"Coming out for one of their own"....Church backs gay Oklahoma teen...

[Rowdyboy]

This story is priceless. It confounds just about every stereotype known to man...

Coming Out for One of Their Own
An Oklahoma Teen Finds Love Where He Least Expected It

By Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 14, 2004; Page D01

SAND SPRINGS, Okla. -- The fliers arrived three weeks ago. Some came over the fax machines of local churches, and others appeared mysteriously around town. Printed in bold was the heading "Westboro Baptist Church." No seeming cause for alarm. Sand Springs, population 18,500, is a Christian stronghold in the gently rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma.

But the message that followed was a rant against a 17-year-old Sand Springs resident named Michael Shackelford and his mother, Janice, the subjects of a recent Washington Post series examining Michael's struggles as a young gay man in the Bible Belt. The fliers posted a photo of Michael, called him a "doomed teenage fag" and announced that followers of Westboro Baptist in Topeka were on their way from Kansas to stage antigay protests in Sand Springs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48197-2004Nov13.html?referrer=emailarticle

[Maat]

1. I remember this story.

It's too bad we couldn't move them from Oklahoma.

My in-laws live near there. My in-laws are Southern Baptists of the Religious Hardright variety.

Needless to say, they pretty much are the opposite of this PFLAGer family; they are very nice people, but extremely misguided at the moment.

I send positive energy here and now to the GLBTQ teens nationwide - affirmative energy!

[Rowdyboy]

3. I honestly did not realize that this story was a year old....

I didn't watch much news after the election last November and somehow missed this whole story.

[cynatnite]

5. My daughter's teen gay friend...

During a conversation today when I was taking her to work she told me about a good friend of hers who is gay. Now, living in very red Eastern TN there have been some brutal gay bashing and in one instance I know of a young man was almost killed by a group of homophobes.

What's happened to this young friend of my daughter is nothing short of courageous, IMO. He struggled with it for some time from what she has told me and came out a much better person from what she has told me. He's openly gay and does have a tight group of friends including my daughter.

She told me today there are still quite a few who make jokes and pick on him. It's getting much less because her and her friends defend him and protect him.

I haven't met him, but what she told me about him he's a very intelligent young man that she thinks highly of. It was really a feel good story and that told me while there are some real assholes in the world, there are far more good people and the future of the GLBT community is very bright.

I've always believed the GLBT will get their much deserved rights...it may take a while, but it will happen. This article and what my daughter told me today reaffirms my belief. Maybe it will happen much sooner than I thought. :)

[Maat]

7. Amen (n/t).

[flowomo]

2. That series was a Pultizer Prize finalist this year:

But since everyone and everything in the MSM is a whore and a fool according to many DUer's, who cares?


http://friends.macjournals.com/mattd/discuss/msgReader$1170


Gay in Oklahoma series was 2005 Pulitzer Finalist!

Anne Hull of the Washington Post wrote a four-part series of articles last September called "Being Young and Gay in Real America." Part 1 and Part 2 of her series focused on Michael Shackelford, an initially-closeted 16-year-old gay kid in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and how coming out affected his life, his family, and his community. I talked about it here and here.

Comes now the list of 2005 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, and Hull was cited as a finalist in the Feature Writing category "for her clear, sensitive, tirelessly reported stories on what it means to be young and gay in modern America." The prize itself was "awarded to Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune for her gripping,meticulously reconstructed account of a deadly 10-second tornado that ripped through Utica, Ill."

Even so, extended congratulations to Hull, the Shackelford family, and everyone else who made that extraordinary series happen. If you never read them, go fix that. Now.

[Rowdyboy]

4. Can't believe that I missed this story last year.....

Regardless, I'm really glad to have stumbled across it. It leaves me feeling better....

[tulsakatz]

6. good story!

I had not even heard about this before! I live in Tulsa. I was raised Baptist and that was enough for me. Once I was old enough to decide for myself, I decided Baptist was not right for me.

And really, I've never really understood the thing about gays and religion. I mean, the story goes.........that Jesus died for our sins because ALL people are sinful! So if all people are sinful, doesn't that also mean that Jesus died for homosexual sins too?

Oh well, maybe that's why I'm not into organized religion........it just doesn't make any sense to me. Thanks for the cool story..........

[nemo137]

8. stickin' up the the pharisees and showing what real Christian love is like

good for them!