MERI Blog
Updates, news, action alerts and events from Marriage Equality Rhode Island.
86 Year Old Vet on Marriage Equality: “What do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?“
This is an amazing video of an 86 year old WWII veteran speaking in Maine about his support for marriage equality. Truly moving and inspiring.
(via BoingBoing)
Coming Out in Middle School
Scheduled to be the feature cover story in this weekend’s NYTimes Magazine, this article about LGB middle school students across the country is fantastic. Enjoy!
(via the New York Times Magazine)
Austin didn’t know what to wear to his first gay dance last spring. It was bad enough that the gangly 13-year-old from Sand Springs, Okla., had to go without his boyfriend at the time, a 14-year-old star athlete at another middle school, but there were also laundry issues. “I don’t have any clean clothes!” he complained to me by text message, his favored method of communication.
When I met up with him an hour later, he had weathered his wardrobe crisis (he was in jeans and a beige T-shirt with musical instruments on it) but was still a nervous wreck. “I’m kind of scared,” he confessed. “Who am I going to talk to? I wish my boyfriend could come.” But his boyfriend couldn’t find anyone to give him a ride nor, Austin explained, could his boyfriend ask his father for one. “His dad would give him up for adoption if he knew he was gay,” Austin told me. “I’m serious. He has the strictest, scariest dad ever. He has to date girls and act all tough so that people won’t suspect.”
Austin doesn’t have to play “the pretend game,” as he calls it, anymore. At his middle school, he has come out to his close friends, who have been supportive. A few of his female friends responded that they were bisexual. “Half the girls I know are bisexual,” he said. He hadn’t planned on coming out to his mom yet, but she found out a week before the dance. “I told my cousin, my cousin told this other girl, she told her mother, her mother told my mom and then my mom told me,” Austin explained. “The only person who really has a problem with it is my older sister, who keeps saying: ‘It’s just a phase! It’s just a phase!’ ”
Austin’s mom was on vacation in another state during my visit to Oklahoma, so a family friend drove him to the weekly youth dance at the Openarms Youth Project in Tulsa, which is housed in a white cement-block building next to a redbrick Baptist church on the east side of town. We arrived unfashionably on time, and Austin tried to park himself on a couch in a corner but was whisked away by Ben, a 16-year-old Openarms regular, who gave him an impromptu tour and introduced him to his mom, who works the concession area most weeks.
Openarms is practically overrun with supportive moms. While Austin and Ben were on the patio, a 14-year-old named Nick arrived with his mom. Nick came out to her when he was 12 but had yet to go on a date or even kiss a boy, which prompted his younger sister to opine that maybe he wasn’t actually gay. “She said, ‘Maybe you’re bisexual,’ ” Nick told me. “But I don’t have to have sex with a girl to know I’m not interested.”
Conservatives Can Be Swayed on Gay Marriage
A powerful and well-produced commercial can make even hardwired Republicans more sympathetic to the cause of marriage equality, according to a new study.
By Neal Broverman
A powerful and well-produced commercial can make even hardwired Republicans more sympathetic to the cause of marriage equality, according to a new study.
Released by the group Truth and Hope, a liberal grassroots group, the study looked at the effects of targeted marriage equality advertisements on a group of voters. Researchers surveyed 851 self-declared Democrats, Republicans, and independents and found that the majority of all parties reported that an ad supportive of marriage equality was effective.
The commercial in question featured a heterosexual baby-boomer couple speaking fondly of their gay son, his partner, and the gay couple’s children.
“It may not be the family we imagined,“ the older man said, “but it is the family we know and love. We wouldn’t change it for anything.“
READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT ADVOCATE.com
NPR Storycorps: Grandfather And Grandson Struggle With Coming Out
I caught this story while getting ready for work and it was wonderfully touching. I was overjoyed to hear a personal story like this played on a nationally syndicated program. I am a big believer that personal stories are one of the best ways to forward marriage equality and other civil rights issues for the LGBT community. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Grandfather And Grandson Struggle With Coming Out
Tony Perri and his wife were married for 17 years. After 12 of those years, he came out to her. Perri recalls telling a priest he was gay when he was 17, during a confession. “I thought there was something a little different in me, that I was attracted to other men,“ Tony says. “And the only advice he gave to me was, ‘Be careful who you tell that to, son.‘ “
“So I didn’t tell anyone for another 17 years,“ he says.
It was hard, but Tony finally told his wife he was gay. He said he knew it wasn’t fair to him or the people close to him to stay in the marriage. His wife asked him to never tell the children, but eventually, he had to sit down with the kids and “just say the word gay — I’m gay.“
Jeffrey Perri, Tony’s eldest grandson, was 9 years old when Tony split up with his boyfriend, “Uncle John.“
One day after the breakup, Jeffrey asked where Uncle John slept. Tony told him the truth about his sexual orientation and relationship with Uncle John, and says it’s one of his proudest moments. “I didn’t lie to you,“ Tony says. “That’s what I’ve strived for all my life, just to live honestly.“
Ironically, Jeffrey was afraid to come out to his openly gay grandfather. He said he feared what he would think — he didn’t want his grandfather to be afraid for him. Ultimately, Jeffrey did come out to his grandfather, although Tony was one of the last people to know. Jeffrey said he now looks up to Tony, and that his grandfather paved the way for him.
“I’m so lucky to have you in my life,“ Tony says. “You are my role model.“
Harry Potter actor makes major donation to The Trevor Project
(via Bay Windows)
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has joined The Trevor Project’s Circle of Hope, a group of major donors to the LGBT nonprofit.
The Trevor Project offers a 24/7 support and suicide prevention hotline for LGBT youth.
“I am very pleased to begin my support of The Trevor Project, which saves lives every day through its critical work,“ 20-year-old Radcliffe said in statement released by the project. “I deeply hope my support can raise the organization’s visibility so even more despondent youth become aware of The Trevor help line’s highly trained counselors and Trevor’s many other resources. It’s vitally important that young people understand they are not alone and, perhaps even more important, that their young lives have real value.“
Cambridge mayor to marry her longtime partner
(via Wicked Local Cambridge)
On 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30 at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Mayor E. Denise Simmons shall be marrying her longtime partner, Ms. Mattie B. Hayes, in a celebration of love, acceptance, and togetherness. The couple shares a passionate interest in advocacy and support work for children and families, and their wedding ceremony shall touch upon those themes. This is certainly a joyous milestone for the Cambridge Mayor and her family, which is to be expected of a loving union; however, this same-sex marriage is also important on a broader scale, as it seems indicative of a more accepting, more tolerant society.
The wedding will take place at the historic St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, which has predominantly been serving Cambridge’s African-American community for over 100 years, and is presided over by the Rev. Leslie K. Sterling. The wedding ceremony shall be conducted by Rev. Irene Monroe, who has cultivated a reputation as a progressive and nurturing spiritual leader, and who has conducted extensive outreach efforts to the GLBT community.
New Maine Marriage Equality Television Ad
Lesbian Couple Celebrates 70 Years Together
(via HeraldTribune.com)
DANIA BEACH - Yes, couples in their 90s still argue occasionally.
This is how it went recently for Caroline Leto and Venera Magazzu as they sipped lemonade on their couch in Dania Beach: “We’re not going to have a party,“ said Magazzu, 97, insisting they are too old for such things.
“Oh, yes we are,“ responded Leto, 96, who noted the two can still polka. “This is a big one.“
Indeed. A party celebrating 70 years together is a big deal for any pair. But a celebration of this couple’s love takes on special meaning, considering they had to keep silent about it for decades.
“You just couldn’t tell everyone we were lovers,“ said Leto. “You tell people we’re friends, and some thought we were sisters.“
(h/t Joe.My.God)
Maine Couple Celebrates 40 Years Together While Hoping Maine Marriage Equality Stands
Mother of gay son berates Irish minister over civil partnerships
(via Pink News)
When Declan Doody wrote to Irish justice minister Dermot Ahern about the inequality of civil partnerships, he was dismayed to receive no response. However, when he posted a copy of the letter on his Facebook account, his mother Helen was spurred into action to write her own.
Recalling his fear of bullies at school and her temporary shock when he came out, she wrote: “Your Civil Partnership Bill is not good enough for my family, and hundreds, thousands of other families in this country.“ Writing on queerid.com, Declan revealed he burst into tears when he read the letter she sent, which asked Ahern to “revise this bill so everyone can be equal”. The letter is fast becoming a hit on the internet.
Below is the letter in full.
Dear Mr Ahern,
My name is Helen Doody, you have already received and failed to reply to a letter that my own son Declan sent to you a week or so ago. So like any good and decent parent I am now trying to get you to listen to and protect my child – it is the very least that any mother would do for her own children.
I read Declan’s email and everything he said to you in the e-mail was true. He had a very tough time growing up in Abbeyfeale, I can still picture him crying in the mornings before he went to school because he was afraid of the people who were going to be waiting for him – bullies who would beat the living daylight out of him, people who crushed the very spirit within him. I tried numerous times to help him, I spoke to teachers, to the parents but the problem got a quick-fix but a weeks later it just continued on.
UPDATE: Mother’s letter inspires gay marriage protest outside Irish parliament (Pink News)
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Join us at your STATE HOUSE for a MARRIAGE EQUALITY RALLY Wednesday, March 3rd, 4p
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