LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
"How Does It Feel?" Asks Rolling Stone |
The August 6 issue of Rolling Stone features a 14-page special report, "To Be Young and Gay," in which author David Lipsky uses stories from across the country to create a broad and compelling portrait of lesbian, gay and transgender youth. The piece is referenced in an inset box on the cover. Even on the contents page, Rolling Stone manages to set this article apart by inserting a half-column commentary by Managing Editor Robert Love. Love writes: "To Be Young and Gay is the result of Lipskys six reporting tripsmore than 10,000 miles of travelduring which he was threatened by the police, gay organizers and by one boys very irate father." He continues to quote Lipsky himself, who says "I decided I had to keep going back because I wanted to get a sense of the extremes that these kids find themselves in. Some had left school, others had been asked to leave their homes. I found their bravery inspiring."
Lipsky begins the piece light-heartedly, describing a fifteen-year old who came out in front of a national audience when he appeared on CBS 48 Hours some time ago. The boy told Lipsky, "My mom said, I know you [smoke]. But I just dont want to see you on national TV smoking." Lipsky writes, "In 1998, parents might be more unhappy having friends and relatives know that their child smokes than that their child is gay." But Lipsky does not take lightly the plights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, specifically addressing the discrimination, the harassment, the increased rates of destructive behavior and suicide attempts such youths face. At one point, Lipsky writes, "I walk out of the [restaurant]...and there are a couple of cowboys sitting on the front bumper of a truck. They look me over coolly. I think for a second that Im going to get beaten up. Its the first time Ive ever had that feeling." Lipsky details the experience of Jamie Nabozny, a young gay man who made history last year when he sued the Ashland, Wisconsin school district where he attended high school, and with whom he settled the case for $900,000 as compensation for years of mental, emotional and physical brutalization. He uses Naboznys case as a springboard for comparing legislative protections for lesbian and gay youth in different states, as well. He speaks with Kelli Taylor and other Salt Lake City students about a 1996 controversy involving their attempts to form a Gay-Straight Alliance in their high school, and asks them about the suicide of one of the groups founders, Jacob Orosco. One of Jacobs schoolmates tells him that "Theres just that feeling... with everything hed done and gone through: Well, if Jacob was this stud of a guy who was so out there and so ready to take on the world and he couldnt do it, what makes me think that I can?" Lipsky also goes to youth group meetings, joins the kids for coffee and meals, and shows them to be, above all else, human. GLAAD is a national organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 8, No. 10, July 31, 1998. |