Comments

1
Unicorn Booty?

On another note, it is amazing what such a small moment can encapsulate. Never would have seen that ten years ago, and the announcers never would have mentioned it even if it happend live.

Changing public opinion is a slow, uphill battle with unending pain, but constant pressure can move anything.
2
I was about to say nice post -- rare for dan savage -- until i realized that, as usual, most of it is pasted from his own old content.

nobody wants to read your shitty fox news level writing. go work for mtv. bye.
3
@2: to coin a phrase, grow up.
4
And he's a lefty!
5
By "historically-oppressed minority group," you mean left-handed bowlers? That's what the linked article seems to stress.
6
@2 - Grow up.
7
@5 - I actually noticed that. Left-handed and gay. Wow. He's probably a witch, too.
8
@2 grow up.
9
Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

(I just watched this again over the holidays. Can't help myself.)
10
ESPN also aired a same sex kiss after poker pro Vanessa Selbst won a title. Big deal or not, it's just good to see progress through small, unedited moments.
11
Am I the only one that noticed the straight guy having more product in his hair than the gay guy? That says a lot about changing cultures!
12
Seriously @2, Grow up.
13
Gay people are more likely to be left handed than are straight folks.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/…
14
Leave it to Dan to come up with an enlightening, touching piece about pro bowling.

Strike!
15
did his husband call him "babe?" that's pretty cool too. btw, the tears were nice to see too.
16
This is the America I want to live in. Let's get over all the high-school bullshit so we can tackle bigger problems than who someone likes to kiss.
17
@2 Grow some hair. And apply product to it.
18
I'm waiting for the day where we have two Seahawks players married to each other and they openly kiss on TV after just winning the Superbowl. Dreams can come true right?
19
The world as we know it is constantly ending. It ended when the atomic bomb was invented, and when the internet was invented, and when people started using cell phones, etc, etc. Every ending is the beginning of something else.
20
@18 Twenty years ago, I'd have predicted in 2320. Now, I'm not too pessimistic about 2023.
21
I saw this yesterday. Am I to assume that the moments where Norton's husband is referred to happened elsewhere in the broadcast? This is my third viewing and I still see no acknowledgement of their relationship. In fact I remember it struck me as a little odd that his opponents wife is mentioned in the clip but his husband isn't. I'm not saying this is at all intentional, especially if it's true that they mentioned him earlier. It's just a little confusing to have "the coolest part" of the story being about how commentators described them as married but not having that reflected in the video.

Still, very cool. Final victory will happen very quietly. Some day, a gay person will do something extraordinary, get kissed by their spouse and hugged by their kids on prime-time broadcast TV, and it won't occur to anyone that this is noteworthy, much less controversial. That day, we will have won, and no one will notice.
22
Such a cutie pie. It was nice to see his opponent was a good sport, and seemingly not homophobic as well.
23
As for what happens to the parallel infrastructure, look at what happened to black-owned businesses once segregation was made illegal. Much of the black middle-class disappeared as the former patrons of their businesses wanted to shop at Kmart instead. Any remaining gay establishments will be seen as strange and seedy.
24
I look forward to when clips like this don't make me tear up because they are so commonplace.
25
@21 I'd guess it's in the rest of the broadcast. Still, I'm paranoid enough to question the choice of the background song...
26
No matter how fully assimilated we may become, I should think a total collapse of all homonormative institutions far too high a cost. I'd never trade my Gay Games medal for an Olympic equivalent.

27
Hello Dan,

I tried messaging your email but it kept bouncing back. My
name is Jaime Perez, I run create the content for www.iabowling.tv and I
am good friends with Scott Norton as well as his PR person now after we
finally broke the story.

IABowling.tv is made up of me, a gay bowler who does behind the scenes
videos for all the ESPN PBA shows, including the one from Scott's event
(which I have attached below in case you haven't seen it). The other part
of the company is my best friend and also a gay bowler RJ Guimond, he
does all the professional photography for the event, we also do it free
of charge with our own equipment and travel expenses, simply to promote
bowling. Scott has been in a few of my videos and we were actually just
going to start shooting a "A Day in the Life of a Bowler"
segment and Scott was going to be our first participant.

The day the show aired I had uploaded the clip of Scott's win on ESPN I
tried my best to spread the story, going as far as creating a Reddit link
with the title "First Gay Kiss on ESPN!" Of course being just
one person wasn't going to do anything, so I finally got the attention of
OutSports as well as the Editor Compete gay sports magazine, who is
featuring Scott in next month's issue, along with our pictures.

Scott did not expect the type of attention he got and even hours before
the first OutSports article came out I had told him to not forget the
little people when he became a gay icon/hero. His response was "Yeah
right, a bowler will never be able to do anything like that." Lo and
behold the story broke into what it is now, with a BIG push by us
spreading the story, pictures and videos everywhere we could. You can see
our company's name as well as RJ's and my name in the original article
(also below).

My friend RJ and I were originally really sad to see nobody had picked up
the story after a few days and decided we would try our best to change
that, both for bowling and for the gay movement and it worked, or at
least we caused some stir. I work closely with the PBA and they were not
going to do anything with the story either and they had already moved on
to advertising next week's event, so that pushed us more to promote
it.

Well that's enough backstory I suppose. The reason I am emailing is
because Scott is a HUGE admirer and follower of you and everything you
have done for the gay movement. I am reaching out to as many media
outlets I can so we can continue spreading the story for the good of gay
and bowling. Scott has been approached by a few PR people but since he
decided he wants to take this more the route of promoting bowling instead
of himself, hence why he asked me to help him out as my main focus has
always been bowling.

If you decide you'd like to use Scott for any type of story or interview
or anything of the sort please let me know so I can relay that to him. I
will also be contacting other gay and straight media outlets to see if
anybody is interested in doing more with his story, as I am hoping they
are. Our contact email is Media@BowlingEsquire.Com.

Oh, and Scott was also on Huff Post Live today, along with Ben Cohen. If
you have not watched the segment it's also below and the picture attached
is of Scott and I during the event.

Thank you for your time,

Jaime Perez



Original OutSports article:
http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2013/0…

Behind the Scenes of Scott's
Event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UO9EmIng…

Huff
Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02…
28
Hello Dan,

I tried sending you an email but it would not go through.
My name is Jaime Perez, I run create the content for www.iabowling.tv and I
am good friends with Scott Norton as well as his PR person now after we
finally broke the story.

IABowling.tv is made up of me, a gay bowler who does behind the scenes
videos for all the ESPN PBA shows, including the one from Scott's event
(which I have attached below in case you haven't seen it). The other part
of the company is my best friend and also a gay bowler RJ Guimond, he
does all the professional photography for the event, we also do it free
of charge with our own equipment and travel expenses, simply to promote
bowling. Scott has been in a few of my videos and we were actually just
going to start shooting a "A Day in the Life of a Bowler"
segment and Scott was going to be our first participant.

The day the show aired I had uploaded the clip of Scott's win on
ESPN I tried my best to spread the story, going as far as creating a Reddit link
with the title "First Gay Kiss on ESPN!" Of course being just
one person wasn't going to do anything, so I finally got the attention of
OutSports as well as the Editor Compete gay sports magazine, who is
featuring Scott in next month's issue, along with our pictures.

Scott did not expect the type of attention he got and even hours
before the first OutSports article came out I had told him to not forget the
little people when he became a gay icon/hero. His response was "Yeah
right, a bowler will never be able to do anything like that." Lo and
behold the story broke into what it is now, with a BIG push by us
spreading the story, pictures and videos everywhere we could. You can see
our company's name as well as RJ's and my name in the original article
(also below).

My friend RJ and I were originally really sad to see nobody had
picked up the story after a few days and decided we would try our best to change
that, both for bowling and for the gay movement and it worked, or at
least we caused some stir. I work closely with the PBA and they were not
going to do anything with the story either and they had already moved on
to advertising next week's event, so that pushed us more to promote
it.

Well that's enough backstory I suppose. The reason I am emailing is
because Scott is a HUGE admirer and follower of you and everything you
have done for the gay movement. I am reaching out to as many media
outlets I can so we can continue spreading the story for the good of gay
and bowling. Scott has been approached by a few PR people but since he
decided he wants to take this more the route of promoting bowling instead
of himself, hence why he asked me to help him out as my main focus has
always been bowling.

If you decide you'd like to use Scott for any type of story or
interview or anything of the sort please let me know so I can relay that to him. I
will also be contacting other gay and straight media outlets to see if
anybody is interested in doing more with his story, as I am hoping they
are.

Oh, and Scott was also on Huff Post Live today, along with Ben
Cohen. If you have not watched the segment it's also below.

Thank you for your time,



Jaime Perez



Original OutSports article:
http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2013/0…

Behind the Scenes of Scott's
Event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UO9EmIng…

Huff
Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02…

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