OnPoint: WBUR
Things have changed when it comes to being gay in America. Not everywhere, not for everyone, not all the time. But just look at the headlines.
Gay marriage, legal in nine states. Gay men and women serving openly in the military. Gay men and women sworn openly into Congress, with same-sex partners at their side. The President of the United States citing Stonewall and gay rights in his inaugural address. Even the Boy Scouts coming around.
This hour, On Point: we talk with a roundtable of gay Americans about being gay in this country now.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Bryan Bryson, bio-engineering PhD student at MIT. 27 years old.
Denise Cawley, owner of the marketing firm Circore Creative in Milwaukee. She and her wife Ann were married in Massachusetts. Their marriage is not recognized in Wisconsin. They have a six-year-old son.
Caleb Crain, author, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, and The New York Times Magazine. His forthcoming book is “Necessary Errors.” He is married and lives with his husband in Brooklyn.
From Tom’s Reading List
The Washington Post “History’s being made this month. Last week, President Barack Obama became the first president to use the term “gay” in reference to sexual orientation in an inauguration speech. And on Monday the Boy Scouts of America — which successfully fought against allowing gays into its ranks all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 — said it may reverse its policy next week.”
Sam Francisco Chronicle “Latino and business groups applauded a sweeping immigration overhaul proposed Monday by eight Democratic and Republican senators, but its omission of binational same-sex couples alarmed activists who fear those couples could be used as a bargaining chip to woo GOP votes for legislation later this year.”
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The New Yorker “I am forty-four years old, and I have lived through a startling transformation in the status of gay men and women in the United States. Around the time I was born, homosexual acts were illegal in every state but Illinois. Lesbians and gays were barred from serving in the federal government.”
Also, our guest Bryan Bryson says he watches this music video every other day for encouragement! It’s by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and shows what it’s like growing up as a gay man in modern America.
