"It Gets Better" Campaign

This links you to the most moving message I have found from the recent "It Gets Better" campaign designed to help all youth endure bullying that happens to anyone perceived as gay or as Joel says "different". Please view and post your reactions in the form of a comment. You can earn a point extra credit for your comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96cghOnY4&feature=player_embedded

This is a link to the message from the whitehouse.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/09/it-gets-better

~Lisa Ruchti

Rutgers Student Believed To Have Committed Suicide After Classmates Allegedly Recorded Him In Gay Sexual Encounter

[from the Huffington Post; article updated 5:46pm 9/30/10]


The Clementi family's lawyer, Paul Minardi, has released a statement confirming that Tyler committed suicide:

"Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words. They respectfully request that they be given time to grieve their great loss and that their privacy at this painful time be respected by all," he said, according to ABC

ABC also reports that Clementi posted an update to his Facebook page on Sept. 22 at 8:42 p.m. that read "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."

A Facebook page in memory of Clementi has more than 450 supporters as of this update.

A Rutgers University freshman is believed to have taken his own life last week shortly after he was broadcast engaging in sexual activity with another man.

According to WPIX, officials believe the student, who the New York Daily News has identified as 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, jumped from the George Washington Bridge last week. His car was found nearby with his computer and cell phone inside.

WPIX eports that the Clementi's alleged roommate, Dharun Ravi, and another first-year student, Molly Wei, were charged with invasion of privacy for secretly leaving a camera in his bedroom on Sept. 19 and posting footage of an ensuing sexual encounter on the internet.

In New Jersey, it is a fourth-degree crime to collect images showing sexual content or nudity without the subject's consent, and it is a third-degree crime to transmit the relevant content.

Ravi and Wei, both 18, have been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for the events that transpired on Sept. 19; Ravi received two more for attempting to record another of the Clementi's encounters on Sept. 21.

According to Student Activism, Ravi allegedly posted to Twitter about taping Clementi's sexual encounter: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Two days later, Ravi tweeted: "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again."(Gawker has the screenshots of Ravi's Twitter feed, which has since been deleted.)

Ravi and Wei have both been released from police custody, Ravi on $25,000 bail and Wei on her own recognizance. According to the Star-Ledger, Rutgers officials are likely to take disciplinary action against the students. As Rutgers spokeswoman Sandra Lanman said, "The university takes these matters seriously and has policies to deal with student behavior."

If convicted for third degree offenses, the Ravi and Wei could face up to five years in prison. Neither gave comment to news sources who contacted them.

50 Cent Encourages Gay Suicide

By Advocate.com Editors

No stranger to antigay tweets, 50 Cent has posted an ill timed message on his Twitter page, suggesting that any man who isn’t into women should kill himself right now.

“If you a man and your over 25 and you don’t eat pu**y just kill your self damn it. The world will be a better place. Lol.”

Earlier this month, the rapper tweeted, "Perez Hilton called me douchebag, so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. wasnt his, but made me feel better."

I think this is absolutely crazy. honestly, i hope a bunch of gay rights advocates stand outside his home and beat the hell outta him

Just in the news the other day

I was actually browsing yahoo.com's homepage and noticed a story that caught my eye. It was about a student at Rutgers University. Two guys were roommates. One asked to use the room for a certain time span and I guess his roommate became suspicious for some reason so he set up a webcam without the roommate knowing. The next time the roommate asked to use the room the roommate left and went to a friends dorm. He asked to use her computer and went to his webcam. On it was his roommate and another male having sexual relations. He than posted it! He also made comments on twitter about his roommate and the reasoning behind him using the website which is absolutely ridiculous. Yes his roommate was gay and because of what he did his gay roommate jumped off the George Washington bridge killing himself. As I was reading this article I was honestly disgusted that a person would do this. Make that big of an issue. I'm sure he never thought that he may kill himself but still he did it to get some type of reaction out of the students, or whoever could see the video! The roommate and the girl whose room he went to to pull up the video are now facing up to 5 years in jail. So I did some more digging and found a facebook page titled "Molly is innocent" so I clicked on it because I wanted to see what people were saying about the girl whose computer was used to put the video out there and there was a lady commenting on peoples comments saying things such as "gays should just come out" and how the kid who killed himself was a "coward!" So I posted a status on my facebook stating what happened and how it shouldn't matter who you are attracted to, but I can tell that it does in many places. Ive seen people say mean things to homosexuals and it hurts to see people act that way towards others but this was so heinous it made me sick. I was glad to see students on campus gather and all lay down and say "were here were queer and were not leaving." The kid should have never died. He should still be living him college days out, people don't think how their actions could/can effect others and they really need to start. I wanted to post this because I believe everyone should know about this story and learn from it.

Sharing Bathroom's

I thought of this after class today. A lot of the discussion was very insightful and it was interesting to hear other views on the idea of having a gender neutral bathroom. Two things did come to my mind, oddly, on my hour drive home! One thing I thought about is how I have a few guy friends that I KNOW would oppose the idea.. they are they type of people that say women do not shit, burp, fart or doing anything of the sort. I always mess around with them and say things about how I really have to go and they honestly get mad! Another thing that I thought about that would bother me about sharing a bathroom, that is kind of a pet peeve of mine, is the fact that I know the toilet seat will be left up alot!.. honestly though and I know this is a little to much info but there have been times growing up where it was either late or I was in a rush and sat down on the toilet only to my surprise I nearly hit the water because my dad or brother forgot to put the toilet seat down... I live with my boyfriend and we have this one friend who never puts the toilet seat down and it drives me NUTS! Just something to think about!
-Theresa Kaufmann

Gendered Parenting Ads

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/09/21/a-round-up-of-gendered-parenting-in-ads/

A veiw on Lady Gaga-Christina Klaproth

Hi, I just wanted to rant a little bit about Lady Gaga. From a fashionista perspective, I love what Lady Gaga is doing by making high fashion (pieces typically only seen on the runway) wearable by wearing these high couture pieces publicly, daily. As I (and most designers) view fashion as wearable art, it is wonderful to see someone publicly wearing these pieces of art that are typically seen exclusively on the runway (which is basically their art gallery). When we discussed Lady Gaga in class, I realized that she was not just making an artistic statement by wearing these pieces but challenging societies perception of what is beautiful, accepted, and normal. The pieces she choses to wear do not always enhance her or make her look beautiful. They are not something we would normally chose to wear everyday or ever. But I believe she is using her "power" as a celebrity to challenge our ideas of what is accepted in society and change that. One way she is challenging societies idea of what is accepted as beautiful is by wearing whatever she wants to (and with the money she has, she has a lot of options). She may still be showing off her curves but as opposed to other female artists who objectify their own bodies, Gaga is rejecting opression. She is accepting the naturalness of her body and showing it off. She is wearing whatever she wants to, reguardless of whether it is flattering or not because she is making the point that it shouldn't have to fit societies standards. She is making make up choices that, in the mainstream view, do not make her face look "pretty". 'But what does it matter if it's pretty?' is the point I think Gaga may be trying to make. We put way to much emphasise on trying to fit one mold when there are millions of other molds to be made (which are much more interesting!). Although clothing and make up are superficial, they are a starting point. Women have to realize that they should not have to put their make up on a certain way and dress a certain way to attract men (especially if they don't even like the way they are dressing but do it because they are at a loss about what else to do). I think as a public figure, Gaga is a great representation of self-expression and why it is so important that we all have our own identities.