Did you know that, every year, the first day of March falls on the same day of the week as the first day of November? Me neither, but I read it on Wikipedia so it must be true!
Now that we've all learned something new for the day, let's get cracking and march into...
New beginnings in the Catholic Church
The relationship between the LGBT+ community and religious
groups continues to be complex. On the one hand, there are churches that
accept us with open arms and who recognise our love and relationships as being
equal to any other. But on the other, there are those who see us as souls that need saving and who seem unable to accept that not only were we born this way, but
that some of us actually embrace it.
Whether we as individuals are of faith or not, most of us live in a society where what religious leaders say is influential not only on their own followers, but also on governments.
That's why the news that a new Pope was
inaugurated on the 19th of March was significant to the LGBT+ community worldwide.
Pope Francis became the figurehead of a church whose followers could almost
populate China and of a church with a reputation for saying mostly negative things about homosexuality.
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| Pope Francis (theguardian.com) |
From what I've read of the Pope, he seems to believe in both
compassion and tolerance. When asked about homosexuality, he said, “If a
homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge”. These are only a few simple words and they come with a caveat, but they quickly resonated around the world.
I've never liked the idea of people 'tolerating' other peoples' sexualities; it alludes to something negative happening in the first place. But I do think that for those whose faith has taught them that homosexuality is wrong, tolerance is the first step towards understanding. With understanding comes acceptance and once something is accepted, its value can start to become appreciated.
Whilst I'm sure I won’t agree with a lot of things Pope Francis says, one can only hope that even a slight shift in the way that religious leaders talk about LGBT+ people and relationships might signify the beginning
of something better.
Frat guys help a Brother out
Coming from a small town in Scotland, my reference point on
college fraternities pretty much begins and ends with a handful of American
comedies. The stereotypes they perpetrate would have us believe that these
groups consist of sexist, beer-swilling boys who don’t do much but else but high-five
and wrestle each other all day.
That’s why I was especially happy to read about a fraternity in Boston who not only accepted a transgender pledge into
their ranks, but also helped him raise funds he needed to pay for his
top-surgery.
When the Brothers of Phi
Alpha Tau heard that Donnie Collins’ insurance provider had rejected his
claim to pay for the surgery, they decided to raise the money for him themselves
through an online crowd-funding campaign. They explained why on their fundraising page.
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| Phi Alpha Tau (gaystarnews.com) |
The group initially aimed to raise $2000, but their campaign grew
far beyond their expectations as it reached a global audience and by the end of
their crowd-funding period they had surpassed their target ten times over. This meant that not only could Donnie
afford his surgery, but the Brothers could also donate the surplus to a charity
that awards grants to people who need but cannot afford similar procedures.
As fate would have it, Donnie’s insurance company reversed their decision,
which meant that almost all the money raised went to the charity, helping even more
people than they could have hoped.
Fraternities seem to have negative stereotypes perpetrated
against them on a regular basis and, with the little knowledge I have of them,
I’m not sure whether that’s merited or not. But as someone who tries to
challenge and combat stereotyping of LGBT+ people when I find it, I guess I can
kind of relate to the struggle they might face to restore their
reputation. And that, for me, is what makes it even sweeter that such a
positive story caught people's attention this year.
Parenting: You’re doing it right
Donnie’s story seems to prove the old adage that friends are
the family we choose for ourselves. But this story from March shows that some
of us couldn't hand-pick better families if we tried.
The story goes that the father of a teenager called Nate
overheard his son talking on the phone about his plans to come out to his family.
Nate’s dad’s response was to write his son a beautiful letter that told him, “The only thing I need you to plan is to
bring home OJ and bread after class,” and “Your mom and I think you and Mike make a cute couple.”
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| Nate's dad's letter (fckh8.com) |
The letter was first posted on Facebook by pro-LGBT equality
t-shirt company, FCKH8, who said that Nate had sent it to them to share and give hope to other
young people in his position.
As is always the case when things go viral, there were some
sceptics and critics. The lack of proof that Nate actually existed led
readwrite.com to describe him as “Schrodinger’s Gay Son”.
Although that particular article was more concerned with established media
outlets publishing stories that weren't fact-checked, it made me think.
In instances such as this, which are becoming more and more
common with the help of social media, how important is it that the incident
actually happened? Of course it would be wonderful if it were true and Nate’s dad actually wrote him that lovely letter, but is it being factually
correct as important as the hope it undoubtedly gave to the thousands of young
people who really needed to see a message like that? Or would the deception outweigh the good?
I don’t know the answer,
but it would be good to know what you think (and you can let us know in the comments).
Beyoncé comes out as an equal marriage ally
There’s no doubt that Queen Bey is running the world this
week, but she makes the review of March for taking to Instagram to declare her
support for marriage equality.
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| (instagram.com) |
Her timing was significant as it came in a week when two
major court cases involving LGBT+ rights—one related to California’s
notorious Proposition 8 and the other the Defence of Marriage Act (DoMA)—were
being heard in the States.
Her action was simple but effective. She shared a photo of a
handwritten note that played on the lyrics of perhaps her most recognisable
song, Single Ladies.
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| "If you like it you should be able to put a ring on it" (buzzfeed.com) |
The value of a global superstar such as Beyoncé being open
and proud about her support for equality shouldn’t be underestimated. While
some of the comments on her post were pretty grim to say the least,
far more were positive and, above all, she created a fresh platform for discussion and debate.
The only thing that lets this story down for me is the fact
that Beyoncé is not a Single Lady and is already happily married to some bloke named Jay-Z (who's apparently a bit of a big deal).
A girl can dream, I suppose…
That’s it for March! Check out the reviews of January and
February if you haven’t already and head back tomorrow when we'll arrive at April…
What were your favourite LGBT+ moments of 2013? And what were your personal highlights? Did you come out? Get married? Do something life-changing? Let us know in the comments!
You can follow Julie Price on Twitter, @JuliePee
