Thursday, November 4, 2010

George Takei Calls 'Em Like He Sees 'Em


That's actor George Takei ("Star Trek;" "Heroes") and his partner Brad Altman. George is one of those actors who doesn't take himself too seriously and is never afraid to make fun of himself. He's been on "The Simpson's" plenty of times and made some very amusing commercials. 

Now, while Uncle P was busy being silly about Horror movie directors last month, a very ugly event took place in Arkansas. It seems that the Vice-President of a local school board posted some very inflammatory and patently homophobic remarks on his Facebook page. In light of the recent attention given to bullying and teen-suicides, the remarks didn't sit very well with a bunch of people, least of all CNN hottie Anderson Cooper, who took the man (one Clint McCance) to task for being a bully himself, made all the worse by his being the School Board VP. After Cooper's blistering report, McCance gave him an exclusive interview in which he "apologized." I put that word in quotation marks because McCance apologized only for upsetting the parents of those who had committed suicide and for his choice of words. Not once did the falsely contrite little prick apologize for the sentiment behind those words. McCance, who was forced to move his family out of state due to death threats, has resigned from the Board, but not recanted his views.

Which leads me to dear George Takei, who saw through McCance's carefully orchestrated false apology and responded by adding his voice to Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign. Below is Mr. Takei's It Gets Better message, my favorite, so far:



I am in the process of  trying to get the JTMF to add The Trevor Project to our beneficiaries, and hope to add our own video to the It Gets Better campaign. I'll let you know when and if we do. In the meantime, I'm so glad there are folks like Mr. Takei out there, unafraid to call a douchebag a douchebag.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide because of anti-gay bullying or because you fear your family members may reject you, PLEASE call the The Trevor Project 24/7 at 866-488-7986. Please know that you are loved and that your life is worth living. It really does get better.

Enough pontificating. I'll be back to my usual nonsense tomorrow with this November's first Turkey post.

More, anon.
Prospero

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