As Christians, God’s greatest commandment is a simple one, but sometimes it is the most difficult to follow.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:35
When things do not go well in our life, we sometimes questions God, and if we are questioning God, then we are not loving him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Love and trust go together, and even when times get bad, we must trust in the Lord that he will be there by our side, helping us through the troubled times.
The second greatest commandment can be really difficult to follow. How many times have you thought, “I really hate this/that person”? How many times have you felt anger toward someone for something that they did wrong? I constantly feel anger at people who call themselves Christians but then do not follow God’s greatest commandments and love one another. This probably makes me a hypocrite, but in the end, I try to love all of my fellow men. For all of those who give speeches about America being a Christian nation, how can they condemn others and yet still follow God’s word? It is something that has always perplexed me.
I teach my high school students the Golden Rule on a regular basis. It is on the wall in my classroom. They see it each and every day, and I hope that it will sink into them and give our next generation a better hope. With Valentine’s Day drawing near, and with some of us who are single, we should all remember that God’s Greatest Commandment is LOVE.
Mr. Nash describes very well how I feel right now, though mine is sinus problems. This stanza is the best description:
By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever’s hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!
I’m still going to school today, so my students will get to be quiet and do some busy work (I hate giving busy work) and y’all get a relatively short post, with what I consider to be a cute little poem.
If you are wondering why I don’t just call in sick, it seems that we have a several other teachers out and we are having a problem finding enough substitutes. So since I am not contagious, I will go to school and make it through the day, so that I can use the weekend to rest.
When Randy Phillips uploaded his first video to YouTube, he knew it would change his life forever—he just didn’t know if it would be for the better or for the worse.
For all of his adult life a secret was barreling down on the 21-year-old soldier that not even his military-provided bulletproof vest could protect him from. It was so detrimental that it could end his career and damage his relationships.
Phillips was gay. And the military had express rules against coming out.
But, the Alabama native decided that he needed to come out—and do it in a way “there would be no turning back,” said Phillips in a Skype interview. “It was the easiest way for me to do it.”
A self-described “big fan” of YouTube, Phillips created his AreYouSuprised channel last spring just before the military was repealing its strict anti-gay policy Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
“I thought it was easiest just to convey my message through YouTube instead of actually blogging,” he said in his Southern-tinged accent.
Instead of launching a public self-outing campaign like Lt. Dan Choi, another soldier who made headlines for fighting against DADT, Phillips’ came out quietly and gradually.
His folksy demeanor, boyish good looks and social media smarts transformed him into a different kind of Lt. Dan Choi—one for a generation of people reared on YouTube.
He shot his first dozen videos, recorded last spring, neck down to conceal his identity, his voice and hands standing in for facial expressions. The videos were shot in a southwest Asian country that Phillips couldn’t reveal (one of those “hot and sandy ones”), captured a clearly nervous Phillips talking about being gay in the military.
Voice shaking and hand trembling, Phillips’ introduced his then-closeted self to the world last April.
“The whole point of this video is to come out. That’s even hard to say,” he said faintly, warning that his coming out process could take a year.
“I was just nervous, [I had] personal fear, and fear of rejection from my friends and family,” Phillips said without stumbling, a stark contrast from his first videos when his voice sounded like a man about to fly down the tracks of the world’s tallest roller coaster. “I was even nervous of saying the words ‘I’m gay’ period.”
There also were legal issues to consider. Under the military’s policy, “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” which in effect banned gays from openly serving, he was violating the rules. However, he began the videos four months after Obama announced he was repealing the ban.
Investigations were tapering off, Phillips said. But publicly posting coming out videos—while serving overseas—still was a risky thing to do. And the emotional toll of being found out forced him to dart between well-hidden spots to record the videos.
Initially, the videos could only be discovered if someone was looking for a specific subject, such as DADT or one happened to be on Outserve, a private Facebook group for gay military members, where he posted the videos. He credits the members’ support for helping him come out.
“Everybody at that point who had seen my videos … [gave] me so much emotional support. It was a like a counselor for me.”
In August, however, things started to change. That’s when he posted an unrelated video of one of his fellow soldiers covering Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Suddenly, his quiet channel got a visitor spark. People came to hear the song and then apparently noticed the other videos in his channel.
Phillips wasn’t naive. He knew that any bump in traffic could lead people to see his coming out videos so it didn’t come as a shock to him.
“I put my videos on there and from there they got shared around the Web and passed around, like everything on the Internet,” Phillips said.
After people discovered his channel, an earlier recording of Phillips coming out to his friend, Chris, started pulling in viewers.
With the wind battering his camera during an otherwise ordinary jovial moment, Phillips tells one of his closest friends he’s gay. Instead of freaking out, his friend laughs and says “I could give a rat’s ass…love is love.”
When the camera stopped recording Chris “was like ‘That’s cool, I don’t mind. You are still one of my good friends.’” Phillips recalled. “He said nothing will ever change and we would still be great friends and that he wouldn’t think of me any differently.”
In September, when DADT was officially lifted, Phillips kept true to his promise: not only did he reveal his identity to his fans on YouTube, he also posted a video of him coming out to his father and showed his face for the first time.
Finally, people could see the worry on his brow and his closely cropped light brown hair with a stylish flip in front .
Sitting at a desk against a map-clad wall, a weary eyed Phillips apprehensively dials his phone to tell him one of the hardest things a gay guy will ever say to his father.
The call takes more than an agonizing minute to connect. Phillips preps his dad for the news. He tells his him he has something important to say and then implores: “Will you still love me? Serious?”
Phillips’ voice stammers and he continually looks away from the phone like his father’s disapproving face was peering back at him.
“Yes,” his father asserts.
Phillips takes in a deep breath and then finally utters the words: “Dad. I’m gay.”
“OK,” his father says in an detached voice. The video lasts four more minutes. During that time there’s a lot of back and forth. His father maintains his stoic tone, but does say “I will always love you.” The mild-mannered Phillips responds “yes sir.”
The coming out video earned Phillips international press coverage. But he was puzzled why the voyeuristic video grabbed the attention of millions.
“I’m such a boring person. I couldn’t believe that that many people wanted to see something that hundreds and thousands of kids do every single year,” he said. “It was just a conversation on the phone.”
But it obviously meant more to others. The seven minute video has more 57,000 likes and 84,000 comments. Many are supportive of him, but there also are some homophobic haters in the crowd, which doesn’t bother him.
“Everybody can feel bulletproof behind the safety of their own computer,” he said bluntly.
“A lot of haters are going to click on it and they’re going to feel insecure,” he said. “It’s super easy to make really negative comments, and they did.”
Phillips said the video received between 5,000 to 10,000 hateful comments.
“But its nothing that [haters] haven’t said to my face… I know a lot of people like to vent over the Internet,” he said. He also shoots down critics who said Phillips released the video just for attention.
“I don’t think that many people realize how YouTube helped me, and how it pushed me. How grateful I was that I get to share my story and show people what the average reaction would be…and that life gets so much better after that.”
He admitted that the videos of him coming out to his father, and later, his mom who didn’t take the news as well, had an “ambush” aspect to them since he didn’t ask for their permission to broadcast them. (That charge came from an article in Salon who lambasted Phillips’ choice of doing this.)
“Maybe,” Phillips said. “I am not going to argue with that 100 percent. I don’t think either of my parents, if I were to ask them, ‘Hey, is it OK if I put this on the Internet?’, I don’t think they anybody would’ve said ‘yeah, go ahead.’”
“I explained to my parents about how much I owe that to the YouTube community and how many emails [he received]” that he forwarded to his parents including one who came out to his parents at 34-years-old thanks to Phillips’ video.
Although his relationship with his very conservative Southern parents remains at arm’s length (“They wouldn’t go out of their way to ask me how everything is going…but they don’t mind”), the support from the YouTube community helped him.
“I think my parents now understand that they helped more people than they thought they ever would,” Phillips said. Reaction to the video from the Air Force was also supportive. “Not one single person came up to me and said something negative,” he said.
Following the coming out videos, Phillips altered the direction of his channel from less of a gritty account of his personal life, to a mix of light-hearted videos. His channel pivoted from closely resembling the front section of a news weekly to the glossy style of Men’s Health with its mix of workout videos and travel diaries.
He has more than 36,000 subscribers and 11 million total video views. The support he received from his emotional videos helped him keep his channel up and running.
“I am going to film whatever I want to from now on, I have absolutely no push to go in any direction whatsoever,” Phillips said confidently. Also, he wants to evolve past being known as the ‘gay soldier,’ and to show the world there is more to him than that.
“I want to show everyone out there in the YouTube world that I am a plain, boring, normal guy and that being gay is just a part of me,” Phillips asserted. “I am not trying to make a career out of it. I’ve said everything that I need to say as far as coming out.”
Showing off indeed. The boyish, but built, Phillips is often times shirtless. “I’m from Alabama, I’ve been shirtless more of my life than I’ve been clothed, so whatever,” he joked. But clearly the lack of attire doesn’t hurt when it comes to gaining an audience.
Phillips’ videos are fun, candid and usually last under five minutes. The video’s lighting and sound doesn’t mirror that of a wannabe professional production like other YouTube channels. They show off Phillip’s down-to-earth, approachable, friendly side.
Viewers are treated to a glimpse of military life that not even CNN could provide. We follow him to the grocery store, watch him as he teaches us how to build stronger triceps and he occasionally does an unscripted question and answer sessions that he pulls from 10,000 follower strong Twitter account.
It takes him only about 25 minutes to shoot and edit a video, which he says a only a few of his coworkers follow along. “One of my coworker’s wives is my biggest fan,” he laughed.
The Air Force does not supervise what Phillips uploads but their code of conduct prohibits him from dabbling into anything political and he has to clearly assert that whatever views he provides are of his own.
Although his videos are pretty genial, he’s aware when he crosses a line. Earlier this month, he posted, and then quickly pulled, a video of him flexing just in his underwear tweeting “I think that video was just a little [too] much.”
His fans, however, continue to be supportive and probably won’t think he would ever go “too far.” A search for @AreYouSuprised on Twitter reveals some rabid fans that Phillips takes in stride.
“It’s funny, I take it pretty light-heatedly,” he laughed.
“I think its amazing that I had such so more of a choice then I would, and there is no reason for it. There is nothing that I have ever done that’s crazy. I’ve never been much of an activist, I just shared my personal story.”
Back in I think November, a reader sent me a link to this video. I have been so busy that I only saw it for the first time a few days ago. It is quite moving. They seem to really love each other. Below the video is Joe’s explanation of the video.
this is the story behind, this is our year. This post relates to the video, ‘this is our year.’ I uploaded on to Vimeo earlier this month here. Joe has his own Tumblr page at http://tickingabox.tumblr.com. You can follow Joe & Will on Twitter also (@itsjoemcd & @willrackham) x My name is Joe, I’m 24 years old, I live in London and work in the not-as-glamorous-as-you’d-expect TV industry. I met my boyfriend of 18 months, Will, through working on the same TV show. We’re a close couple, and we try to spend as much time with each other as we can. We both have similar tastes in pretty much everything, with only the rare differing opinion when it comes to condiment choice! (Ketchup vs Mayo) Last year for Christmas, among other gifts, I bought Will a diary. Inside it I wrote dozens of memorable dates from our time together, so he could look through them as they year went on and remember some of the “firsts” we shared. First date, first meeting of the parents, first trip away etc. This year I was keen to be creative again for Christmas and make him a video of moments we’d shared earlier this year, when we went on a weekend break to Manchester Pride in August. When I told him I was bringing a video camera with us on the trip, I think he was a but dubious at first but I told him I had plans to make a video and he got involved, and to be honest, he’s a little bit of a natural with a camera anyway, so it didn’t take him long to get in to it. Move forward a few months, to when I edited the video. I always knew it was something I wanted to make for him for part of his Christmas gifts. So I looked through the footage we’d shot and found the bits I thought were a good selection of our trip to Manchester. Will and I have always had a number of songs, as I think most relationships do, that mean something to us. One of our first and most poignant is “The Only Exception” by Paramore, so when making the video I decided to fit the footage in around that track. I only spent an hour or so making the video in iMovie. It was never meant to be a masterpiece and was definitely never meant to be shown to an audience of thousands around the world. As many people have commented, the sound mixing on the video isn’t particularly great, people have been disappointed that in parts of the video they’ve not been able to hear the dialogue between Will and I – for me, I never thought to make speech any clearer or reduce the impact of the track because for the intended audience – in other words, Will & I – we had shared memories of what we were either talking about in those scenes, and so hearing the words of the song for me were more important. When I showed the video to Will. He loved it, I wanted to wait until we exchanged our gifts properly but I was too excited to show him and he was excited to watch it. So I sat him down on my bed, switched the lights off cinema-style and played it to him, glancing over for a positive reaction every now and then. He really liked it and after thanking me, I decided to upload it to Vimeo and give him a private link to it, so he could watch it on his iPad or iPhone over Christmas while we were both away from each other. As many of you will know now though, that link wasn’t so private after all. I’ve never uploaded a video to Vimeo before, however I selected the correct privacy settings but actually didn’t submit/save them successfully. Will stayed over that night, and I went to work the next day for the last time before Christmas. Will and I don’t currently live together but Will spends most nights at my flat. This week, as we had both finished for Christmas and because we’d been working so hard recently and not seen each other as much, we agreed to spend the week together celebrating Christmas before we both went our separate ways to spend Christmas with our families. That night, Will met me after work and we decided to go to Winter Wonderland – a huge Christmas pop-up theme park with rides and festive markets. We had a great night and ironically, took along the video camera as Will wanted us to film more stuff so we could make a video of our Christmas. All this was before we had discovered that the “This is Our Year” video I had made Will had gone not only public, but viral. That night, when we got back to my flat, I was checking my emails on my phone and saw a couple of notifications from Vimeo informing me that there were comments on my video. I thought, “That’s strange, it’s private.” I walked over to Will who was watching TV and said: “Baby… Don’t be mad at me, but…” and explained that comments had been made on the video. “What have you done!” he said, with a bit of a chuckle. We went to my room to have a look on my Mac at the comments on the Vimeo website when we then saw that there had been over 20,000 views. I wanted to be sick, my stomach sank. All I could think was: “Oh god, Will’s not been out that long and everyone’s going to see it and he’s going to kill me.” I was panicking. I took it offline immediately, so Will and I could discuss it and so we could look through the coverage online on blogs and social networks. The comments and reaction were overwhelmingly sweet. We were initially confused why the video had resonated with people. Sure, we both liked it, but it was special to us – we couldn’t work out how it was making sense or appealing to anyone else? We left it private for pretty much all of the following day, until we realised it had been duplicated and republished on to YouTube. Again, still panicking slightly that the world could see video of us passionately kissing, we submitted a Privacy takedown request with YouTube, who took the copy down after 48 hours. After reading messages sent to me from members of Vimeo and reading through some of the lovely messages and comments with Will, we agreed on a compromise. I remember saying to Will something along the lines of: “If we keep it down, duplicates are just going to keep popping up and we won’t have any control of this. Shall we just take a deep breath and embrace it? Everything everyone has said has been really positive. This video, although not intentional, has actually helped some people.” It hit home to me how the video was appealing to others when someone described it as “the best unintentional-It Gets Better video ever.” The penny dropped and I realised that although Will and I live in this bubble between us where we do these romantic things and don’t really think about how others would perceive us, there is a common misconception that gay men aren’t successful in relationships. This stigma that they all go out every night, get pissed, do drugs and sleep with strangers. This concept that gay men are inherently inadequate to maintain a loving relationship in the same way heterosexual couples do. I think, speaking personally, a lot of gay men think that sexual orientation comes paired with a different lifestyle to suit. That if you are gay, you have to live a different type of lifestyle. I think Will and I have always been so compatible because we both want similar things from life, the same things most straight couples want – that idyllic happy life together, in a house we love, with friends and family we care for. The kind of life where we get more enjoyment from cuddling up on the sofa together watching the Modern Family box set, than we do dancing half naked in a sweaty nightclub drunk off our faces. I should add, this isn’t a judgement, it’s more just our choice. I have plenty of friends who enjoy the latter and I love them for that – you have to choose what you find most enjoyable for you and your partner. So to conclude, we’ve decided to keep the video online. We did edit it slightly to tone down a lengthy kissing scene, but nevertheless, it’s out there and we’re happy that our video, which started as a romantic gesture from one boyfriend to another, has now developed this added dimension to inspire some people, move others or just to make some people smile. If its taught me anything it’s that the world is clearly looking for more positive representations of a normal gay relationship, and that there’s still progress to be made to prove to the masses that gay or straight – love is love.
It is such a moving and wonderful message, I had to share it. Thanks Joe and Will. Below is the this is a follow-up to their ‘this is our year.’ video, after some people had commented that they couldn’t hear their dialogue very well, but just to satisfy curiosity, here it is with a less audible backing track. I did watch both out of curiosity, and though it is interesting to hear the dialogue, I find the original with the music incredibly beautiful and moving.
As Hermes once took to his feathers light, When lulled Argus, baffled, swoon’d and slept, So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright So play’d, so charm’d, so conquer’d, so bereft The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes; And seeing it asleep, so fled away, Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies, Nor unto Tempe where Jove griev’d that day; But to that second circle of sad Hell, Where in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell Their sorrows—pale were the sweet lips I saw, Pale were the lips I kiss’d, and fair the form I floated with, about that melancholy storm.
The Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Jie is a traditional Chinese festival, which is on the 15th of the first month of the Chinese New Year, which is today. The festival marks the end of the celebrations of the Chinese New Year.
Chinese started to celebrate the Lantern Festival from the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 221 AD). Like most other Chinese festivals, there is also a story behind the Festival. It is also believed that the festival has Taoist origins.
This is a festival for people having fun. On the night of the festival, people go on streets with a variety of lanterns under the full moon, watching lions or dragon dancing, playing Chinese riddles and games, and lighting up firecrackers. There is really a lot of fun for the young and the old. The festival is not well celebrated in the US, though you may find celebrations in some Chinese communities, such as Hsi Lai Temple, Hacienda Heights, California.
The Chinese Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival/holiday, which is celebrated by the Chinese in many countries. It is the first major festival after the Chinese New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the Little New Year since it marks the end of the series of celebrations starting from the Chinese New Year. Koreans celebrate this festival as the Daeboreum. This festival originates from Zigong in the Sichuan province of China.
Traditionally, the date once served as a day for love and matchmaking. It was one of the few nights without a strict curfew. Young people were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love. Matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples. The brightest lanterns were symbolic of good luck and hope.
Those who do not carry lanterns often enjoy watching informal lantern parades. Other popular activities at this festival include eating Tang Yuan, a sweet rice dumpling soup, and guessing lantern riddles, often messages of love.
Yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) or Tangyuan is the special food for the Lantern Festival. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty. Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing. And the festival is named after the famous dumpling. Yuanxiao is sticky, sweet and round in shape, symbolizing family unity, completeness and happiness.
You can find Yuanxiao in oriental food stores. If you enjoy cooking, here is a recipe of Yuanxiao for you.
Ingredients 4 1/2 cups (500 g) sticky rice flour butter 7 oz (200 g) black sesame powder 7 oz (200 g) sugar 8 oz (250 g) 1 tsp wine
Methods 1. Mix the butter with sesame powder, sugar and wine together. You need to heat a little bit. Make small balls about 0.3-0.4 oz (10 g) each. 2. Take 1/2 cup of sticky rice flour. Add water into the flour and make a flatten dough. Cook it in boiled water and take out until done. Let it cool down. Then put it in the rest of the sticky rice flour. Add water and knead until the dough is smooth. 3. Make the dough into small pieces about 0.3-0.4 oz (10 g) each. Make it like a ball using hands first and then make a hole in the ball like a snail. Put the sesame ball into it and close it up. 4. Cook them in boiled water. Make sure to keep stirring in one direction while cooking. When they float on the water, continue to boil for about one minute using less heat.
Why should you care as a gay person? Why should you watch? Here’s the deal. (Some generalizations will follow. And some X-rated suggestions. Mom, please, don’t read number 6. And yes, I’m skipping Madonna entirely in this equation, to truly make a valid case.)
15. Because gays like sports.
Many gay males enjoy pop divas, theater, watching Toddlers & Tiaras, home decorating, and anal sex. And very, very many gay males also enjoy playing sports, watching sports, talking trash about sports, obsessing about players’ stats, and cheering uproariously for their favorite teams.
Simply put, the old saw that homos aren’t into jock-related things (jock-straps aside) is dated and bogus. And I’m not even talking about lesbians, which is an entirely different article or thesis project on sports history, gender roles, and sexual identity.
14. Because the two quarterbacks are worth watching.
Tom Brady is very, very handsome. Remember all those pics from VMan a few years back? And Eli Manning, though not as Bruce-Weber-ly handsome as Brady, possesses his own dorky cuteness. (They tried to dress him up for Men’s Vogue a few years back. An adorable effort.)
Let’s put it like this. You’re 14 years old and in high school. Brady’s the Big Man on Campus who is your older sister’s boyfriend, whom you follow around like a pup. He’ll be nice of you in front of your sister but never give you the time of day otherwise. Eli, on the other hand, is the approachable jock down the street who’d actually give you a ride home from school, even though you’re in 9th grade and he’s a senior (and All-State!), just because he’s nice (and honestly, not that cool). How can you not love them both?
(At the risk of digressing completely, what is with all of the hot QBs these days? Mark Sanchez. Alex Smith. And can you just imagine how good the searingly studly Aaron Rodgers must smell?)
Also, Brady and Manning are both at the top of their game and completely unpredictable, which makes for a good match, yes?
13. Because a supermodel is pleading for your help.
Brady’s wife, Brazilian supermodel/gazillionaire Gisele Bundchen sent out a mass email asking friends/family/fans to send prayers and good vibes to the powers that be so that her hubby can win the big game. Like, really!
I don’t know about you, but I listen to my supermodels. They know best. And if you disobey, you might get clocked in the head with a pointy cell phone. (JK, Naomi!)
12. Because you’re a snarky media whore (social and otherwise).
Gays love to be all slick and on top of every media moment. The Oscars. Fashion Week. Presidential Inaugural Balls. New Britney demos being leaked. And while we gush about those sorts of things, the Super Bowl really is the big, honking grandmama of all media events, people. Nothing else comes close to taking over all the news, coverage, cultural conversation, ad dollars… Face it, the Oscars are a forlorn, gay stepchild when it comes to the sheer onslaught of 360-degree-medianess of the Super Bowl.
Thusly, your Facebook and Twitter will be exploding. Own it. Instagram pics of mounds of chicken wings. Unleash your wit and gift for pervy sass as the big match rolls on, blinding others with your gift for double entendre and sharp, punny comments.
11. Because you’re an advertiser’s wet dream.
I’m not ashamed to admit I’m excited to see the commericials. Even though I’ve already watched many of the biggies online (part of that aforementioned social media Super Bowl juggernaut), including the return of Ferris Bueller for Honda.
But to add extra gay excitement, we get David Beckham in his undies, adorable John Stamos getting owned by some chick over a bit of yogurt, Sir Elton John in a furry robe and crown, and… doggies and Star Wars!
Also, I must admit, I loooooove the stupid, gratuitous T&A that the GoDaddy ads deliver each year. (I also grew up loving the buxom, hayseed ladies of Hee-Haw and laughing madly to Benny Hill’s antics. What can I say? I like cheese!)
And if you really want to get into a social-media/advertising K-hole, you can point your iPhone at the TV during a number of the ads, use your Shazam app, and you’ll get coupons for free stuff or entered to win cars! Gaaaah! Consume like you’ve never consumed before!
10. Because you like musical TV fare.
The Super Bowl is on NBC this year, so it will be followed by a very special episode of The Voice. (Gay-friendly hottie Adam Levine! Diva/mess extraodinaire Xtina!). And you can be assured that throughout that, NBC will also be promoting the hell out of its new TV series Smash, featuring Grace (Deborah Messing), Anjelica Huston, Broadway musicals, and Marilyn Monroe. Expect random gayish promo-splosions amid the first downs and car ads.
9. Because the Super Bowl is gay-supportive.
Both teams this year hail from states where gay marriage is legal. And according to the gay sports experts at OutSports.com, the N.Y. Giants have sent representatives to queer sporting events (like the “Gay Super Bowl”), and Giants’ owner Steve Tisch released a video supporting gay marriage, as has former Giants superstar Michael Strahan. The owner of the Patriots has spoken at LGBT business and networking events, and players from each team have supported the NOH8 campaigns. Woo-hoo! Go gays!
Also, in a very cool move, fans in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium will see a PSA created by GLSEN that features NBA stars Jared Dudley and Grant Hill and targets anti-LGBT language among teens. The PSA will be shown to the 70,000 fans attending the Super Bowl and to the 80,000 watching from the tailgating mania surround the place. Rah, rah, gay!
8. Because you like food.
Over a billion chicken wings will be consumed in the U.S. this Sunday. Which is terrifying (if still kind of tasty). But chances are, you’ll also have a chance to hang with friends with decent palates and food-prep skills, so you’ll be noshing on really good versions of BBQ, chili, hoagies, and sweets and chips and dips for days. And if you follow food mags like Food & Wine or Bon Appetit or sites like Epicurious.com, they’ve been exploding for weeks with a million ideas of great party eats.
Indulge your inner Ina Garten (or Martha or Paula or Giada or whichever culinary idol melts your butter) and turn your kitchen out!
7. Because you like food and you’re twisted.
Ummm… This is somewhat scary, but the freaky and possibly bearishly hot guys behind Epic Meal Time have schemed up this jaw-dropping video about making a disgusting creation called a “Big Dirty Manningwich,” which gets topped with “Brady Gravy.”
Watch, use your filthy mind, and recognize that this video (and its participants) are not very far off from some version of amateur gay bear porn. You could almost just loop the existing soundtrack over another sort of video and you’re good to go. (Did I mention “Brady Gravy?”)
6. And speaking of being twisted…
(Skip this part, Mom.) Maybe you have no interest in football, splashy commercials, chicken wings, gay-supportive sports franchises, or pop divas. You are just a proudly shameless, filthy sex fiend. Go to Craigslist.org for your city. You’ll already see M4M ads looking for willing partners for all flavors of Super-Bowl-themed action. Maybe you just wanna “help out” a party of straight guys as they watch the big game? Maybe you’re a hungry human end zone ready to be violated by an opposing team? Maybe you just like to watch people who like to watch a big game? Maybe you just wanna dress as a maid and… you get the idea.
Also, Grindr and ManHunt will likely be blowing up during this whole thing. Folks drinking early on a Sunday evening. It’s gonna get trashy.
Listen: This. Is. Your. Moment. Sex it up. Go team!
Speed Round!
5. Because there will be puppies.
4. Because there will also be a kitty-cat half time show.
3. OK, how about a puppy and Jimmy Fallon?
2. Because Chaz Bono is into it!
And…
1. Because you love America.
Right?
1.1. Because… Madonna!
Oh, how could I not? Honestly, I’m very excited about the Giants/Patriots match-up. But come on! How can any person with a pulse not be a little curious about what Madonna — arguably, the biggest living pop icon — is going to do at half time? We already pretty much know about the songs (the new one, as well as most likely “Vogue,” “Music,” “Ray of Light,” and possibly “Holiday”) and the guest stars (M.I.A., Nicki Minaj, Cee Lo Green, LMFAO?).
Will she crash and burn? Will it be awesome? At the very least it’ll be dishy, spectacular, overblown, and dish-worthy! (I’m still grinning from the half time show three years ago when Bruce Springsteen [whom I love] slid crotch-first into an onstage camera, putting the entire planets’ collective eyes out with his man-groin.
Still, I can’t help but root for old Madge to pull something off brilliantly. She’s due. And though seeing her pointy mug splayed up live on a 72-inch, HD, plasma screen might be jarring, I’m ready for it.
And, yes… while I’m at it, I am ready for some football.
Now, please pass me some of that “Brady Gravy.”
Truthfully, I personally am not very excited about this Super Bowl. I only get excited if the Saints are playing, so I have only been excited once, LOL. However, I will bow to the social pressure and watch the game, really only for the commercials. After you’ve watched the Super Bowl, what was your favorite commercial this year?
I will be pulling for the Giants because I have a former student in their starting line-up.
He Xiao is a 25-year-old gay man working in hotel management in Shenzhen. He is comfortable and confident about his sexuality, even coming out to his colleagues on his first day of work.
Coming from a small town, however, he had a difficult time growing up with his lifestyle.
“My hometown is quite a small town, we didn’t have any information about what homosexuality is,” He says. “I did know that I liked my head teacher very much, but I wasn’t sure what I was. It was a very scary and confusing time. I didn’t know what I might be. I thought I might be the only one like that, I thought I might be sick or there was something wrong with me.”
At the time, with no computer and no knowledge of how to use the internet, he tried to avoid thinking about his problems.
In 2003, he went to Tianjin for university. The first classmate he met was a lesbian from Beijing who came out to him two months after school started. He confessed to her that he thought he might be gay as well. She introduced him to lesbian and gay resources. Within three months, He had come out to his classmates, friends and two brothers.
“For me, it was very easy to accept being gay,” He says. “It was very fresh air for me, as I was really longing for that information.”
While some of his friends viewed homosexuality as a curable psychology problem, on the whole, He says young people are more open to homosexuality.
“I came out to my brothers separately, but their reaction was very calm. Both asked me exactly the same question: ‘Are you happy?’ They said as long as I’m happy they’re happy for me.”
However, He is afraid of coming out to his parents, saying it is difficult since he comes from a small town, his parents don’t even know what homosexuality is. Every time he visits his hometown, his relatives ask if he has a girlfriend and urge him to get married.
But He is optimistic that his parents would accept it, especially having seen positive coming-out stories among his friends. His lesbian classmate who he first met is now living with her girlfriend and her parents in her parents’ house.
“I asked her parents once why they are so cool with her having a girlfriend and living together with them,” He says. “Her mom answered very simply, saying ‘She’s my daughter, I love her, I want her to be happy.’ They’re from Beijing, so they have a much better understanding of what homosexuality is.”
He hopes his parents will be as understanding. “I cannot imagine how my parents will react, but I’m sure they’ll want me to get married and have kids because they’re very traditional parents,” he says. “ But they’re very kind and understanding people, so if I explain it to them correctly, tell them I’m happy and have a good life, they’ll understand eventually since they love me.”
They look so hip with their Chinese tattoos. I’ve heard of several stories of people getting Chinese characters tattooed on their bodies, and they were told that it meant one thing, but actually meant something altogether different. I wonder what these tattoos say?
Joe
The Closet Professor 