Gay Gay over Gaga

A Tennessee high school student's mother said her son's rights were violated by school officials who made him remove a T-shirt bearing the word "gay."
Julie Gordon of White House said officials at Greenbrier High School violated her 15-year-old son's freedom of speech and expression by sending him home to change out of a T-shirt reading: "I Heart Lady Gay Gay," a play on the name of singer Lady Gaga, WSMV-TV, Nashville, reported Wednesday.
Cole Goforth said his sexual orientation is well-known at his school and he has worn shirts bearing the word "gay" before without any problems.
"We've had a few disruptions the last few days, and we thought the slogan on that shirt would continue to escalate those incidents that had occurred," said Danny Weeks, assistant director of the school board.
However, Cole and his mother said they feel the student is being singled out for his orientation and method of dress. "I just think my sexuality isn't widely accepted around here, so of course they are going to single me out," he said. The school said Gordon is welcome to appeal the dress code.

Colin’s Brotherly Love

Colin Farrell has issued a statement in support of BeLonG To Youth Service’s STAND UP! Campaign against homophobic bullying of gay young people.
Eamon Farrell was regularly subject to abuse at school and would arrive home with blood on his shirt. The comments follow the launch of an awareness week for gay, bisexual and transgender young people in an effort to prevent future intimidation. “The beatings and tauntings were very frequent for him and a constant part of his school years,” the actor said.
The star of In Bruges, Pride and Glory and The Recruit recalls his memories of how his gay brother Eamon Farrell was terribly treated when they were young and growing up in Dublin.
Here is an excerpt:
“Intolerance is not genetically encoded – it is taught. It is learned at home. It is learned in the classrooms and it is learned anywhere else we gather as a group. But it is usually learned early and added onto from there. If there is nothing to feared, there is nothing to hate. If there is nothing to hate there is no pain.”
“They missed out because they saw him as a threat – not as a testament to the kaleidoscope and diversity of this beautiful world. Bullying is torture, it is another betrayal of basic human decency and its scars reach way into the future of its survivors. But the saddest truth is that not all children survive it. It is a potentially fatal societal illness and must be respected and not feared.  Respected and dealt with as a very real problem and as an adversary of a potentially harmonious world, that should have no place for bullies or bullying.”

Yes, More About Ricky

Twelve years ago, when his activities in a Californian public toilet forced George Michael to declare his sexuality to the world, the singer was widely hailed for his courage and good grace. This week, the reaction to Ricky Martin's apparently unforced declaration of gayness ("I am a fortunate homosexual man") has been less effusive. On the BBC's Have Your Say forum, opinions mostly ranged from "who cares" to "we already knew", with some even suggesting that the whole episode was a publicity stunt, staged to boost flagging sales of his music.
If society has reached the stage where the coming out of a pop star provokes little more than a collective shrug, then perhaps the pressure is also easing on other openly gay performers, who now feel less burdened to act as figureheads or role models. When asked about this in 2008, Boy George told me he "never had that separatist attitude about 'gay' and 'straight'. I love being gay and I support gay culture, but I don't think of myself as being a solely gay artist."
Nevertheless, George's follow-up comments provided an unexpected sting. "Today's pop stars are out of the closet," he continued, "but they don't express anything about their sexuality. They don't ever use the word 'he' in their songs. They think they don't need to, because they think everybody loves them. They've been lulled into this false sense of security."
At this charge, a gay performer might trot out that well-worn line, "I want my songs to have a universal appeal." A cynic might retort that he was merely scared of being pigeonholed as a gay act, as that could limit his appeal. Either way, you'll search long and hard to find hit songs that unequivocally reference same-sex desire, as opposed to dropping veiled hints. Curiously, many of the former – Suede's The Drowners, Franz Ferdinand's Michael, Placebo's Nancy Boy, Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl, tATu's All the Things She Said – are the work of artists who have sought to play games with sexual identity, rather than bona fide, down-the-line gay acts. In other words, it's the ambiguous acts who have often felt the most free to sing in unambiguous terms.
For isolated young gay men who might be seeking public role models, but who remain wary of identifying with anyone that carries too strong a whiff of camp, perhaps it is the gay stars of mainstream pop who have had the most to offer. Will Young, Mark Feehily of Westlife and the late Stephen Gately have all presented themselves as clean-cut boy-next-door types – and yet all remained objects of desire for their overwhelmingly female fanbases.
That has given rise to a curious phenomenon, whereby openly gay pop performers now feel free to flirt on stage with wildly appreciative female audiences, without compromising their core identities. You'll find the same thing at John Barrowman's shows, where the star can be found relating homespun anecdotes about his partner, before suggestively wiggling and thrusting his way through songs like Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. So if you're hoping that Ricky Martin, gay pop's freshest addition to the ranks, might start reworking his old hits with a new gay twist (He Bangs, anyone?), you are best advised to prepare for disappointment.