7 Comments on “(ww60) In the Meantime”

1. #1 Alden
   on Nov 26th, 2006 at 3:01 pm

   I was wondering when your crash would settle in. Regardless, it’s good to hear your voice and see your face again, sir.

2. #2 Lee-Sean
   on Nov 26th, 2006 at 7:42 pm

   Nice to hear from you again. I absolutely agree with everything you said in this episode. Keep up the good work.

3. #3 Joshua-Myles
   on Nov 28th, 2006 at 12:09 pm

   I am wondering if there is open dialog between the GLTB Black and Latino communities with their straight conterparts. When the stigma of being on the “down low” can be lifted and removed from their own communities, then possibly that will have a trickle down effect to the GLTB community. Ultimately, Here and LOGO are looking for advertising dollars, and maybe they should make an agressive push to find more minority programming to land advertisers that are progressive and empowering to the GLTB Black/Latino communities.

4. #4 fanblade
   on Nov 29th, 2006 at 3:37 pm

   Great vlog like usual but it seems like as time passes the production quality has risen! You are certainly putting a lot of time and effort into making these inspiring videos and I thank you.

5. #5 Kevin Ballieq
   on Nov 30th, 2006 at 12:34 pm

   In response to Joshua,

   The problem is not a lack of communication between the minority GLBT community and minority communities in general. Yes it could be better, but you’re taking a problem in our community and claiming that the question at hand in the vlog cannot be confronted until the “down-low” is faced. There’s no “trickle down” effect, but ask most minorities how they feel about representation, especially after Post-Katrina, and you will hear two things. You will hear a sense of loss of faith with other people who can help us, straight, gay, bi, trans, white, American whatever. We generally have lost most hope in government intervention. The second thing you will hear however is a renewal of self-worth and anger.
   Anger is not always bad, and this anger that we feel is the same anger that every movement feels before it enters into a renewal civil rights struggle (example, Stonewall). Katrina was that anger boiling up to a tipping point.
   The “down-low” is hardly unique to black and latino communities, but those communities are constantly put down for it being a problem that they absolutely have to deal with. Accurate representation in the media is directly linked to forging an easier path for people to come out. It wasn’t always so easy for whites (again “white” is such a broad and over-encompassing term) to come out.

   Now in a seperate note, Brad I’ve followed your blogs for such a long time. I haven’t commented in so long, and I’ve missed this so much. I’ve wondered how you’ve been doing. It’s been almost two years now since I found out about Willing Warrior. I’m SO happy to see you back. I don’t care if you post once a week or once a month, just keep on doing it.

6. #6 Jason
   on Dec 8th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

   Nice job with the video. I sometimes have a hard time with the “feeling proud” to be gay. I often wonder if the straight folk feel proud to be “straight”. Then I realize that it’s not really about being “proud” so much as not ashamed. The sad part is that so many gay people feel ashamed to be gay. I know I go through my periods. A little Heather Small “Proud” and that can get fixed. I do worry that with the mainstreaming of the all of us, that we lose our identity, and people just “pass” they aren’t out, but they aren’t in the closet either. They’re just ashamed enough, or concerned enough, that it’s not worth being “out”. How many straight people worry about putting a photo of their Boyfriend or Girlfriend on their desk at work? If we’re kept ashamed, we’ll never get through it. Being proud is the only way through. We’ll get there, but it will take alot of pride to do it.

   Thanks, great job…
   -Jason

7. #7 Karlan
   on Jan 28th, 2007 at 11:02 am

   Hi Brad,

   I just got my first ipod (yay) and found your video blog. My experience in looking through blogs is that many of them are of people just needing to talk, but not really having very much to say. Congrats on having alot to say! …and on saying things that are on alot of our minds.

   I totally agree about Dante’s Cove. I’ve only seen promos for the thing, but I think subliminally I just tuned it out from the get because of a lack of imagination, shown in part by a lack of variety and color in the characters. It is astounding that in our time a TV network would even think of making a show with all white characters, except for a smathering of racist stereotype thugs and outcasts. I hope GLAAD takes them to task. However, I lost alot of faith in GLAAD years back when they decided to go after Eminem and what they found to be his homophobic lyrics, but I guess that’s another topic.

   What I really wanted to question you about was the whole gay marriage thing. I think we (the gays) are partially responsible for the current state of animous regarding gay activism and fear of gay marriage taking over the world (which, of course, is a ridiculous idea). Why do gay people feel this strong need to participate in the same ceremony that we have had to work so hard to rebel against. We can’t force other people to change their minds and all of the sudden think “Oh yeah, gay people are just like straight people, except they like the same sex.” I know it really is that simple, but those who don’t agree REALLY don’t agree. Why do we need it to be called “marriage.” Does that mean we’ve won? Are we all of the sudden legitimate then? Does our participation in what is largely a religious construct because of a biological imperative make us somehow whole???

   I believe that gay men and women should have the same rights as their straight counter parts. We should fight for justice and fairness, not for a word or participation in normal society. Normal society stinks as far as I’m concerned, and one of the best parts about being gay is that I have learned to think about things rather than just accept the status quo. I don’t desire to all of the sudden become part of the status quo.

   There is no great truth here. God didn’t make gays exactly the same as he made straights, and marriage isn’t the same between two men, a man and a woman, or two women. The idea of a life long partner in the gay community is a relatively new one, and many of us (myself included) don’t really know how we feel about it. I love to see my gay friends that have life partners, and I want them to be protected and have rights, but I don’t think that calling them a “married couple” even feels right. “Gay life partners” is much more appealling to me.

   I really am not hoping to set off a controversy, but this idea has been on my mind for the last so many years as the gay marriage debate has been raging.

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