A Homeland For Gay People

I had to think about this article a little, because I didn’t understand it at first. I live in a very progressive place…New Hope, Bucks County, PA…with a large LGBT community and it’s always been like that. We’re very close to New York and Philadelphia. Sometimes I take that for granted.

With that said, I also know there are other countries and places in the US where LGBT people are suffering constant, painful discrimination. Sometimes death. And this guy wants to do something about that, and I can’t fault him.

Viktor Zimmerman, the executive officer of Germany’s Gay Homeland Foundation, believes the only way to ensure LGBTI people’s safety is by creating a settlement just for them.

‘Our purpose is to establish a free, independent and democratic gay state,’ Zimmerman told VICE.’“We strive to initiate one or more self-administrated settlements for gay people, and look to promote their economic, cultural and political development.’

He believe gay people need more than local bars, bookstores and a Pride march once a year.

‘All the progress in gay rights that has been achieved has only taken place in the context of liberal democracies, and it has been a very difficult process that is still unfinished,’ he said. ‘We need a place where gay people can move to from hostile countries.’

You can read the rest here. We do need to do something to help these gay people in other countries… because there’s still a lot of work to do.

That Funny Time Bradley Cooper Didn’t Wear Underpants

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Bradley Cooper made a funny ha-ha by telling the world he didn’t wear underpants to a White House dinner…on the Ellen show, to Mrs. Obama.

It seems that when Cooper attended a White House State Dinner two years ago, he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

He explained why: ‘I had one tuxedo it didn’t fit. I was so nervous it was gonna rip, and so I decided last minute to 86 the underwear.’

You can check this out here. There’s a video. I used to like Bradley Cooper a lot more before this.

Gay Men Alter Body Language At Work

This is something I’ve done, it’s something my husband has done, and I think it’s something most gay men and women have done and still do. We alter our body language…along with other things related to our appearances…in order to conceal the fact that we are gay so that no one will discriminate against us in professional environments. Most of us aren’t working in professions where being LGBT is always accepted well, or we’re not sure how it’s accepted. We don’t like doing it, but we have mortgages and responsibilities and we learned at a young age never to assume anything.

‘Although there is no hard, fast rule for general masculinity, there are lots of anxieties related to identity management and self presentation for gay men in many professional settings,’ he said in a press statement about the findings.

‘From the initial interview to moving up the ladder at work, if a gay man feels his supervisors don’t agree with a gay population, he may not want to reveal his sexuality to them.

‘Instead he may test the waters with a variety of strategies, including managing the way he dresses, the way he talks and whether or not he decides to disclose his sexuality to the people at work.’

You can read the rest of the article here. It’s spot on target, and something we never hear about often. And, this altering of body language isn’t just limited to professional environments. We do this at those awful family gatherings like funerals and weddings, too. This whole thing goes a lot deeper than most people out there realize and we’re only beginning to touch on this subject.