Matthew Mitcham

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It’s not easy being gay anywhere. In sports competition it’s harder than most places. At the Olympics, it’s gotta be tougher than nails.
That is, to be an “out’’ gay or lesbian.
According to various reports, which are necessarily without a certain level of fact-checking, there are 21 openly gay athletes out of more than 14,000 athletes competing in the London Games. Or 23. That’s according to gay columnist Ivan Massow, who writes for the London Evening Standard.
Massow makes a point of noting that the actual number is certainly far, far higher, that it’s incedible that only four of the fewer than two dozen “out” athletes are men.
“Many of my gay friends have been keen gymnasts and the more I looked into it, the less likely it seemed that a mere 0.16 percent of Olympic athletes are gay,’’ Massow wrote. “Could it even be higher than the statistical average of six to eight percent?’’
Who knows? Because it’s not pleasant for a jock to come out. Say what we will about tolerance, it’s a different matter when the person who makes the confession, who gets the tweets, the slurs, the stares, the demotion, is actually moving through the real world. Gay Belgian archer Ivan Denis told Massow: “There are so many other people who are gay, but they’re way too afraid to come out.’’
A few proud outies: Australian diver and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Matthew Mitcham, American soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Dutch field hockey player Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, American doubles tennis player Lisa Raymond, Australian beach volleyball player Natalie Cook and South African archer Karen Hultzer.
Hultzer, 46, is open and amusing. As she told “OutSports’’ in a recent interview: “I am an archer, middle aged and a lesbian. I am also cranky before my first cup of coffee. None of these aspects define who I am, they are simply part of me…. I look forward to the day when this is a non-issue and as relevant as my eye color or favorite sushi.’’
An out male star in a team sport in the Olympics—that will be an issue to see. And it will be a brave man who first ascends the step.
from The Chicago Sun-Times

Sean Newboy had difficulties defeating a foe in World of Warcraft, “[s]o I put out a call in general chat for some help and this male character joined me.” Soon they started talking, and the man soon asked Newboy if he had a girlfriend. Newboy told him that he actually had a boyfriend.
“Chat goes silent…. Then it got surreal.” Suddenly, the previously friendly man had turned hostile. “He then started running away in the game and saying in area chat, ‘Stay away from me, fag!’”
Newboy is only one of many homosexual gamers to have suffered from discrimination, both online and IRL. But soon he’ll have people he can share war(craft) stories with in meatspace.
It took a mere four days, but GaymerCon, by way of Kickstarter, earned its $25,000 (and counting) in funding, thanks to donors who want to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transexual/queer subculture earn a convention achievement. On August 3-4, 2013, gaymers who think that Princess Peach would be better off with Zelda, or that male Shephard should romance Kaiden Alenko, will be meeting in San Francisco to educate and inspire a game-playing audience who happen to be GLBTQ.
According to their website, “GaymerCon is important because gaming is a HUGE industry, one that is larger than movies or TV at over $11B per year spent, and yet, for example, there has never been a major release of a game that has had a gay or lesbian main protagonist, and games that have tried to provide even simple options (like Mass Effect 3) have been met with heavy protest. We believe…the gamer culture, overall and as a whole, is still very focused on the middle class, young white male demographic which seems to dominate all marketing and product decisions. We want to break through some of those walls, and show the true spectrum of gamers that exist.”
Voice actors Ellen McLain (the voice of GLaDOS in Portal) and John Lowry (the voice of the sniper in Team Fortress 2) have given their vocal and visual support on YouTube. “Killing you and giving you good advice aren’t mutually exclusive,” quipped McLain.
But not everyone is as enlightened as they are, and there ample hostile comments on YouTube. For example, Outfishing92 wrote in the comments of Lowry’s clip,
I’m glad people online aren’t tolerant of gay gamers. You DESERVE to be ostracized if you feel the need to tell people your SEXUAL PREFERENCE while playing VIDEO GAMES.
It’s just as bad as being a GAYMER GURRL.
– Outfishin92
Which pretty much proves Gaymercon creator and creative director Matt Conn’s point: “We want to provide a safe space for people.” And when he says “people,” he means “Gay, Black, Latino, Lesbian, Asian…Lawyers.” (Egads, lawyers. Now I know Gaymercon is serious about  community building.)
Conn said he was inspired to create Gaymercon when he discovered the Gaymer Subreddit. “[Gaymers] hide their geekiness when they’re around other gay people, and they hide their gayness around other geeky people…. Because of Reddit I was able to find 14,000 [gaymers] and growing, and for the first time, I can be myself and come as I am. I almost felt that I had come out again.”
Conn also believes, “It’s really important to show the gaming community how much of a large segment there is. People don’t realize how many non-traditional gamers there are, because they don’t make themselves as loud as other people in the community. It’s important that these game companies and communities realize that there is a diversity, and with that will come more diverse characters and game selections. We’re beginning to see that with options in Mass Effect, but it’s still just the beginning.”
However, not everyone feels the same way.
As Xalts, a commenter on Reddit, said, “Making safe places for minorities is fine. Doing so by specification is separating them further from the majority.”
However, Conn refutes this. “That’s not the case. We want to add our voice to the mainstream gaming world. But there has to be a place where you can attend with your boyfriend, or your transgendered girlfriend, or just be a girl and not be harassed.”
The venue hasn’t been chosen yet, and the only way to purchase an advanced ticket is through Kickstarter, by donating $30 to the cause. The more people who contribute, the better the venue and the more exciting the Guest of Honor.
from Forbes

Parents are urged to teach their kids to speak up if they witness school bullying in new ads that target an issue that top Obama administration officials vow to make a national priority.
A long-term campaign featuring television, print and web ads was unveiled Monday and will start running in October. The campaign is a joint effort by the Ad Council, a nonprofit that distributes public service announcements, and the Free to Be Foundation, a group that includes entertainers Marlo Thomas, Alan Alda and Mel Brooks.
In one television ad, two girls are seen bullying a schoolmate, mocking her appearance and telling her that nobody likes her. A fourth girl looks on but doesn’t intervene.
“Every day, kids witness bullying,” says a narrator. “They want to help, but don’t know how. Teach your kids how to be more than a bystander.”
Online and print ads will warn parents that their kids regularly encounter negative messages such as “you’re worthless” and “everybody hates you.”
The ads were unveiled Monday at an annual anti-bullying summit hosted by the Department of Education in Washington, where lawmakers, educators and government officials convened to develop a national strategy aimed at ensuring a safe, healthy learning environment for students. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed the summit Monday, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will deliver a keynote speech on Tuesday.
Once considered an unpleasant but inescapable part of adolescence, bullying has been thrust into the national conversation by a string of high-profile suicides by students who were later revealed to have been bullied.
Of particular concern to education advocates is bullying directed against students perceived to be gay or lesbian – such as Tyler Clementi, the 18-year-old who killed himself in 2010 after allegedly being bullied online by his college roommate, who was convicted of invasion of privacy and other charges for using a webcam to film Clementi and another man kissing.
Sebelius told the summit that suicides by teenagers and children had served as a national wake-up call.
“Bullying is not just a harmless rite of passage, or an inevitable part of growing up,” Sebelius said. “It’s a systematic situation that threatens the health and well-being of our young people. It’s destructive to our communities and devastating to our future.”
Sebelius said school districts and states are aggressively working to quell school bullying, noting that 36 state anti-bullying laws were enacted in 2009 and 2010. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added bullying to its regular survey of risk behavior in schools.
She added that cyberbullying has become a top concern as students increasingly communicate through social media, text messages and the Internet.
“We are all responsible for our children’s safety,” Sebelius said. “And no one can afford to be a bystander.”
from The Associated Press
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The campaign committee for Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot measure banning gay marriage in California, faces $49,000 in fines for failing to properly report and handle political contributions it received.
The fines are proposed by the enforcement staff of the state Fair Political Practices Commission against the campaign committee ProtectMarriage.com—Yes on 8 for failing to properly file public reports disclosing late contributions and contributions over $5,000, as well as failing to properly dispose of an anonymous $10,000 contribution. More than $1 million in contributions were not properly reported.
In all, the campaign committee faces 18 counts of violating state campaign finance laws.
The campaign committee has admitted to the violations and agreed to the fines, but the FPPC will consider its staff recommendation at an Aug. 16 meeting.
Proposition 8, which limited marriage to a man and a woman, was approved by California voters but struck down by a federal appeals court. Andy Pugno, an attorney who has represented the campaign committee, was not immediately available for comment.
from The Los Angeles Times