still a vivid, recent memory….

He was one of the greatest sports stars to ever come out of the commonwealth.

He is the subject of a new movie starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich.

He is a horse.

The 1973 winner of the Triple Crown will jump from the pages of history to the multiplex when the Walt Disney Pictures film “Secretariat” opens across the country Friday, giving folks the chance to learn — or be reminded — of the Virginia roots of both the famed horse and the family who owned him.

Secretariat was born at The Meadow, a Caroline County horse farm founded by Washington and Lee University graduate Christopher Chenery. Secretariat, who lived and trained for two years at The Meadow, won the Triple Crown in blue-and-white racing silks — the school colors of Chenery’s alma mater.

via Secretariat’s gallop into greatness, movie fame has W&L tie – Roanoke.com.

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Filed under Entertainment, Movies, The South, Virginia

October 2, 2010 · 10:39 pm

Chapter 25: Queer in the South: My Story, Part 2 | My Southern Gothic Life

New post up on my other blog.

Here is an excerpt and a link to the full post:

Let me start the second part of sharing this journey by pointing out that the story has a happy ending. I like to think I ended up a fairly well-adjusted, happily partnered Gay man. But it’s not something that just happened on its own.

Let me also say, I think my journey would have been easier if I had not been stuck in Danville, Virginia during the early years of my coming out and coming to terms with who I really was.

There is a monologue by Little Edie, in “Grey Gardens” that always makes me think of Danville. She might have been talking about Long Island and other circumstances, but it always reminds me of Danville:

Honestly, they can get you…for wearing red shoes on a Thursday – and all that sort of thing…They can get you for almost anything – it’s a mean, nasty, Republican town.”

I was also working in banking there and believe me, bankers are the most self-important creatures ever to walk the earth. They had very firm ideas of how one was supposed to conduct themselves both at and out of the office. That was another role I couldn’t play…

But getting back to the Gay thing. I don’t think people realize how tough it apparently still is for gay kids and adults in places like Danville and Mississippi. People think all gay people live in San Francisco or New York or Greensboro or Richmond or Charlottesville. Not in small towns and cities that aren’t as progressive as some of the areas mentioned above.

via Chapter 25: Queer in the South: My Story, Part 2 | My Southern Gothic Life.

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Filed under Danville, Gay, History, My Journey, Politics, Religion, Social Commentary, The South

Tagged as gay, the south

October 2, 2010 · 7:55 pm

Tens Of Thousands Of Progressives Rally At The Lincoln Memorial For Jobs, Justice And Education

Funny that this got hardly any press and the Glenn Beck Rally was all over the news….

Tens of thousands of civil rights, labor, and other progressive activists gathered on the National Mall today for the One Nation Working Together rally, meant to bring attention to the fight for jobs, justice and education and energize the left one month before the midterm elections.

“October 2nd is about November 2nd,” SEIU President Mary Kay Henry recently told MSNBC host Ed Schultz, who heavily promoted the event on his show and gave opening remarks today. “And it’s about what we do after November 2nd to hold elected officials and corporate America accountable to getting us back to work.”

More than 400 organizations representing tens of thousands of individuals sponsored the rally, bringing together groups like the Sierra Club, United Mine Workers of America, and the NAACP. Backers were touting it as the most diverse march in history.

via Tens Of Thousands Of Progressives Rally At The Lincoln Memorial For Jobs, Justice And Education.