When I was in 20s, my queer friends and I had a phone tree. One of the most fun excuses to call was when a gay character would pop on TV. These were like rare birds or comets. There was a certain delight in seeing them, even when they were terribly written or acted, or when their ultimate effect was negative. For us, who rarely saw ourselves reflected in the flickering light of media ordinariness, seeing another member of our species in almost any circumstance was an affirmation that we existed, that we were, in fact, everywhere, however covertly.
Why NBA player Jason Collins' coming out matters
Apr. 30, 2013
The name you almost had
Apr. 30, 2013
If you tell me you have a child, I’m probably going to ask what his or her name is, mostly because I want to discern what type of person you are based on the name you picked. I find name choice a fascinating little corner of the attic that is the human mind.
If I was born a boy, I would have been named Alexander. But by the time my brother was born, my parents were on to John/Jack. Would Jack have been a different person if he were Alexander? I put a call out on my Facebook page last week for people to reveal their “other” name, and got some pretty fun tales in response:
Anne Elizabeth Moore: Guess what. Buffy. For reals. My parents expected me to be a red-headed boy, and would have named that boy Buffy. Thankfully by the time they did have a red-headed boy, I had talked them out of that insanity.
Alissa Rowinsky Wright: Adam. But, initially, they were going to name me Black Elk. A totally appropriate name for a Jewish kid about to be born in Topeka, Kansas. Thanks, hippie parents, for coming to your senses!
Jessica Grose : Zeke.
NBA star's coming out reveals double standard
Apr. 30, 2013
Billie Jean King. Martina Navratilova. Sheryl Swoopes. Natasha Kai. Megan Rapinoe. Sue Wicks. Rosie Jones. Michelle Van Gorp. Amber Harris. Jessica Adair. Liz Carmouche. Stacy Sekora. Seimone Augustus.
What do all of these women have in common? They are all out professional athletes, just like Jason Collins.
King and Navratilova became the world’s first out sports stars over 30 years ago, at a time when homosexuality was still classified by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder. King won 12 Grand Slam titles in her long career, a laudable feat for any athlete.
To be taken seriously, King didn’t just have to prove she was the best female player. She had to prove she was the best, period. When she beat Bobby Riggs, the headlines claimed she “won for all women.”
But how far have we come since 1973? Here’s an experiment: Name ten female athletes currently playing team sports professionally.
Who was Bessie Coleman?
Apr. 30, 2013As a black woman, pioneer aviator Elizabeth Coleman overcame two career obstacles before dying in a flying accidentt on April 30, 1926.
Coleman—always known as Bessie—was born into a large family of Texas cotton farmers in 1892. She joined the great migration north in 1915, settling in Chicago. Her first job was as a manicurist.
Coleman was intrigued by stories of combat flying during World War I. Yet when the war ended, no American flight school would accept her. She had to go abroad to achieve her dream.
She learned French, saved her money, and got financial help from Defender publisher Robert S. Abbott and other businessmen. She went to France and earned her pilot’s license. Finally, in 1921, Bessie Coleman returned to the U.S. as the country’s first female African-American flier.
Commercial aviation was in its infancy. Coleman could become either a mail pilot or a stunt flier. Both were dangerous jobs, but stunt flying paid better.
Coleman was young, attractive, and extroverted.
EPA rolls back methane emissions from natural gas
Apr. 29, 2013In a revision to its sweeping inventory of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency scaled back its estimate for natural gas, stoking supporters’ claims that the fossil fuel could be a viable carbon reduction strategy in the short-term.
But those pushing for a ban of the controversial technique of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, say the data are still unclear and that EPA’s revision doesn’t change the big picture.
The Illinois legislature is at a crossroads on fracking as members prepare to vote on bills that would either regulate the process or ban it entirely for at least two years.
Natural gas is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA standards.
C2E2, Dark Lord Day let adults express inner adolescent
Apr. 29, 2013This weekend I went on an odyssey of sorts, through some of the strongholds of American popular culture.
Friday night I was at McCormick Place for C2E2 – the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.
Then Saturday, along with my colleagues Tim Akimoff and Andrew Gill, I headed to Munster, Indiana to brave Dark Lord Day, the annual heavy metal and beer event hosted by Three Floyds Brewing Company.
Both are fairly major cultural events. Over 50,000 folks made their way through C2E2 over the weekend. And in just a few years, attendance at Dark Lord Day has grown from a couple of hundred to 8,000, according to organizers.
Over the course of two days I got to talk with lots of great people: Local and international master brewers, musicians, comic book talent scouts, graphic artists, and novelists.
Many are enormously talented professionals, approaching or at the height of their game.
Still, in the midst of all this adult achievement, I couldn’t help feeling like I was among a pack of highly articulate adolescents.
Reading/talking about comics? Drinking huge amounts of beer?
You don't have to be smart to have your own show
Apr. 29, 2013
Olympic swimmer and apparent babe magnet Ryan Lochte has a new reality show called What Would Ryan Lochte Do? In the first episode, he reminisces about his glory days, makes a half-hearted attempt at dating and steals his brother's toothbrush. So, he basically does nothing.
"Seriously, how are they gonna get enough material?" asked anchor Mike Jerrick after an unintentionally hilarious interview with Lochte on Good Day Philly.
As a full first season of WWRLD looms ahead, I ask myself the same question.
Over the past twenty years, beginning with The Real World in 1992 and skyrocketing with the U.S.