The Gay List – Graeme Taylor

A young man named Graeme Taylor has made the top of my gay list; things that inspire me.

I was recently researching gay teen depression and suicide and there was a heart breaking moment when I read a quote from a family who had lost their gay son to suicide:

“Our hope is that our family’s personal tragedy will serve as a call for compassion, empathy and human dignity”

After seeing that quote I cracked and had to take a break. I walked around London listening to ‘Firework” crying, tears cued by the line:

“If you only knew what the future holds, after a hurricane comes a rainbow”

In my mind, the best thing we can do to help prevent gay youth suicide is to arm our young people with knowledge, understanding and the skill to critically think and openly speak for themselves.

I believe we must encourage emotional intelligence in children and young people. Let them say “I think…” and “I feel…” and as adults we must seriously consider what they say. When we treat young people as equal, we enable the human dignity inherent in them.

What I find incredible about the video with Graeme Taylor is the gentle grace in which he puts his arguments. This young man moves me with the eloquence of his words, spoken purely from the heart. When Taylor, 14, talks of attempting suicide at 9 years of age you realise he has overcome his tragedy and turned it into a source of strength.

Taylor is a shining example of how much we can learn from young people when we give them space to express themselves. The world could certainly do with more young gay people like this, and in Taylor’s words:

“Everyone has a voice and some people are kinda scared to go out there and share it, but when you do it’s a wonderful thing.”

If you ever need someone to talk to, you can contact Lifeline (in Australia) or the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard from 6pm to 10pm each night.

Hot and Cold, Cut and Uncut

I’m hot and cold when it comes to Katy Perry’s music.

Yet she’s considered sizzling here and is a headline acts at Singapore Singfest music festival.

Her claim to fame in Australia was I Kissed A Girl. Depending on who you talk to in Australia, it’s considered both a pro- and anti- gay song by the gay community. In Singapore however, the locals didn’t get to decide for themselves because the song was banned altogether from radio and TV, allegedly for implicit references to unnatural sex.

Rumour has it the censors originally simply bleeped the word “kissed” to make the song less unsavory - but that would have left us with a rather amusing lyric:

“I #@%ed a girl and I liked it”

Censorship is a hot topic here with songs, films, theatre shows and artworks banned or artists forced to make cuts to remove elements the government watchdog does not approve of. Local consumers are becoming very cold to the process because what is supposedly done in the name of good sometimes seems arbitrary or even unnecessary.

When the crowd at Singfest sang I Kissed a Girl with Perry word for word, it showed that censorship is also completely ineffective too.

Let Me Decide is a campaign by Arts Engage calling for the current system of censorship to be replaced by regulation that enables art to be produced as intended by the artist. Let Me Decide wants creative works to remain uncut and give the consumer the right to watch it, hear it or be involved in it. Or not – the choice should lie with the individual.

I’m sold, I too prefer it uncut.