Doritos: At Last The Rainbow-Coloured Crisps We've All Been Waiting For!

Gay Star News.

And you're also donating to It Gets Better - proudly fetishising gay teen suicide since 2010.

Stonewallers, you did not riot in vain.

Update: 'PepsiCo, who make Doritos (through subsidiary Frito-Lay), are producing a homosexual version of Doritos called "Rainbow Doritos." Doritos are a product marketed to children, so they make the perfect gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of homosexuality', American Thinker.

Oscars: No Moore

[Graham Moore shared] with the millions of telecast viewers that at the age of 16, he tried to kill himself “because I felt weird, and I felt different, and I felt that I did not belong. And now I’m standing here, and I would like this moment to be for that kid out there who feels she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do. … Stay different, and then when it’s your turn, and you’re standing on this stage, please pass the message to the next person that comes along.”

I wish that Moore had drawn a clearer line between his comments about Turing—a man who was persecuted and prosecuted for his homosexuality—and his “it gets better” message to teens who are merely weird and different. For one thing, overemphasizing the connection between queer teens and suicide can be dangerous. But it’s also important to note that being gay simply isn’t the same as being a “geek.” Moore may see them as comparable (and, though he has identified himself as straight, his affect may have opened him up to homophobic bullying), but the truth of the matter is that the social force behind anti-gay prejudice is far stronger and more pernicious than the animus against social outcasts. Moore’s heart was surely in the right place, but I wish he hadn't conflated these identities.

June Thomas, Slate.

Well said.

Can't see why some people are gushing over this boo hoo squish squish patronising gay death cult guff.

Update: Though he appears to be absolutely screaming, Graham Moore has reiterated to BuzzFeed News that he is not gay. Deffo.

Update2: Oops! - thanks to Nick. x

Update3: More from Slate's J Bryan Lowder, Is It “Weird” to Be Gay? What Graham Moore’s Speech Really Means.

Dan Savage: Hard To Think Of Anyone Else Who's Done So Much To Fetishise Queer Teen Suicide

Oh do fuck off, you hypocritical right-wing gayist cunt.

Samaritans media guidelines on how NOT to report suicide.

Dominic & Roger Crouch: Connections

How School Bullies Ripped This Happy Family Apart
'Just days after kissing another boy for a dare, 15-year-old Dominic Crouch jumped off a six-storey building. His suicide prompted his devastated parents to campaign against homophobic bullying. But, as Patrick Strudwick reports, there was further tragedy to follow...'

This is in the Mail On Sunday today - I'm really glad they've run it.
It's a powerful piece, and you couldn't think of a more harrowing example of where homophobic bullying can lead.
Dominic's father, Roger Crouch, began campaigning against school bullying, but took his own life at the end of last year.
The Mail has run a lot of sympathetic stories about the suicides of gay teenagers in the last few years - far, far more than any other British newspaper.
It's far from scientific, but typing "gay suicide" into their search engine brings up 459 mentions, there are 46 just for Tyler Clementi, the most notorious case.
Again, good for them. 
I've written about the Mail's strange pro-gay/anti-gay duality a few times on here before, it may surprise many but they often run gay human interest stories such as this, and the showbiz pages are as gay-loving as anyone else's.
But you have to wonder how their editorial staff can square a story like this with their relentless attacks on gay equality elsewhere in their papers.
There are 1815 mentions of "gay marriage" in the Mail, for example, and I bet almost all of them are negative.
Most toxic of all is surely the Mail's homophobic attacks on attempts to tackle homophobia in schools.
Do they ever stop and wonder if there might be a link?

Facebook: Unlike

"Facebook is in a mad hurry to make sure everyone uses its new Timeline infrastructure – so mad, it has decided to switch it from being a nice option to a mandatory feature.

"In other words, you have seven days to scour through your Facebook history and delete any embarrassing status updates, photos or videos you would rather remain forgotten.
"Timeline is the shiny new magazine-style tiled layout that creates a more visual look to your Facebook wall as opposed to the linear text-driven style we've learned to live with over the last few years.
"The Timeline feature includes a slider that lets you delve all the way back through someone's history on Facebook, pretty much to the day they were born...."

Siliconrepublic.com
Unbelievably it looks like The Daily Mail is the only UK newspaper to cover this story; 'You WILL reveal your past! Facebook's timeline feature becomes mandatory for all users - with just 7 days to 'clean up'' 
Fagburn can't see anything going wrong if Facebook shows up every last bit of anyone's personal history.
No siree.
Apart from more gay kids being outed to their parents and kicked out of home.
Or more gay kids being bullied to death.
Well done Facebook - another winner!

Queerty: Oops!

'Not Every Gay Teen Who Dies Is A Bullycide Victim. So Why Do We Rush To Claim Them?' - Queerty, January 24th.

'Lance Lundsten, Gay 18-Year-Old High Schooler, Takes His Life' - Queerty, January 18th.

Glee & Queer Bullying: "Sometimes It Doesn't Get Better"

"'It Gets Better' has a certain power to it. It is impossible not to be moved by the refrain of pain in many of the videos. But the project has two major problems. The first is that sometimes it doesn't get better. The reality is that class, race, poverty, gender presentation, geography, support systems, physical abilities, and a whole host of other issues place all kids at risk. For a lot of teens this combination can be overwhelming and, in the end, it just doesn't get better. Often it gets worse. The second problem is even more serious. As a political organizing tool, It Gets Better fails to urge people to make changes now, to take action to stop the bullying, to find concrete solutions to this problem. Sure, some of the videos urge kids to tell their teachers and their principals to step in if someone is being bullied and that there are places they can get help, but there is no systematic, sustained approach for affecting change. Indeed, the very notion that It Gets Better presumes that change happens through the passage of time, not that you have to work to make it better.
"Glee, a carefully written and produced TV show, chronicles the emotional and musical travails of a high school glee club. It also deals with high school bullying—in particular the bullying of Kurt, an openly gay member of the glee club. In the November shows, the bullying reached such extremes that Kurt faced death threats and had to change schools.
"So what could be bad about a hugely popular television show that sympathetically exposes the bullying of an openly gay teen? Actually, a lot..."

From an article in the new issue of ZMagazine, Glee and Queer Bullying, by the ever brilliant American critic Michael Bronski.

Cartoon from Z Magazine.

Glee: "Kurt Saved My Life"

Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel) has unequivocally become the heart of the series and, amid a recent flare-up in gay-teen bullying and suicides across the country, one of the most socially important characters on television. Says Colfer: “With all due respect to my castmates, they don’t get the letters like I get — the letters that not only say ‘I’m your biggest fan’ but also ‘Kurt saved my life’ and ‘Kurt doesn’t make me feel alone’ from 7-year-olds in Nebraska. When I was growing up, there wasn’t a character like this. I think what makes Kurt so special is he’s finding himself in front of our eyes.”

Entertainment Weekly pays tribute to the healing power of Chris Colfer, Kurt and Glee.
No link available, the interview continues in comments below...

Change: "Does Media Fuel Gay Suicide Copy Cats?"

Well dur!
Andrew Belonsky asks on the US liberal website Change.org.
To my knowledge the only article to ask an obvious - and pressing - question.
Readers seem more aware than some journalists - see the comments section after an atrocious short piece about the suicide of Brandon Bitner (pictured).
MediaWise's guidelines for reporting suicides here.

Joel Burns Vs Craigery Morgan: Survival Of The Fittest

The Independent has gone big today on Joel Burns - the Texan councillor who gave a moving elegy to young gay men who have committed suicide, and spoke of his own struggle growing up gay in a small town and with a Christian father.
Thanks to the internet, it's turned him into an instant hero internationally - just add waterworks.
The Independent has published his speech in full online.
Yesterday The Guardian awarded Joel Burns their daily In Praise Of... editorial, applauding his "bravery".
It was moving, but in what way was it brave?
Mr Burns video was filmed by cameras in the council chamber and put on YouTube, and has been embraced as part of Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project.
As I type it's had over 2,224,000 hits.
I'm just a bit worried that it's become a kind of emotional pornography, with Burns breaking down in tears the money-shot.
There is another gay YouTube "sensation" this month.
Craigery Morgan's Surprise Party - where he lipsynchs to a Saturday Night Live sketch - went up a week before Burns'.
Craigery (sic) plays the part of an over-excited woman, but he doesn't perform in drag.
He's shirtless.
He's also really cute and buff and fit.
Young Mr Morgan has had over 4,540,000 views on YouTube - that's twice as many as Mr Burns.
Maybe Craigery should film an It Gets Better video?
Or maybe Joel Burns should have taken his shirt off in his?

Teen Suicide: Faking It?

In a story being regularly updated as more information emerges, Queerty claims that one of the most recent reported gay teen suicides may be a hoax.
'SUICIDE (HOAX?): Terrel Williams, 17, Hangs Himself In Bedroom Closet After High School Beating (Updated)'.
More later...

Teen Suicides: How Many More?

There are two more reports of American gay teenagers committing suicide, it's said due to homophobic bullying and attacks; Corey Jackson, 19 (pictured) and Terrel Williams, 17.
Though all these suicides are tragic, and it's good to see the US media bring attention to the terrible experiences gay kids have at school, as Fagburn has written before; as there are almost 100 suicides in the US every day - with gay men and young men being over represented - how many young American gay men take their lives every day?
There is no "surge" or new "epidemic" - it's always been this bad.*
They are finally newsworthy, and this may be problematic.
Reporting of suicides is a contentious issue, MediaWise and the National Union of Journalists have published 'Reporting Suicide: Guidance For Journalists.'
Next time you read anything about gay teen suicides you might like to ask yourself if it follows any of its recommendations.
In fine: "Consideration for the feelings of relatives, avoiding detailed descriptions of suicide methods, providing information about where help and advice can be found, avoid sensational headlines, images, and language, avoid speculation..."
"Suicide is a complex issue, often linked to mental illness - It is neither helpful nor accurate to suggest that suicide occurs as a result of a single factor. Often there will be history of forms of mental illness like depression, and this should be acknowledged. Avoid giving the impression that suicide is a simple 'solution' to a particular problem; acknowledge that sudden death creates problems for family and friends."
Is sentimental and sensationalist coverage only making gay suicides more likely?

* Further here's a Skeptical Inquirer article about how bad data and bad math may have led some to miscalculate a "gay teen suicide epidemic".

Gay Teen Suicides: Some Perspective

Is there an "epidemic" of gay suicides in the US?
The most recent statistics I could find are from 2007.
"In 2007, it was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 34,598 deaths."
That's like a 9/11 - our new marker of tragedy - every month.
Or close to 100 every day.
The stastics show that gay men and young men are the most likely to commit suicide.
How many young gay men do you think commited suicide today?
It's not some new "epidemic".
Tragically, it's just same as it ever was.
And most go unreported.

PS The cutting above comes from 2001. It goes on...

It Gets Better: Who Cares?

No-one could say the idea behind the Youtube channel It Gets Better - where people post videos offering hope to lonely, possibly suicidal gay kids - is a bad idea.
But as the number of people who'd say they want gay teenagers to kill themselves is close to zero, its message can fall victim to banalification.
And its tragic subject gets buried under an avalanche of sentimental vomit.
Though maybe the real problem lies with the medium, not the message?
YouTube - despite its democratic potential - is the world's biggest vanity project.
It's no surprise that many of the videos posted on It Gets Better are just like the videos posted everywhere else on YouTube/MeTube; attention-seeking, solipsistic, self-aggrandizing, self-promoting.
This admirable project is now making the news, but often it's just to tell us the latest celebrities who've jumped on board.
Hell yes they care - but then again, who doesn't?
In the 1990 trial of Heavy Metal band Judas Priest - charged with putting hidden messages on an album that encouraged two young fans to commit suicide - the defence argued that if they knew how to record subliminal messages they'd make one that said; "Buy more of our records."
Heaven forfend that there are subliminal messages on any of the It Gets Better videos.
"Please don't kill yourself - we've got a new single out on Monday."

Gay Youth: It Gets Better

In response to the recent spate of suicides of American gay teenagers, Dan Savage has started the It Gets Better Project via YouTube.
Dan Savage writes:

"My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas," a reader wrote after I posted about Billy Lucas to my blog . "I wish I could have told you that things get better."
I had the same reaction: I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.
But gay adults aren't allowed to talk to these kids. Schools and churches don't bring us in to talk to teenagers who are being bullied. Many of these kids have homophobic parents who believe that they can prevent their gay children from growing up to be gay—or from ever coming out—by depriving them of information, resources, and positive role models.
Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don't have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better. We can reach these kids.
So here's what you can do, GBVWS: Make a video. Tell them it gets better.
I've launched a channel on YouTube — www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject — to host these videos.
"You gotta give 'em hope," Harvey Milk said.
They need to know that it gets better. Submit a video. Give them hope.

Teenage Gay Suicides: A "Sexy" Story?

Almost all of the UK papers gave over considerable space yesterday or today to the suicide of 18 year-old US student, Tyler Clementi - apparently after being outed by a flatmate secretly filming him having sex with a man and then putting the film on the internet.
The Daily Mail: 'He was spying on me': Student who killed himself after secret gay sex film made desperate cry for help on day of his death.'
The Independent: 'Student jumps to his death after roommate posts sex tape online'.
The Guardian: 'US student Tyler Clementi jumps to his death over sex video.'
The Daily Telegraph: 'Student jumps to death after being filmed having sex with man.'
The Times: 'Student Dead After Friends Broadcast Sex Video.'
The Sun: ''Taped Sex' Teen Jumps To Death'.
Daily Star: 'Degeneres 'Devastated' Over Suicide Teenager.'
It was the fourth reported sucide of an American teenager in September because of homophobic bullying.
There was also Billy Lucas, 15, Seth Walsh, 13, and Asher Brown, 13.
None of these other three boys' suicides were reported in the British press, though their youth arguably makes them all the more tragic stories.
Fagburn wonders if journalists being able to put something about a "secret gay sex tape" in a headline makes a teenage suicide a sexier story?

EDIT: A Fifth gay American teenager, Raymond Chase, 19, took his own life on September 29th.