Meredh Baxter: Y, I'm gay

Contents:

• HOW STRAIGHT FICTNAL WOMEN SHAPED MY GAY INTY
• MEREDH BAXTER: Y, I'M GAY
• MERITH BAXTER ADMS IT WAS MICHAEL J. FOX THAT MA HER GAY
• AN O TO BROOKS MARKS, REAL HOEWIV OF SALT LAKE CY’S RINT GAY SON
• GAY METHODIST MISTER FAC DISCIPLE, POSSIBLY OCKG, BEE HE MARRIED A MAN
• COULD THE HEROE OF PIXAR'S 'BRAVE' BE GAY? (WARNG: SPOILERS!)
• IS MEREDH STT LYNN GAY?

HOW STRAIGHT FICTNAL WOMEN SHAPED MY GAY INTY

Confed and lost my own inty a untry where gay marriage was still illegal, I had ltle to no chance of unrstandg the spectm of sexualy and my place wh . I'd survive the day, and then when I got home, I'd turn on the televisn to 's Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer): flamboyant, annoyg, and like many gay men on televisn, burned wh the heavy narrative load of homosexualy.

As a teenager, the gay, male characters I saw on TV were so bary: feme or mascule? Eher they embodied and attempted to refe a stereotype or rejected altogether, optg stead to "reclaim" tradnal masculy for gay men.

In the ghts, gay men were rarely the protagonist; they were often wrten briefly the service of lead characters' storyl (and equently wrten out via ath), or clud specifilly for a "very special episo" on sexualy.

MEREDH BAXTER: Y, I'M GAY

Te Blood's Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis) stands out as a rare outlier, a southern Black gay man who went beyond bari and genr his self-prentatn. Of the shows I actually had the abily to watch, I only saw gay men reflect stereotyp I didn't want to be. Though medil surgery was not likely an optn for my own reer, I felt more nnected to the nuance their liv and the tharsis om the dramatic proclamatns of love scb rooms and back-door relatnship gossip than I did anywhere else my media nsumptn (I was too closeted to watch gay blockbters like Brokeback Mounta, and I'm not mad I still haven't seen ).

Richard Cartwright, ABC via Getty ImagThere is obv precent for gay men fdg empowerment through a non of gay ins, most of them (typilly straight, whe) women celebri: "stanng" culture has built the foundatn of reers across generatns (Donna Summer to Madonna to Julianne Moore to Carly Rae Jepson).

The women barely place the pantheon of gay in culture, but were at the top of my personal list bee like me, they were mted to livg their own sk even when their narrativ wore them down to nothg. As "I'm gay" me out of my mouth, I was as surprised as they were--that like Alicia, I had found myself willg to n headlong to risk to be myself rather than watch my own life pass me by om the Greatt LGBTQ TV Characters of All Time That said, the credible heterosexual (mostly whe) women only got me so far. We move through the world as a uple first, but not solely as a gay uple.

MERITH BAXTER ADMS IT WAS MICHAEL J. FOX THAT MA HER GAY

“The pup scene really attracted a lot of younger, gay men to the kk muny who were jt g to disverg their kks, and provis a really safe space for them to explore bee ’s a much softer form of dom/sub play.

AN O TO BROOKS MARKS, REAL HOEWIV OF SALT LAKE CY’S RINT GAY SON

“Beg a gay woman, ’s hard to talk to our straight iends about certa aspects of your life, such as stggl of romance, ” said Furey, seen here at right. Smh was out as gay while petg, but he had never discsed his genr inty wh his tribemat prr to beg outted by Varner (who is also gay).

It's no secret that I'm gay, but has been to the greater world.

Baxter has been datg women for the past seven years, and "the thought of beg gay never crossed my md, " she said. Fox phenomenon that ma her gay. Meredh Baxter wh wife Nancy Locke | Photo: Getty ImagCOMING OUT AS GAYThe cisn to get married to her partner didn't e easy to the "Fay Ti" actrs, who spent years battlg her fears of g out as gay.

GAY METHODIST MISTER FAC DISCIPLE, POSSIBLY OCKG, BEE HE MARRIED A MAN

Lydia Meredh is an thor/wrer (The Gay Preacher’s Wife: How my Gay Hband Denstcted My Life and Renstcted My Fah, published by Simon and Schter, October 2016); a civic lear and an activist for LGBTQIA (Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) jtice, pecially for the reported lns of emotnally crippled, homels, LGBTQIA children and youth who are rejected by their fai of orig; CEO/Founr of Bean of Hope; mother of 3 sons; and grandmother of 6 grandchildren. ) No, the bt part of last night’s premiere was the troductn of one Brooks Marks, the 21-year-old gay son of new hoewife Meredh Marks, who has the honor of beg the first openly gay son of any Real Hoewife. ”I uld fill an entire book wh the quotabl offered by the Real Hoewiv’ newly stated Rint Gay Son, but even that wouldn’t be enough to give the fledglg star his proper due.

But our ar Brooks is so much more than one appreciat the Real Hoewiv like a gay man, and ’s clear that Brooks feels the same. BravoJt by beg openly gay, Brooks’ cln the anchise would already be monumental. Though she said the most offensive way possible, fellow Salt Lake Cy hoewife Heather Gay summed up bt when she admted to not beg a “good Mormon woman” bee she “lov rap mic, lov Black men, and lov homosexuals.

COULD THE HEROE OF PIXAR'S 'BRAVE' BE GAY? (WARNG: SPOILERS!)

” Neverthels, seeg Brooks be lovgly embraced and accepted by both his mother and father is fortg; that he’s able to live out and proud a muny where homosexualy is too often shamed is has that Brooks’ role the show only gets bigger and better wh time, and I, for one, am unntrollably exced to see what type of snark he brgs the future. An openly-gay Methodist mister is wag to learn his fate om a board of church lears who may ultimately send his se to a church trial that uld strip him of his mistry for marryg his longtime Uned Methodist Church’s North Central Jurisdictnal Commtee on Appeals met Friday as part of an ongog procs to terme whether the Rev. Meredh has led the ngregatn at Clifton Uned Methodist Church Ccnati as an openly gay man sce 2012.

Dpe that pledge, the church’s “Book of Disciple, ” a document that is revised every four years to reflect current reali society still bans gay people om servg as misters, Meredh told ABC News. None of those church members actually belonged to Meredh’s ngregatn, Meredh ngregants ced that sectn of the “Book of Disciple” that says “homosexuals” nnot serve as misters. The sectn reads, “Self-avowed practicg homosexuals are not to be certified as ndidat, ordaed as misters or appoted to serve the Uned Methodist Church.

Pamela Lightsey explaed, Meredh had always been “self-avowed, ” livg as an openly gay man. But ’s que possible that while watchg Brave’s tomboyish heroe shoot arrows, fight like one of the boys, and squirm when her mother puts her girly cloth, a thought might pop to the head of some viewers: Is Merida gay?

IS MEREDH STT LYNN GAY?

And neher Pixar, which created her, or Disney, which is distributg the film, has ma any official attempt to tell the gay muny that Merida might be one of them; we fely won’t be seeg any giant, flatable Sttish prcs hoverg over floats at today’s Pri paras. But uld Merida be gay? Her love of unprcs-like hobbi, cludg archery and rock-climbg, is sure to strike a chord wh gay viewers who felt siarly “not like the other kids” growg up.

Ultimately, don’t matter if Merida uld be terpreted as gay. What’s most excg is that she brgs a new ee-thkg attu to the slightly staid club of Disney prcs, one that’s sure to appeal not jt to gays, but to anyone who ever challenged an inty that was pre-assigned to them.