film & tv

If I had been born a man, I would most certainly be a drag queen. Gay or straight, it doesn’t matter, I would have dressed up in rhinestones and glitter and sequins and sparkles and piled my hair high. I’ve already professed my desire to do an Adventures of Priscilla costume one day.

So it should come as no surprise that I’m a little sad that season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race just ended. Although I AM happy that one of my favorite queen’s, Raja, took home the title. One of the things I really loved about her was that she said one of the reasons she wanted to win the title “America’s Next Drag Superstar” was to be a role model to kids who don’t fit in. Kids who don’t fit it, but also don’t yet realize that fitting in doesn’t matter – that there’s no real “normal” anyway and that life takes all kinds.

I have a little ritual lately of catching up on Tivo’d episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Glee at the same time. Those are my shows, so while Dave is off doing some film editing or playing video games, I get me-time to geek out on silly girly fun. I’ve noticed that Glee has been taking a similar point of view in recent weeks, even more than normal. A recent episode had the kids singing Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and the episode dealt with gay bullying. I also noticed during one of the recent episodes an advertisement sponsored by Google Chrome which promoted Dan Savage’s It Gets Better campaign:

I LOVE Dan Savage. I used to listen to his podcast all the time at my old job when I’d have a lot of mindless data entry and data cleanup type projects to do. I think he’s really smart and funny, and I respect that as a sex, love and relationships advice columnist he is really open to the fact that there is no one right way or one universal answer to just about anything regarding human relationships.

Anyway, here is the It Gets Better campaign pledge… If you support it, please take a minute and go add your name to the pledge:

THE PLEDGE: Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I’ll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I’ll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that “It Gets Better.”

To me, I think the “It Gets Better” idea applies to not only gay, lesbian, bi and transgendered kids, but it should be a message of hope to all the “weirdos” and misfits and socially awkward kids out there, struggling through middle school and high school to fit in. It WILL get better, and as you grow up, and maybe move out of the small town and go to a bigger city, you’ll find YOUR people, the people who think like you, and share your interests and don’t give a damn what “normal” people think.

Sometimes I’m really glad to live in the age of the Internet, where a message of hope can travel so quickly. As RuPaul would say:

“If you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”

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