This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Yesterday, one of the biggest stories in sports news wasn’t about sports at all. It was about Jason Collins who – supposedly – is the first professional athlete to come out and declare being gay. I think it was also quite big because Sports Illustrated Magazine decided to put him on the front cover. This is a huge step forward for the gay rights movement in the USA.
In Canada I think we are lucky that being gay is tolerated slightly more. We are not devoid of social problems, but I know that we have neighbourhoods in most major cities where queer folks have a supportive community. There is still a long way to go in the USA and other parts of the world, but I think that more media putting out this message that it is not just okay, but ADMIRABLE to express who you are, is a huge step forward in the consciousness of ourselves as a human race.
Last weekend one of the most powerful queer themed films I’ve seen in a long time was How To Survive a Plague. The documentary footage from the 80’s and 90’s documenting the activism toward drug research and treatment of HIV positive and AIDS patients was so eye opening and I could not believe how far we have had to come – and how far there still is to go – in treating infected people. The big struggle is not just in coming out, but in survival as well.
Deep stuff to think about on a Tuesday morning… but my blogs are never that light, are they?