Ryan Murphy: Glee & Meee!

If I look back to seven years ago, Glee was going to be about a lot of things — song, dance, Jane Lynch’s character being waterboarded — but for me, I wanted to do something personal on the show. I grew up in Indiana behind a cornfield and a church, and for me the only single person I knew who was gay was Paul Lynde. So with Glee I wanted to write about something personal, something about gay characters, something about creating your own kind of family no matter who you are or where you live.

I have always believed in the ideology of one of my friends and idols, Norman Lear, that the way to acceptance is understanding. You have to see it, experience it in your own house and your life, to empathize. I think the success of Glee and Modern Family brought gay kids and gay families to millions of people who think they didn’t know those kinds of people, and then suddenly, within the course of one month, they did. To me, that is the great legacy of these shows and is why public opinion, I think, has changed so radically and so quickly.

I have been told that seven years ago, before Glee and Modern Family and Transparent and Orange Is the New Black, that only 18 percent of Americans believed that a gay or nontraditional family was entitled to equal rights. Today, that number has grown to 52 percent. That is a great change, that is a great victory, shockingly in such a short amount of time, but there is more work to be done.

I started writing television in 1998, and I still have the network executive notes from my first show in my office. They were repeated misses that used to say the following, quote: ‘Could you please not have the cheerleader wear a fur coat?’ Code for ‘too gay.’ And ‘Could you please remove the gay characters holding hands?’ Code for the same. I am happy to say that I no longer receive notes like this, and I am happy to say that all the executives who gave me those notes are no longer employed...

Ryan Murphy accepting something called the Family Equality Council award.

Via Vanity Fair.

Remember when people used to watch Glee?

Cory Monteith: 1982-2013

Devastated.

PS And George Zimmerman is found not guilty! What awful news to wake up to. Fuck this world.

DOMA: Huzzah For Hollywood!

Not long after the Supreme Court ruled in support of gay marriage Wednesday, Ellen DeGeneres tweeted a simple congratulations to "everyone. And I mean everyone." But she could have added: in Hollywood.
For while the landmark decision may have thrilled gay rights activists and vexed opponents of gay marriage, the news otherwise didn't have the thunderclap moment of court cases such as Brown v. Board of Education or Roe v. Wade.
Why? The nation's pop culture machine has for decades now chipped away at a once taboo topic so as to render it utterly familiar. Whether it's the antics of two gay men in the hit ABC comedy Modern Family or the brazen but heartfelt sexuality on display in HBO's Behind the Candelabra, same-sex unions seem – at least on screen and on stage – to be an entrenched part of our federal union...

USA Today.

Can freedom be won by sitting round watching television?
They quote Harvey Fierstein; "The psychology of television is that it's in your house, you're in your underwear. It's very intimate. So the exposure of gay people – no matter what they are – it shows them as the norm, as a normal part of life. All of those things really do add up."
They're also whooping it up over on E! Online with Gay Marriage: A Look At Same-Sex Loving Characters In Movies.
"Looking for a way to celebrate the end of DOMA? How about a movie night?"
We're here! We're same-sex loving! And we're going to the multiplex!

In a second feature E! has a better idea; "What better way to celebrate the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act than with a gay TV wedding? With lots of them!
"In honor of this historic day, we pulled together a list of gay TV couples whose weddings we want to see (and attend!) come the fall season, so break out your formalwear and start dusting off your dancing shoes, 'cause we're heading to the chapel..."
Front runners are - go on, guess - Kurt and Blaine from Glee (remember when that was a "thing"?), and Mitch and Cam from Modern Family.
Hollywood Reporter reports that series co-creator, Christopher Lloyd, thinks post-DOMA Mitch and Cam getting hitched is "a real possibility".
I guess gushing features like these do support Fierstein's thesis of popular cultural normalisation, merely by being run on the big US meeja with barely a squeak.
At least Queerty's Hollywood's Gay Marriage Conspiracy: It Worked! went through all this - again - with a sense of irony and perspective.

Ryan Murphy: Changing The Channels

“I was at a fundraising event at Rob Reiner’s house and I was talking to the lawyers who are fighting to get Proposition 8 overturned,” Murphy says. “And I asked them why they thought public opinion on gay marriage has changed so much in the last four years.” 
According to Murphy, the legal duo answered without a moment’s hesitation: “Television.”

“I remember being young and hearing my parents having a very derogatory conversation about Paul Lynde while they were watching him on Hollywood Squares,” Murphy recalls. “They thought every gay person was like him, and I thought, Well, I do like scarves, it’s true, but I’m not Paul Lynde,” he says dryly. “That memory stuck with me, so whenever I got any kind of ‘power’ in television, I tried to showcase different kinds of gay people and always made sure gay people were represented in my projects.”
Not that this showcasing came easily to Murphy. “When I first started working in the entertainment industry, it was out of the question to have an authentically gay character on television. Forget it! Forget it.” On his first TV show, Popular, a WB teen dramedy set in the Hobbesian world of public high school, Murphy would get notes from the network criticizing his straight characters as “too gay.” Other shows he pitched around town with gay characters, or even straight characters “with a gay sensibility,” as Murphy describes them, were turned down for being too polarizing and unfamiliar to audiences. “Now it’s like, if you don’t have a gay character, something is wrong with your show.”

Interesting interview with Ryan Murphy in the new issue of Out, with much discussion about how TV has changed over the years, and the potential for TV to change how the world sees The Gays.
The latter subject is this season's hot gay topic in the media, and Murphy may be slightly overstating his case - the first quote above is ridiculously reductive hyperbole.
If only it was that easy... 

Television: Shoving It Down Our Throats!

We once were a people largely united under what was right and what was wrong. It was a nation under God. 
However, there has been a RELENTLESS attack upon God and upon godliness. The evidences of the spiritual/moral slide has been lengthy and increasingly the “chickens have come home to roost.” Americans love their televisions, stories and sitcoms and with the passing years knowing the difference between right and wrong has eroded through the concerted campaign of Hollywood. Network television began to shove homosexuality down our throats years ago: 
America’s most powerful influence makers have intensified their public relations blitz aimed at convincing Americans that homosexual behavior is normal and more specifically, that homosexual “marriage” should be legalized. 
In what USA Today has called the “gayest TV season in memory,”* network programmers – subsidized by well-known companies – have become more and more bold in their homosexual advocacy. 
“It is amazing to see two gay weddings within a month on two big sitcoms. It seems like they’re trying to push some buttons. Even in the gay community, a full-on-same-sex marriage is a minority kind of thing,” said Rob Greenblatt, executive vice president of development for Fox. “It is 1996, and little by little everybody has gotten a little less afraid of the old taboos.” [Taken from Washington Times, 1/25/96; USA Today, 1/31/96, AFA Journal March 1996] 
There is a God in the universe who created all things. The very breath we breathe, the sun that warms, the gravity that holds things together, the seasons, the rules of nature, natural law are all shaped by God. 

The American Decency Association via Right Wing Watch. 

Fagburn doesn't usually like to give jerks like this the oxygen of publicity - and it's hardly worth noting when some professional nutty homophobe says something nutty and homophobic - but this made me chuckle.

Here they are last month on how Glee - “a gruel of illicit sexuality, secular humanist ideology, and the promotion of homosexuality and deviant behavior” - is "poisoning our youth".
And a few days ago on The New Normal's Sly Indoctrination...

"A propaganda-piece in the guise of a sitcom. However, in the hour-long season finale creator/producer Ryan Murphy pulled out all the stops to proselytize viewers into accepting the debased gay agenda as “normal.”
Promote gay marriage?  Check.
Champion homosexual parenting?  Check.
Undermine the church and mock God and His righteousness?  Double check."

* Can't find this online, just seems to be quoted a lot on Christian websites. 

Update: New Findings from Ipsos MediaCT TV Dailies Study Shows TV’s Impact on America’s Gay Marriage Debate - sounds a bit simplistic, but such is so often the way with such studies.

Film: Hooray For Hollywood!

No matter who we are, no matter what we are, no matter where we come from, we learn about ourselves and each other in two ways. The first way is what we hear – in our families, from our friends, and from our schoolmates. The second way is what we see – on television and in the movie theater. Now, there is not much any of us can do about what people hear from families and friends, but there is a whole hell of a lot we can do about what people see.
The images that impacted me as a teenager had lasting influences on my entire life and I bet that is true for most of us. What we see in the media today affects everybody, whether it’s film, TV, radio, magazines or the internet. What the media says about your sexual orientation, and the color of your skin, and the shape of your eyes, and your ethnicity… what you look like, what you weigh, what you wear, how poor you are, how awkward you are, how educated you are, and how different you are… this stuff really sinks in. What we see teaches us about how to feel about ourselves and how to feel about each other.
And now, I’m talking about kids who are gay and I’m talking about kids who aren’t gay. One group needs affirmation and the other group needs education. And, if I’m being honest, neither of those issues are high on any movie studio or TV network’s agenda…

The Celluloid Closet was made almost 20 years ago and certainly attitudes have changed, but maybe not quite so much as you or I would want or hope. Television has been much more progressive and credit has to be given to producers like Max Mutchnick and David Kohan and Ryan Murphy for really changing things.
Now movies need to catch up. There are magnificent movies being made about gay subjects with gay characters, like Brokeback Mountain and Milk. Anyone would have been proud to have made those movies. I know I would be. But when you think about some of these films, even our favorite ones, there is a theme that runs through them.
Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Boys Don’t Cry, Philadelphia, The Hours, Gods and Monsters, The Talented Mr. Ripley, A Single Man, My Own Private Idaho, Cloud Atlas – in all these movies, the main character is murdered or martyred or commits suicide or just dies unhappily. And there are far more pernicious and dangerous images that confront gay kids and their parents: the lesbian murderer, the psychotic transvestite, the queen who is humiliated and sometimes tossed off a ship or a ledge. It’s a big joke. It still happens.
How many times have you heard a character imply to another that the worst thing about going to prison isn’t being locked up for the rest of your life, it’s the homosexuality? And old stereotypes still exist. The most benign stereotypes would have a gay kid believe that they will end up being the asexual, witty best friend of the pretty girl, or a drag queen, or a swishy hairdresser. The list goes on.
Of course, there are great images, too, like the family in The Kids Are All Right. The way the boy in Perks of Being a Wallflower and the middle-aged man in Hotel Marigold and the 75-year-old man in Beginners come out to a better, richer, more fulfilled life. It’s treated as a celebration.

And real credit has to be given to the filmmakers of ParaNorman, Chris Butler and Sam Fell, who had the first gay character in an animated movie, and he was the football hunk and it was totally incidental to the plot.
Now it’s time for all of us to take that step. Not every gay character needs to be defined by his or her sexuality. Can’t being gay just be one stitch in the fabric of someone’s life? Can’t we depict men and women who just so happen to be gay – perhaps a lawyer or soldier or business executive or scientist or engineer…
We need to create an atmosphere that encourages people to speak up, so we get this right.
How about next time, when any of us are reading a script and it says words like fag, or faggot – homo – dyke – take a pencil and just cross it out. Just don’t do it.
We can do better and we will do better. We have to. If we just think about that kid in North Dakota, or their parents, we might just do it a little differently.

Amy Pascal, chair of Sony Pictures, in a speech given last night.
Via Hollywood Deadline.

Thought this was interesting - but more because of who said it, than what it says.
It's a bit simplistic and resurrects a rather tired 80s argument about "positive images" in popular culture.
Haven't we got over this by now?
How can you show the fact of homophobia if someone can't say a word like "faggot"?
How can you film a movie about the life of Harvey Milk if you don't have him dying at the end?
And don't get me started on characters "who just happen to be gay"...
Can you imagine how arse-achingly awful a film about some nice gay men having a nice time would be?

PS For the record, can I stress that I find gay men who think they're saying something stunningly original and "radical" by complaining about non-existent gay straw men who they claim are arguing for "positive images" in popular culture as painfully tedious as anal bleaching. 

The New Normal: The New Boring

The New Normal - the new sitcom from Glee creator Ryan Murphy - starts on E4 this evening.
It's about a gay male couple who have a surrogate baby.
That's right, they're gay dads, and wh...

Sorry, I fell asleep just typing that.
The only interesting thing about this is how quickly a subject that was once outré can become a cultural cliché. 

PS It's rumoured Elton John's had a second baby. Zzzz...

Chris Colfer: Typecast, Moi?

How bizarre.

Daily Mail: Jolly Christmas

Now that's a sexy Santa! Glee star Darren Criss poses topless for jolly Christmas calender
Where's his sack?* Fans of Darren Criss' would love to have him come down their chimney** dressed as his sexy Santa character from the festive Glee calendar
Santa Claus has never been renowned for his sex symbol looks.
But this will surely change after Glee star Darren Criss posed as a topless*** Father Christmas for a jolly festive calender.
The camp**** favourite seemed to be enjoying himself as he posed with a candy cane in hand while standing behind a mystery Christmas gift.

Your actual Daily Mail copy.
Hilarious.
Us perverts will subvert wherever we can.
Decoded below from Mailspeak...

* Testicles.
** Anal sex
*** Breaks the unofficial Mail style guide where men should be described as "shirtless". This helps bring up traffic for Googling gay pervs.
**** Daily Mail code for probably gay.

Update: It later emerged there was some question over where this photo comes from. More when we hear it. Though I'll probably have lost interest by then, to be honest...

Television: Making Gay The New Normal?

Shows with gay characters, like Glee, Modern Family, and The New Normal, are helping drive voters to historically unprecedented support of gay marriage, an Oct. 29 THR poll conducted in conjunction with partner Penn Schoen Berland has found. Though gay TV also makes some voters more intensely opposed to gay marriage, they are outnumbered by voters who become more supportive of gay marriage, influenced by what they see on TV...
In the past 10 years, the THR poll of likely voters across the nation found, about three times as many voters have become more pro-gay marriage as have become more anti-gay marriage -- 31 percent pro, 10 percent anti.
Asked about how the shows influenced them, 27 percent said gay TV made them more pro-gay marriage, and six percent more anti. Obama voters watched and 30 percent got more supportive, 2 percent less supportive. Surprisingly, the shows made almost as many Romney voters more in favor of gay marriage: 13 percent got more pro-gay-marriage, 12 percent got more anti. (This trend toward gay acceptance squares with other polls: the 2011 Gallup poll was the first ever to show a majority, 53 percent, in favor of legalizing gay marriage...)
Obama voters are twice as likely to watch Modern Family as Romney voters are, twice as likely to watch Glee, and three times more likely to watch The New Normal...  *

Hollywood Reporter.

Interesting, but reductive as it implies television is the main driver behind changes in social attitudes.
Turn tellybox on, watch tellybox, mind changed, problem solved...
Of course popular culture matters - I don't think I'd bother writing about it if I didn't think it did. 
But what happens in the cultural, political and social spheres all interact and overlap, and it's surely the latter - our interactions with real people - that has really transformed our world.
Mind you, what kind of a freak wants to be "normal"?

• So maybe Catholic Online et al are onto something with their 'Fightback against gay TV in your home'?

* This contradicts the oft-quoted line that Republicans are more likely to watch Modern Family. Thus scientifically proving that at least 50% of surveys about The Gays must be bollocks. 

GLAAD: TVODear

GLAAD released its sixth annual Network Responsibility Index (NRI), a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of LGBT people on [US] primetime broadcast and cable TV.
The number of LGBT images has stabilized this year as the range of impressions continues to grow. With 69% of LGBT impressions on broadcast networks made by gay men and 66% of LGBT-inclusive broadcast hours showcasing white people, the Network Responsibility Index also calls for networks to highlight the great ethnic and cultural diversity of the LGBT community.
“Americans expect to see their off-screen worlds represented onscreen and today more than ever that includes LGBT people and families,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Storylines of families like Mitchell and Cameron on Modern Family and young people like Emily on Pretty Little Liars are not only growing acceptance of our community, but have found praise from viewers and critics alike at a time when visibility and acceptance of LGBT people is at an all-time high...”

GLAAD's somewhat random annual report.
Trying to think how you'd place UK channels, but, as regular viewers will know, I don't own a tellybox, so I'm the last person to ask, really.

The Plan For A Gay Domination: Official!

From kindergartens to city councils to churches to the Supreme Court, the mainstreaming of homosexuality has reshaped everything in America. And one of the most powerful vehicles by which the gay agenda has accomplished this is media. The first television network program to feature a homosexual character in an ongoing role was the soap opera One Life to Live in 1992. By 1999, there were 25 sitcoms or daytime dramas with homosexual characters. Without exception, these characters were portrayed as witty, clever, lovable and just a little quirky.

It’s perfectly clear what the Hollywood writers and producers were doing—grinding away at public morality, using comedy as a vehicle to overcome the natural resistance of adults, and playing on the curiosity and credulity of children. By sheer persistence, the gay-friendly media have been forcing Americans to accept homosexuality as a normal and natural choice, whether they believe it or not.

Today, based on the large number of primetime TV shows that currently feature openly gay characters, you have to believe that the most favored and most protected type of sexuality is homosexuality. Over the last decade, overtly pro-gay programs such as Will and Grace, Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, The L Word and Glee have been designed to desensitize Americans to the genuine risks of the homosexual agenda. Again, homosexuals are invariably portrayed as funny, sensitive and caring individuals.

At the same time, critics of homosexuality are portrayed as bigoted and ignorant homophobes who have to learn to accept homosexuality as a valid lifestyle choice. Yet behind the scenes, how many people realize that organizations such as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation actually have veto power over many of these scripts and can actually force directors and producers to rewrite dialogue that casts an unflattering light on homosexuals?

Some loopy American evangelist from the "Traditional Values Coalition"
Via Right Wing Watch.
The article - brilliantly - is called The Plan For A Gay (Domi) Nation.
I usually think it's best to ignore the homophobic nutty fringes - mad homophobe says something mad and homophobic shock! Yeah, big deal, let them die on the vine - but this is hilarious.

It's so insane part of me wonders if it's a piss-take, but apparently no...
Satire dies! 

Coming Out: It's No Biggie

In this week’s Entertainment Weekly special report cover story, writer Mark Harris examines the new, casual method gay celebrities are using to reveal their sexuality publicly for the first time. Fifteen years ago, when Ellen DeGeneres decided to come out of the closet, it was big news. Not just big: It was the cover of Time magazine, and a major story on Oprah, Primetime Live, and CNN. Last month, another star of a popular TV comedy went public with his homosexuality. But the news that The Big Bang Theory’s Emmy-winner Jim Parsons is gay was reported with such matter-of-fact understatement that many people’s first reaction was a quick Google search to see if maybe he was out already and we’d all just failed to notice.
But sometimes big news arrives quietly. That new blink-and-you’ll-miss-it style is an important hallmark of changing times. Fifteen years further into the evolution of gay equality than DeGeneres was, Parsons joins American Horror Story’s Zachary Quinto, White Collar’s Matt Bomer, and any number of other gay TV personalities, from Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson to Glee’s Jane Lynch to CNN anchor Don Lemon to Bravo’s Andy Cohen, who have pretty much put to rest any questions about the viability of being out in showbiz.
Even if it’s accomplished in a subordinate clause or a passing reference, coming out casually is, in its way, as activist as DeGeneres’ Time cover, although few of these actors would probably choose to label themselves as such. The current vibe for discussing one’s sexuality is almost defiantly mellow: This is part of who I am, I don’t consider it a big deal or a crisis, and if you do, that’s not my problem. It may sound like a shrug, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for indifference. By daring anyone to overreact, the newest generation of gay public figures is making a clear statement that there is a “new normal” — and it consists of being plainspoken, clear, and truthful about who you are.

Blurb from Entertainment Weekly on how stars are now coming out "casually".
That a significant number of American lesbian and gay celebrities - and other public figures - are finally coming out is news in itself, of course.
I'm not sure why this should be one area where the US is lagging behind the UK.
Apart from Hollywood always being in the grip of the dead hand of mammon, obvs.
And something tells me there may be more than the dozen or so celebs who've come out so far. 
Just a hunch.
Oh, and didn't the American magazine, The Week, run an article noting this trend a month ago?

Glee Watch: Flaw Found In "Homosexual Propaganda" Argument

Nice t-shirt.
How thick!!?

• Photograph from Cometstarmoon on Flickr.

Glee The First Time: Spoiler Alert!

The Not-So-Explicit Deflowering of Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson on Last Night’s Glee

Yes, Glee’s beloved gay couple Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson apparently had sex last night in the episode called “The First Time”—and somehow the world didn’t end.
We say “apparently” because we can’t in good faith swear to you that the deed was done.
The actors told us to prepare for a very palatable virginity loss, so we couldn’t help but hope that Ryan Murphy and Co. might throw us a bone, if you will. But what we got was milder than warm milk...

An amusing account of the long-awaited The First Time/Kurt and Blaine Finally Get It On (Or Do They?) episode of Glee which aired in the States last night, by Brody Brown at Queerty.
Before it had even aired the 'Glee Sex Episode [was] Blasted By Protest Groups'.
ie There were a few press releases sent to the US media from right-wing "pro-family" groups who always complain about this sort of thing.
Snore!

Sesame Street: And The Letter Glee...

Thought For The Day: Jane Lynch

"You're not going to change people's minds about bullying and homophobia. But you can tend to the people who are at the brunt of people's abuse or neglect. That's what Glee does. Hang in there, it gets better. Look for your people. You gotta find your people, just like those kids found glee club. I'm thrilled to be part of it. It's very empowering...
"Sexual orientation doesn't mean anything out here in Hollywood. Ellen [DeGeneres] and Melissa Etheridge and Rosie O'Donnell – everybody before me who had the courage to stand up and say: "America, you love me, but I'm also gay" – I love that they did that. It made it easy for me. But here I know tons of gay people, so when you get out there and you hear about people suffering at the hands of homophobia, it's shocking."

Jane Lynch in The Observer Magazine.

• The new series of Glee is on Thursdays on Sky 1 from September 22nd. But why not just watch it illegally on the internet instead?

US TV: Seven Ways To Come Out

Blogger CorinaWrites writes about 'TV Examples of How Parents Can Respond When Their Gay Kid Comes Out' from QAF to Glee.
Awww.

We Love Pop: ♥

Being ludicrously out of touch really busy recently, Fagburn was completely oblivious to the launch of a brand new pop magazine, We Love Pop.
Sorry, I can't be buggered to paste in that ♥.
"GOSSIP," it promises, "FASHION, BOYS UNCENSORED!"
Obviously with the likes of Rihanna, Justin and Glee in the first issue it will only be bought by teenage girls.
And pervy gay men.
There have been the inevitable comparisons with Smash Hits
- inevitable as that's the touchstone brought up whenever a new pop magazine launches.
Ver Hits key secret ingredients was a willingness to rip the piss out of pop stars' pretensions (and stupidity), and an ironic sense of humour that made it appeal to your actual grown-ups, too.
But these days The Gays and the grown-ups may be happy enough getting their fix of that from Popjustice.
Pleasingly we see We Love Pop is edited by Malcolm Mackenzie - a nicer man you couldn't hope to meet - so we wish it well.
And that's an official Fagburn POPFACT!

Glee: Kissing Boys

“Mommy, they are just like me.”

My oldest son is six years old and in love for the first time. He is in love with Blaine from Glee.

For those who don’t know Blaine is a boy… a gay boy, the boyfriend of one of the main characters, Kurt.

This isn’t a ‘he thinks Blaine is really cool’ kind of love. It is a mooning at a picture of Blaine’s face for a half hour followed by a wistful “He’s so pretty” kind of love.

He loves the episode where two boys kiss. My son will call people in from other parts of the house to make sure they don’t miss his ‘favorite part.’ He’s been known to rewind it and watch it over again…and force other to, as well, if he doesn’t think people have been paying enough attention.

This infatuation doesn’t bother me or his father. We live in a very hip-liberal neighborhood, many of our friends are gay, and idea of having a gay son isn’t something that bothers either of us. Our son is going to be who he is, and it is our job to love him. End of story.

He is also six. Six year olds get obsessed with all kinds of things. This might not mean anything at all. We always joke that he’s either gay, or we have the best blackmail material in the history of mankind when he’s a 16 year old straight boy. (Take that naked bath time pictures!)

Then the other day we were traveling across the state listening to the Warblers album (of course), and in the middle of Candles, my son pipes up from the back seat.

“Mommy, Kurt and Blaine are boyfriends.”

“Yes, they are,” I affirm.

“They don’t like kissing girls. They just kiss boys.”

“That’s true.”

“Mommy, they are just like me.”

“That’s great, baby. You know I love you no matter what?”

“I know…” I could hear him rolling his eyes at me.

When we got home I recapped this conversation to his Dad, and we stood simply looking into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then we smiled.

“So if at 16 he wants to make a big announcement at the dinner table, we can say ‘You told us when you were six. Pass the carrots’ and he’ll be disappointed we stole his big dramatic moment,” my husband says with a laugh and hugs me.

Only time will tell if my son is gay, but if he is I am glad he’s mine. I am glad he has been born into our family. A family full of people who will love and accept him. People who will never want him to change. With parents who will look forward to dancing at his wedding.

And I have to admit, Blaine would be a really cute son-in-law.

From the Tumblr, Getstooobsessed.
Which swiftly went viral...
(And, yes, it appears to be genuine).