Billy Porter, on how he feels after revealing he is
HIV+: “I’ve
been positive since 2007. And, you know, having lived through the AIDS crisis,
it was heavy for me. It was a heavy year, 2007. “ I have to start in 2007. In
June of that year, I was diagnosed HIV-positive. Having lived through the
plague, my question was always, ‘Why was I spared? Why am I living?’ Well, I’m
living so that I can tell the story. There’s a whole generation that was here,
and I stand on their shoulders. I can be who I am in this space, at this time,
because of the legacy that they left for me. So it’s time to put my big boy
pants on and talk. I was the generation that was supposed to know better, and
it happened anyway. It was 2007, the worst year of my life. “I was on the
precipice of obscurity for about a decade or so, but 2007 was the worst of it.
By February, I had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By March, I signed
bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was diagnosed HIV-positive. The shame of that
time compounded with the shame that had already [accumulated] in my life
silenced me, and I have lived with that shame in silence for 14 years. I lived
with the shame of it for a really long time and last week I released that
shame, I released that trauma and I am a free man, honey! Free! I’ve never felt
joy like this before. And, you know, we talk about it in the Black church. You
know, this joy that I have—the world didn’t give and the world can’t take it
away. I got it. I got some joy now. It really feels good, it really feels
great.” Once
again, this proves that Silence = Death; that we are only as sick as our
secrets, and we need not feel shame for a health condition, no matter what. |
Lil Nas X, honoring
Sir
Elton John with the Icon Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards: “To
me, he’s a trailblazer who paved the way for people to live their lives freely
and unapologetically. He’s inspired me and so many other people by just being
himself, being larger than life, flashy and fearless, especially when he’s in
front of that piano. On behalf of all the people around the world you have
inspired, Thank you. Even if you didn’t need to be a role model, you are.” And
now Lil Nas is doing that same thing for the next generation of LGBTQ+ artists,
especially those of color, who didn’t know before him that they could be out
and loud and proud and successful. |
Andrew Wommack, faux-Christian, on putting a
warning label on The Gays: “Homosexuals have like a three times as much
suicide [rate] as heterosexuals. And then you go into transgender and it just
continues to go up. It’s a very destructive lifestyle. It’s 20 years less
that a homosexual lives than a heterosexual. And you know, cigarettes take an
average of seven years off your life. So homosexuality is three times
worse than smoking. We outta put a label across their forehead, ‘this can be
hazardous to your health.'” First off, you dimwitted dumb fuck, if we die
early because we’re gay who does the warning label help? And if warning labels did help, perhaps God
should slap one on your face as being a hypocrite and a liar and all kinds of
stupid, and for spreading hate; all things far more dangerous that being gay. Of note: Wommack claims to have
he prayed away “the curse of mildew.” He says Jesus protects
Christians from COVID by “turning off your virus receptors” and yet dozens
of Wommack’s followers became infected with COVID at one of his own Bible
retreats. Lastly, Andrew Wommack says he knows COVID is “no big
deal” because his wife and son were “raised from the dead.” But they
are clearly brain dead. |
Kirstie Alley, Scientology loon and has-been actress, saying depression is not
a mental illness: “You aren’t really allowed to say this in the
very liberal community because they think what you’re saying is stigmatizing
mental illness. Well, this is what I’m here to say — I don’t think you’re
mentally ill if you’re depressed. You know people say to me, ‘Well, you’re a
Scientologist.’ I feel lucky that I’m a Scientologist. Because in Scientology
what you do is you find out why you’re so screwed up. And you find out why
are you depressed, there’s a reason people are depressed. The reason I don’t go
to a psychiatrist is because in their bag are the drugs, that’s the main way
they treat people.” So, she uses Scientology as a psychiatrist but
thinks psychiatry is a sham? Kirstie needs to lay off the junk food because
it’s rotted the part of her brain that Scientology hasn’t already ruined. |
Elliot Page, previously known as Ellen before coming out as transgender, on
adopting a male identity at a very young age: “All
trans people are so different, and my story’s absolutely just my story. But
yes, when I was a little kid, absolutely, 100%, I was a boy. I knew I was a boy
when I was a toddler. I was writing fake love letters and signing them ‘Jason.’
Every little aspect of my life, that is who I was, who I am, and who I knew
myself to be. I just couldn’t understand when I’d be told, ‘No, you’re not. No,
you can’t be that when you’re older. You feel it. Now I’m finally getting
myself back to feeling like who I am, and it’s so beautiful and extraordinary,
and there’s a grief to it in a way. The most significant difference is that I’m
really able to just exist. Just exist by myself, like be able to sit with
myself. Not have some constant distraction, all these things that aren’t
conscious or aren’t even overly overt. For the first time in, I don’t even know
how long, [I am] really just being able to sit by myself, be on my own, be
productive, and be creative. It’s such an oversimplification to say it this
way, but I’m comfortable. I feel a significant difference in my ability to just
exist—and not even just day to day, but moment to moment. This is the first
time I’ve even felt really present with people, that I can be just really
relaxed and not have an anxiety that’s always pulling. In terms of acting, I
don’t think I quite know yet. I am just a lot more f****** comfortable and
present, so it’s hard to imagine that that’s not affecting the work, because,
really, being present’s ultimately what you’re going for—you’re just ultimately
trying to crack open and be present and connect to the truth of a moment. So
I’m imagining the more I get to embody who I am and exist in the body I want to
exist in, there’ll be a difference.” So many
of us go into life and through life knowing who we are, even if we have to come
to terms with it because it may not be the “norm,” but imagine a young trans
kid? That’s a struggle for acceptance, not only from your friends and family
and the world, but from yourself. |
Busy Philipps, actress, on teaching her mother about different
pronouns after revealing her own daughter is non-binary: “[My]
mom is older and wants to understand the pronoun conversation more. I said to
my mother, Here’s the deal: You don’t have to understand it.’ That’s how I feel
about all human rights—you don’t have to understand it. You can choose to
believe what you want, but you don’t get to have jurisdiction over anyone
else’s body or belief system.” You
don’t have to understand why anyone would use they/them as their pronouns, but
you cannot deny them their choices. I
mean, what does it hurt to use they/them? Who does it hurt? But then who does
it hurt when you don’t? |