I asked my Facebook friends to suggest topics for this week’s column. They came up with subjects such as bullying, LGBT history, the White House holiday press party and the latter’s snubbing of LGBT and black journalists.
1. Bullying is something we’ll have to work on constantly. We must be diligent, especially when LGBT youth are victimized for being themselves both in school and at home. And as I have stated in this column on numerous occasions, conversion therapy is child torture.
2. LGBT history, as you may know, is one of my favorite topics. It’s time for a test.
a. Who was America’s first gay activist, and what did he do?
b. Who organized the world’s first substantial LGBT organization, and what was its name?
c. Now, this is my favorite question: Without this gay man, there would be no United States of America. Who is it?
3. When it comes to the White House holiday press party, only about 500 journalists are invited. Representatives usually only invite those they know, those they have worked with previously and the big names in the news business. Despite the invite, several network representatives didn’t go this year to protest the president’s constant accusations of “fake news.” It’s a great party, which I’ve been lucky enough to attend over the years. However, if I were invited this year, I don’t know if I would have accepted.
4. As for LGBT and black journalists being denied access to the party, let’s face the facts. They’ve also been excluded from most parts of the Trump administration, so it really isn’t surprising. If you want to toss blame around, look at the press secretary, the communications director and the president himself: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Hope Hicks and Donald Trump. Do any of them sound like they’re friendly to LGBT people or people of color?
Mark Segal is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. His memoir, “And Then I Danced,” is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or at your favorite bookseller.