Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Aren't you GLAAD I'm miserable?

I have been very mopey and weepy lately, and on Monday, my misery culminated into a disastrous PMS hibernation day. The thing that really brought out the sad bastard in me was the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards that were airing on Bravo.

GLAAD is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a wonderful organization whose mission is to promote and ensure fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Whew. Mission statements suck. I deal with them daily, and they are still something I cannot totally wrap my brain around.

Anyway, I started watching the show, and it was more touching and empowering than any movie I've seen in the past four years (except for Shortbus... God, I'm so gay). Apparently Barbara Walters attended one of the first of these events 16 years ago, and at the time they were thrilled to have 200 people attending. She spoke about this during her acceptance speech after winning, in a tie, for “My Secret Self: A Story of Transgender Children.” The little boy-girl on the clip got my eyes wet and then so did Baba's speech.

And let me think, who else made me cry. I would have to say, EVERYONE. I seriously couldn't stop the weepies. Of course there were funny people too, I mean, Graham Norton was on, and he's pretty much the funniest gay Brit ever. And I don't know if you've ever seen the "teen" show Degrassi: The Next Generation, but it's awesome. I think it airs sometime during my hangovers. There are all these lesbos and STDs and stuff. I remember one episode where this girl who looks like she's 12 gives a BJ to this lame guy with a girlfriend and then both girls get the clap. I didn't know about the teen lessies till one appeared at the GLAAD awards, but obviously it is helpful for teens-- those STDs will scare 'em off of sex and the acceptance of same-sex relationships can make them experiment early. Get it over with before college.
All in all, I'm glad for GLAAD! (You knew that was coming, don't hate.)

2 comments:

Emily Sue said...

I miss cable and Degrassi TNG...Those were the days.
Shortbus was a good time, I'll always remember seeing it. The audience was very connected, which sounds cheesy, but we were all sharing the moment. Good times.

EAT said...

Exactly! I also felt like it was some sort of church-like, communal experience watching Shortbus. Just being in NY and watching ourselves carried over the City and then into people's lives that didn't look like ours, but felt like all lonely like ours. Thanks for watching it with me and making my NY experience bearable. I miss you!