- July 2023
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Image: FacebookKevin Maxen, a strength coach with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, has come out as gay, making him apparently the first out male coach in major American men's professional sports.
It's a big deal that Maxen now takes his place in the slow but steady march of American men out of the athletics closet. Or locker.
But I admit being particularly pleased that he's with a football team based in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has been having his anti-LGBTQ way. All those Jaguar-loving men and boys in the Sunshine State have to come to grips with a homosexual being at the epicenter of that hyper-masculine world. I can hear minds boggling from here.
Maxen has thrown DeSantis for a loss, and in the best way possible, simply by being himself.
He seems well-suited to the task. "As a Black Jew who has dated both men and women, who has been a strength coach at the highest level of professional football, I’ve learned that how I look, what I believe in, and especially who I am physically or emotionally attracted to should not impact the way I or other people view my worth," Maxen told Outsports.
The owner of the Jaguars released a statement emphatically supportive of Maxen. What will DeSantis say? Perhaps, "Florida's school teachers may not talk about Maxen. Or strength. Or the Jaguars. Or football. Or Blacks. Or Jews. Or Florida."
- April 2023
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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay It wasn't a secret that I was gay. I'd come out to my parents during my junior year of high school, on the day that I also wrecked the family car.
Mary Cheney
Source: Brainyquote
- February 2023
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- October 2022
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On this National Coming Out Day, I'm . . . coming out.
Oh, you General Gayety readers know perfectly well I'm a lesbian. Coming out to you on that score would be redundant.
I'm copping to being a person with mental illness. And I decided to tell the entire planet. I've just released a humorous memoir called "Fun With Fred: Life With OCD and Hoarding." It's available, of course, on Amazon. If you like what you read here, you might well get a kick out of the book.
This is it for my confessions. I promise that on Oct. 11 of next year, I won't have a blessed word to say.
- August 2022
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- June 2022
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Image by Steve Johnson at PexelsI realize that just living my truth of what I am, there’s one less person to fight me in my own head.
Raven-Symoné
Source: Woman's Day
- May 2022
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- December 2021
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- November 2021
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Image: WikipediaA friend of mine here in Seattle flew to Colorado with her husband and daughters to spend Thanksgiving with her husband's family. Her college-aged daughter, "Emily," is out as bisexual to only the immediate family.
And that's still true, despite the hints she dropped over the holiday to extended family.
Emily thought her septum ring, considered part of bisexual culture, might give her away.
It didn't.
When the family members baked cookies, Emily frosted hers into rainbows. Then she decorated a cookie with the colors of the bi flag.
Nothing.
As far as she knows, anyway. It could be the moment Emily left Colorado, the cousins erupted in a fervor of speculation.
While these hints may seem feeble to some, to me they signal exactly where Emily is in her journey. She only recently came out to her parents. While she likes the idea of being out to the larger family, it's still too scary to say it, so part of her hoped the nose bling and fluorescent icing would do the talking for her.
If at the next family gathering Emily still isn't up to speaking her truth, there's always a less subtle hint she can offer: a girlfriend.
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Image by Gabriel Vera from Pixabay Yesterday at the 2021 Country Music Association Awards, when the Brothers Osborne won vocal duo of the year, TJ Osborne, who came out in February, kissed his boyfriend.
If this were back in the day, I'm pretty sure Osborne would be banned from "Hee Haw."
- October 2021
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- September 2021
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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay In her new memoir, Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, reveals she's been in a relationship with a woman for almost 20 years.
The time it'll take for Pat Robertson to draw a direct line between homosexuality and all things satanic, ghoulish and spooky? About the time it takes to devour a Reese's peanut butter pumpkin.
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Last week minor-leaguer Bryan Ruby became the only active professional baseball player to come out. In July Nashville Predators prospect Luke Prokop announced he's gay, making the 19-year-old the first NHL player, active or retired, to come out. In June Carl Nassib of the Las Vegas Raiders became the first active NFL player to come out.
What on earth are they putting in Gatorade these days?
- August 2021
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Image by Please Don't sell My Artwork AS IS from Pixabay Brody Neville was facing a bleak 12th birthday.
When the Canadian youngster came out as gay several months ago, his friends dumped him. So his mom did what modern parents do: She put out a call on Facebook.
Neville arrived at a Calgary park on Saturday, and saw what he assumed was an unusually large crowd waiting for the ice cream truck. But the dozens of people weren't there to celebrate overpriced ice on a stick. They were there to celebrate him.
Family, friends and strangers gave him presents. Drag queens performed. A fire engine stopped by—probably to the relief of the drag queen who'd performed a monstrous split.
"Thank you everybody for this," Neville told the crowd. "This is the best day of my life!"
I'm not crying, you're cry . . . oh the hell with it, I'm crying.
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