The San Francisco Giants told SF Weekly today that the team will make an iconic “It Gets Better” video to encourage LGBT youth across the nation. The Giants will be the first professional sports team to join the spirited campaign aimed at curbing LGBT bullying and teen suicides.
According to Staci Slaughter, spokeswoman for the Giants, the team was already considering creating a video even before the change.org petition circulated last week, which requested that the Giants be the first sports team to join the campaign. More than 6,500 people have signed the petition. The It Gets Better Project started in 2010 after a slew of LGBT suicides across the nation. Since then, thousands of ordinary people, celebrities, and politicians have made videos.
I’m already a baseball fan, and the Giants just went way up in my book. When the current World Series champions are gearing up to loudly tell LGBT kids that It Gets Better, I’d say things have changed, people. Things have changed.
The Chicago Gay Hockey Association invited the Blackhawks to join Sunday’s Gay Pride Parade — and the team said yes. So did the Chicago Cubs, who will have their own float for the first time.
Blackhawks defenseman Brent Sopel and his wife, Kelly, will accompany the Cup on a float. Sopel, traded to Atlanta this week, is a father of three and said he’s not trying to make a statement.
“But everybody is a person, and we all have feelings,” he said.
That’s pretty cool. See, wingnuts? That’s how actual straight men who are actually comfortable with their actual sexuality act.
*Oh, secret message to Chicago pride-goers: If you see Peter, make out with the nearest acceptable person of the same gender lovingly and enthusiastically, right in front of him. He likes that.
Focus on the Family today mourned the NCAA’s cancellation of a Focus ad which implicitly shamed the parents of gay Americans.
The ad, which had been shown on the basketball tournament web site, insinuated that politically incorrect families — non-evangelicals, pro-choice families, and families of gay people — can’t “Celebrate Family” and “Celebrate Life” like everyone else.
The ad’s tagline further insinuated that fathers whose sons are not “right” for any reason are doomed to a life of disappointment — and that someone or something sinister should be blamed.
Focus failed to explain to its readers the many reasons why the NCAA found its ad offensive.