Time's John Cloud Snarks
Savage's 'It Gets Better' Effort
From Seattle, gay writer and activist Dan Savage, along with his husband Terry Miller, launched a grassrootsy campaign on YouTube called It Gets Better.
They want to reach at-risk of suicide and bullying kids of all sexual orientations, and encourage them to seek help, while also enlisting others to create vids offering advice and hope to those who are bullied.
The campaign began news broke about a wave of teen suicides across the country, and is proving quite popular with a broad range of ordinary and famous folks. What I especially like about IGB is its simplicity, ripple-effect, and reach into the lives of so many people who are concerned over and talking about reducing bullying in America's schools.
One person who isn't impressed with Miller and Savage's effort is openly gay Time magazine writer John Cloud. He recently reactivated his dormant Twitter account and has opined on bullying and related matters. First up, Tweets about the piece he's working on:
Writing a story on bullying...Turns out the term "bully" derives from a Middle Dutch word meaning "lover." Makes sense if you think about it
Story done; bullying redefined. Time will no longer give you it free. Mixed feelings, but I guess someone does have to pay John Cloud.
The trouble with this whole "It Gets Better" thing—besides that it's self-congratulatory—is that for many gay kids, it's simply not true.
"It Gets Better" founder Dan Savage says on NPR that it got better for him in Paris. How nice for him. Meanwhile, reality check please?
Obama attacks gay couples again today. I guess he and Dan Savage are in Paris. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69B63U20101012
3 comments:
What do you expect from a self-lotathing bottom-feeding KAPO like (I wandered lonely as a) Cloud, anyway?
I like John. He's a friend. But I think he's incredibly wrong on this, and I've told him so. He is far from self-loathing, BTW.
Can someone explain to me what that first tweet (about how it makes sense that the term "bully" derives from "lover") is supposed to mean? Is he insinuating that the bully and the victim are in some sort of homoerotic relationship?
Regardless of their content, these tweets are disturbing in their cavalier tone, given the subject matter. I note that John Cloud is also the author of a notorious piece in Time "exposing" the "gay mafia that is changing liberal politics." That is his mature and reasoned way of referring to Tim Gill and a few other liberal donors. The piece was a big hit on the 700 Club and in other anti-gay media. When I first read it, I was surprised that Time would hire a right-wing anti-gay journalist. Then I googled Cloud and learned that he Time's "gay gadfly".
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1854884,00.html
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