Today on the show in honour of Matthew Shepard‘s mother Judy joining us in less than an hour, we are asking you where it is you see homophobia the most. In case you don’t know, Matthew was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming just over ten years ago at age 21, a homophobic act that is still as appalling to me today as it was the first time I heard about it.
Your answers so far range from witnessing homophobia on the streets to in your schools, in the movies and television we watch, and some of you have written in to say you experience it from your own families in your own home.
Juxtaposed with this is something alive and kicking from my day yesterday when I met and interviewed Adam Lambert. Just posting a few Tweets during the time I spent with him has set off an avalanche of replies and re-tweets, and the photos I’ve posted of us up on my blog have been met with great response and have started to go viral. Amazing. Amazing because so much of Lambert’s fan base are teenagers and young adults, and it’s these people who have lit up my Twitter page and blog in the last twenty four hours. They don’t care that he’s gay, they love that he’s flamboyant, and they see it as a wonderful example that this person lives his life authentically.
As you’ll hear when we chat with Judy Shepard, homophobia is taught first in the home, and so when I think of all these people who are loving the very out, very queer Adam Lambert and think that they will one day have families and homes where they will be teaching the next generation about love and hate, it’s such a beacon of hope, to me, anyway, that perhaps Matthew’s death really did have meaning, that the wonder that is Judy Shepard has done a world of good and that the likes of Adam Lambert and all those who follow him can lead their lives free from any specter of hate.
You can hear The 4:20 daily at … 4:20 on The Shaun Proulx Show – 103.9 PROUD FM.
Follow me! xS
- Facebook
- NEW! The Shaun Proulx Show on Facebook!
- Twitter
- YouTube
- NEW! OutTV Socialize
