HAPPY GAY PRIDE MONTH !!!
In the same 24-hour period this week, two gay-related stories exploded and went viral on the internet. The first was comedian(?) Tracy Jordan from "30 Rock," and his vile, ignorant, and disgusting tirade against gay people at his show in Tennessee. He "joked" about how he would "stab his son" to man him up, if he "acted gay." He soon issued the standard 'I hope this saves my ass' apology.
Tina Fey's official statement was brilliant:
"I hope for his sake that Tracy Morgan's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at '30 Rock' - without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with,
or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket. The other producers and I pride ourselves on '30 Rock' being a diverse, safe, and fair workplace." - Tina Fey
Sadly, if Jordan's (or any comedian's) tirade included this level of violent racism or anti-semitism, he would probably be instantly fired. Which might still happen, we'll see. Or maybe, Tina Fey will find a genius way to write this in to the show, and make Jordan suffer for his deeds, on camera.
My brief opinion of this is:
What Tracy Morgan said on stage was spoken from his heart.
What Tracy Morgan said in his apology was spoken from his publicist.
Words like that have direct, negative consequences against gay people, period.
Actress Nia Vardarlos spoke some amazing truth to power about this
HERE, on The Huffington Post. We need more voices like this, NOW!
So that was the BAD news. The GOOD news, was the other story:
This video of a 9-year old Robert Jeffrey, who posted it on his Vimeo account on June 6th - which now has 712,000+ views! Robert's video embodies everything this blog is about, and everything gay pride SHOULD be about:
And a fearless determination to simply be himself.
I've contacted Robert, and will feature his "Born This Way" story sometime next week. In the meantime, enjoy Robert's infectious energy, and remember back to the little gay boy or girl inside of YOU!
And I wish you all a very HAPPY GAY PRIDE MONTH!
xo - Paul V., Blogmaster