If Only They Had PSAs Like This For Gay Teens Back When I Was One Myself…
I might have actually done something like this…
This touching little video is from a TV commercial for the Norwegian Lesbian and Gay Rights movement (LLH). The text at the end, according to one commenter on YouTube (who presumably reads Norwegian) says “You don’t have to be THAT brave.” The number is for a information hotline for gay youth.
And before you ask…I did a lot of digging around for the background song on this. Apparently a lot of other people besides me would love to have a copy of it. But don’t go looking around on iTunes because it’s not there, or anywhere else. It was recorded especially for this PSA, and so for as I can determine, has not ever been released for purchase by the general public. Here are the lyrics…
Were dancing you and me its our destiny
Baby you and me
Make up your mind
Like I told you a 1000 times
Everything will be just fine
If I can’t see you tonight
I know my love will grow stronger
(chorus)
I’ll be dreaming of you
Like everything is bright and blue
And I’ll be here waiting
But not for so long (so long)
If I could have one song for my comic series A Coming Out Story, this would be it. I doesn’t become an obvious match though, until the last half of the series, and I’m only still in the beginning of the first half.
August 13th, 2007 at 5:23 am
I don’t imagine you watch much daytime tv, but the soap “As the World Turns” currently has a story involving a gay teen, Luke who’s crushing on a “straight” friend, Noah, who may not be as straight is he says. There was a moment in an episode last week where they were alone together, and during some seemingly harmless horseplay they ended up embracing for a second. Noah’s girlfriend, Maddie, walked in and they broke apart imediately. Noah insisted on taking Maddie out, and it left Luke confused-had he just imagined something was going to happen? (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in that exact situation. It always sucks.)Meanwhile, Noah begged Maddie to forgo her plans to attend an out-of-state college and instead go to the local one. Maddie already previously confided in another friend that her relationship with Noah is just a summer fling. The impression we get is that Noah is trying to move quickly in his relationship with Maddie to avoid dealing with feeling he might have for Luke.
Like I said, the show’s a soap. But this storyline is, by soap standards, pretty true to life. (The acting by the players isn’t bad either.)
August 13th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I guess the soaps are trying to appeal to a younger audience now. No…I don’t watch any of that. I grew up with this really sourpuss grandmother on my maternal side…a flaming fire and brimstone Baptist lady who never saw anything right or good or cheerful in the world…and she just loved her afternoon soaps. She was always watching them when I came home from school. As The World Turns was one of her favorites. It wasn’t hard to see why with her mean spirited attitude toward life, she loved watching people on the soaps being mean and cruel to each other.
So I have this deeply rooted association with soaps and her and it would make enjoying one very, very difficult. But that plot line sounds just great. Yeah…it tracks with a lot of gay kid’s experiences at that age I’ll bet. While I occasionally saw the object of my affections back in high school chatting with girls in the hall and such, I never saw him actually going out with any. But he held me at a distance too.