http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/22/inaugural-poet-richard-blanco-on-the-homophobic-abuse-that-led-him-to-writing Comments On: Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco on the Homophobic Abuse That Led Him to Writing by Christopher Frizzelle en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by Rich Jensen]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:49:04 -0800 The Stranger —for Richard Blanco

“Better to have a granddaughter
who’s a whore than a grandson
who is un pato faggot like you”
—Richard Blanco, “Making a Man
Out of Me,” Who’s Yer Daddy?

Richard Blanco’s poem—
That he read that cold January
Day of the Inauguration
Caught America by surprise

Such a handsome Latino—
Born in Miami after Castro’s
Cuban Revolution and now
All these years later

But do things get better—
Does the abuse & bullying
Ever stop for our young gays
Exiling them to the Closet?

Did our Stonewall Riots—
And our Gay Revolution
Ever trickle down to the
Young exiles of today?

So much homophobia—
Intergenerational warfare
Like Blanco’s prejudicial
Cuban grandmother

Guilting the young poet—
For being effeminate and
Gay back when he was
Just seven years old

Philip Larkin knew it—
In his “This Be The Verse”
How they fuck you up, your
Parents and your peer group

They mean to, they want to—
They fill you with the faults
They had and add some extra
Especially just for you

Perhaps the only solution—
Letting the older generation
Finally kick the fucking bucket
Let Whitman back in town.


Posted by pugetopolis]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:01:25 -0800 The Stranger I don't know what a faggot means, really; don't even know about sex yet. All I know is she's talking about me, me; and whatever I am, is bad, very bad.

This is so familiar. I think I was about 8 years old when I found out that a lesbian was a bad thing and that other people said I was one, and it was years before I knew what the word meant, and more years before I realised it wasn't a bad thing and I (kinda) was one. We hear our words as playground insults years before we find them inside ourselves.
Posted by thene]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:24:43 -0800 The Stranger by Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.”
― Philip Larkin


Posted by pugetopolis]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:39:45 -0800 The Stranger Yup.my teenage strategy was to simply to wait it out-wait until I left home. And then move 3,000 miles away to Seattle. Sometimes, that's all you can do!
Posted by pat L]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:52:25 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Rich Jensen]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:45:58 -0800 The Stranger Posted by M. Wells]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:20:46 -0800 The Stranger Posted by TVDinner]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:46:27 -0800 The Stranger Posted by SRJ]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:05:26 -0800 The Stranger
Whores and other sex workers have gotten their AIDS rate under control.

As has every other demographic group in American society.

Except for homosexual men.

Whose HIV rate continues to climb.
Posted by Why Are Some People So Bad At Sex?]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:58:43 -0800 The Stranger http://www.huffingtonpost.com/guy-branum…
Posted by gloomy gus]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:52:14 -0800 The Stranger
I think of it as having static in your brain. We can never know how much static is interfering with other people's lives, either, so as I've grown older I've tried to exercise more compassion toward people who seem even more dysfunctional than I am.

One question maybe others can speak to: does it get better when the abuser dies?
Posted by TVDinner]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:13:44 -0800 The Stranger