Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Celebrity Voice vs. Real Life

Well, well, well. Here we are. The kids are out of school, graduations attended and its HOT ~ Happy summer, friends!

On a quick side note – To the imbeciles who felt the need to scream and holler at the TOP of their lungs when their child/friend's name was called at Graduation – YOU ARE SO RUDE!  I think everyone should celebrate their child's accomplishments as much as the next guy but to scream through the names of the next four graduates, robbing their families from even hearing their child's name be called, RUDE! You know what you were doing; you ruined a moment for those families that they will NEVER get back. Yes the school could have paused between names… and yes the graduation could have lasted four hours. And I was live and in person in South Carolina a few years ago when they arrested people for excessive celebration. There ARE some extremes. I just wish everyone put as much thought into others as they do themselves. That is all on that.

The big story over the past few days has been about Tracy Morgan and his anti-gay, hateful, threatening comments made at his Nashville comedy show. Everything about this story has pretty much been covered but I would like to add my take on it…

First, did you know the gentleman who first broke the story on his Facebook page, was still in the closet? He is a gay man who had to come out to his parents prior to being on CNN Saturday! Talk about courage. He could have let Tracy say what he said without calling him out on it, as obviously hundreds of others did. This would have protected his homosexuality. But instead of thinking only about himself and the consequences for speaking up, he did the RIGHT thing, he made the harder choice. What an amazing guy! Now that's good stuff =)

But here's my beef. Tracy is famous. Tracy has a publicist. Tracy's comments made national news and caused uproar. I am VERY happy they did, people should be outraged! But do people really look up to comedians? Should our children use actors and athletes as role models? You can debate whether or not they should or do… But in my opinion; the people who MOST impact a child's beliefs and feeling are the people closets to them not famous stars.

If you have a poor body image, chances are you've heard someone talk about fat people being less than. If you're petrified that someone might find out your gay, chances are you have heard people talk about that too. Are these people on TV, possibly? But I think they are people close to you. We truly HEAR what people we love and care about say, whether they verbalize it or not. We know if our Uncle is homophobic, maybe he talks about the "sissy at work". We know if our Mother is homophobic, maybe she tells a friend about so and so's daughter who just "decided she was a Lesbian".  Maybe you hear your brother talking about a girl in the bar, "that girl needs to put down the cookie and pick up an apple". Or maybe you're in church and your Pastor says "homosexuality is a sin. All gays will go to hell!"

I have had multiple friends NOT tell their parents they were Gay. They knew they would no longer be loved… LOVED not liked, LOVED! A close friend of mine was told by her otherwise sane, educated and loving father that she was "the biggest disappointment of his life" when she married her girlfriend of many years. These people were not afraid because of the Tracy Morgan's in this world! These friends and thousands of people just like them all over the world; are afraid to be who they are because they know they will not be accepted by the people they are closest to – the people THEY love the most.

Pay much more attention to what YOU say. More importantly who hears you? The life you save may be your child's…

"Prejudice is learned. Teach acceptance."

With love,

Aunt T-

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