Tess Sharpe

My crush on Jack Black (and of course, the ever fabulous Margaret Cho and Neil Patrick Harris) just got way bigger:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones

No shrimp cocktails! :P

Everyone needs to listen to this: http://www.victoryfund.org/files/listening.html

Shame on Sally Kern. She is a psychotic homophobic woman who has no idea what she's TALKING about. Who is so deeply entrenched in her hate that it's astonishing and frightening and pretty depressing.

The phrases homosexual agenda and gay lifestyle get thrown around a lot by homophobic people, especially anti-gay politicians. They like to make people think that every gay man and woman are drug users, partiers, promiscuous, out to convert children to their evil gay ways.

This pisses me off. Makes me even more determined to finish Bashed and get it out there.

I am a woman who is proud to have gay, lesbian and bisexual friends. I am proud and incredibly grateful to count three of the best men (gay or straight) I know as part of my family.

I leave you with this, which is something I wrote awhile ago for Bashed. Peter's response to a homophobic student at school who tells him that God wants him to change because the gay lifestyle is wrong:

“There is no gay lifestyle!” Peter is yelling and he doesn’t care if people are beginning to stare. “You can’t pigeonhole people like that. We’re human. We live and we hurt and good and bad things happen to us and we get scared and we go to school and work. And we have to deal with assholes like you who tell us how we feel is wrong and sick. If there’s one thing all of us queers have in common, it’s having to worry about coming across assholes like you who threaten us and beat us up and try to kill us because of who we sleep with. Do you understand how ridiculous that is? How it is none of your business? It doesn’t matter if I’m gay or straight, it matters if I’m a good person. And you know what?” he gets out of his wheelchair and looms over Ryan. “I might not be perfect, but I’m a helluva lot better than you, because I don’t hate people just because they don’t fit into some cookie cutter mold that some book describes.”

That's what I have to say.

What about you?

Please go to http://www.victoryfund.org/files/listening.html and add your name.

Tess Sharpe

Everyone totally needs to see this video: http://brentsbrain.livejournal.com/53196.html

I love Brent Hartinger's books, mostly because he portrays gay teens realistically and that always makes me happy.

But I LOVE his blog with himself and his Partner, who edits afterelton.com (one of my favorite sites ever, because, as everyone who has read this blog has come to realize, I love me some gay boys kissing). What's great about the video blog is that they're always funny and unique and relevant.

Anyway, boys and kissing. I loved this particular blog mostly because this is something that recently came up before I left school. When we audition, we fill out forms. And sometimes on those forms you have to check certain things or answer questions. Auditions earlier last quarter asked all the actors if they were comfortable with partial nudity and same sex kissing.

It just kind of baffled me that someone would actually put "No" to the same sex kissing thing. I kind of got the nudity thing but kissing? I've kissed several guys on stage that I normally NEVER would kiss on a normal day. I seriously don't see the difference, but I know several guys who were like "no way" because they were having this big freak out about "What if someone thought I was actually gay, OMG HOW HORRIBLE" ::rolls eyes::

When I went to see the play, it was wonderful. There were some very sweet kisses between the two male characters and during intermission someone talking about one of the actors, how shocked they were that he had, you know, kissed with tongues and stuff, because his girlfriend was directing it, and what kind of girl would want to see her boyfriend kissing another man?

I'm the girl who had simulated sex onstage when I was 15 (yes, I know, but my mother came to every rehearsal and every performance and I was fully clothed during the entire scene), so I guess same sex kissing is a little lower on my inhibition scale. But seriously, everyone kisses.

Sometimes I feel like people treat gay characters--especially gay teens--with kid gloves, because they don't want to push too far, offend anyone.

Here's the thing: when you write about homosexuality, especially homosexual teenagers, you are always going to offend someone, because there are plenty of people out there who are ignorant and hate-filled enough to truly believe that a relationship between two men or two women is an evil, evil thing.

Because of that, I think that our gay teens deserve to be able to read about characters who are in relationships, who are affectionate, who express their feelings for one another through kissing and touching and yes, sex (though I personally would prefer it to be safe sex). There's no need to hide it, to fade away before the lips meet, it's nothing to be ashamed of. These kids get enough crap in every day life, with the word "gay" having entered the vernacular as the new definition of lame and bad, where "fag" is used as an insult like the n-word was used 70 years ago, where kids are killed and bashed and damaged because of who they like.

Sometimes when I look at the world, I really dislike it. So I figure I have to do my part to make boy on boy kissing something that isn't shameful, but natural. Trust me, y'all, it'll make the world a better place to live in.


The ultimate fan of boy and boy kissing,
Tess Sharpe

Go Iowa, you rock.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NEWS/70830044/1001&lead=1