I don't like mystery, and sincerely I don't care for this type of mystery at all

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This past week I was out of town and so I only read about the video Matthew Montgomery and Steve Callahan did for the Trailblazer Campaign only today:

While I was still thinking, wow, what a nice video (I'm on both Matt and Steve's FB and so I followed some of their step towards this wonderful relationship, like when they adopted Dude, or when they got engaged), I also read about this post on the Queerty website:

http://www.queerty.com/can-closet-actors-smell-our-desperation-20110603/

As many others I'm surprise that a website (Queerty) that is supposedly advocating the LGBT community is posting something like that, but what I really cannot agree with is the following sentence:

For our part, we wouldn’t mind seeing more mystery, not less, when it comes to movie stars’ private lives, so perhaps a better campaign would be to encourage more actors to be ambiguous about their sexuality, thereby leveling the playing field.

sorry the term, but WTF?!? if they stopped on "more mystery", I could maybe have justified these words for alluding to a more old fashioned way to approach journalism, mystery like fashion, mystery like stardom, when people could think their hearthrob star was your boyfriend, since you didn't know who the real boyfriend was. But encouraging actors to be "ambiguous"? I for once would hate to think my favorite actor is ambiguous...

In any case I asked to some of my friends in the movie industry field to comment, to prove that I'm not the only one thinking in this way. I will post soon again about this.

In the meanwhile, this is Matthew Montgomery's statement directed to the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to hopefully have Queerty be pressed to take some accountability and issue an apology, that Matthew kindly allowed me to repost here:

"Dear GLAAD,

My partner (Steve Callahan) and I are openly gay actors in the LGBT independent film industry (Steve's movie received the GLAAD award for East Side Story a couple of years ago) and we recently made a video that was part of James Duke Mason's Trailblazer Campaign on YouTube whose purpose is to encourage other gay actors to come out of the closet and help our community further the movement into greater acceptance by the entertainment industry and to set a standard of being proud of who you are to the gay youth of America and around the world. This campaign was started as an extension of the It Gets Better Campaign and other active campaigns seeking to spread the message of acceptance.

Today, I was dumbfounded at the following article written on Queerty.com in regards to our Trailblazer video. Particularly this section: "For our part, we wouldn’t mind seeing more mystery, not less, when it comes to movie stars’ private lives, so perhaps a better campaign would be to encourage more actors to be ambiguous about their sexuality, thereby leveling the playing field."

In the article, writer Nick Feather, proposes that we be more ambiguous with our sexual orientation in order to "level the playing field" ... whatever that means. Aside from being astronomically insulted by someone within our own community, I found this message to be incredibly hurtful and backwards in its core at a time when silence clearly does not seem to be providing us with equal rights, let alone acceptance from society in general.

I strongly recommend that an apology is issued by Queerty and that this article is removed immediately in order to prevent any fracturing from within our own community against each other. I mean - what is happening here?? I thought we were on the same side? It's sad when an openly gay man is having his own pride and oppressed voice questioned by someone from the same community who is fighting the same fight toward acceptance.

Shame on them.

Sincerely,

Matthew Montgomery
Proteus Pictures LLC
Los Angeles, CA
www.Matt-Montgomery.com
Artistic Achievement Award Winner 2010 - QFest"

Mission statement of GLAAD: "The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) amplifies the voice of the LGBT community by empowering real people to share their stories, holding the media accountable for the words and images they present, and helping grassroots organizations communicate effectively. By ensuring that the stories of LGBT people are heard through the media, GLAAD promotes understanding, increases acceptance, and advances equality."

Comments

[yachay.livejournal.com]

When Lambda started the whole anti-straight thing, I was already pissed. But now when the bloody GLAAD is pulling anti-gay campaign (that is the only way I understand this all), I'm no longer surprised with the level of discrimination within the community, but I am very, very disgusted by this. These two are supposed to make everyone equal, to help lgbt-community, but also to help the discrimination stop. Not discriminate straight people, and definitely not telling public faces to get back in the closet. If they like to stay there, they have the right, but if everybody just stayed there we'd never get any rights. We'd always be 'perverse' and 'abnormal'. Please. Are they so envious of Neil Patrick Harris being the big name in television-field? Or gay movies finally starting to get a little more interest, even within the straight people? I do think that one should not advertise their sexual orientation, especially these trendy "bi"-teenagers make me facepalm, and in that I kind of get where they are coming from, but I don't think one should hide it, or even lie about being the opposite. They should be free to have a bit of privacy, to be able to have a relationship or start a family without gossip-magazines making a big deal out of it. If they do want to advertise it, not in a way of gaining more attention and making a special number of themselves, but to take part in campaigns such as No H8, they should be more than allowed to do so. They should be allowed to make a number of it, if it helps the community get stronger, and helps us feel more equal. Because that's what I hope. That one day we wouldn't have 'communities.' That we'd just have 'people'. No matter what gender, sexuality, religion or skin-colour.

I loathe GLAAD now. I deeply do. Even if I know where they are coming from, they should've picked their words better. And I hope they will post an apology. They should.