In Newly Found Audio, A Forgotten Civil Rights Leader Says Coming Out 'Was An Absolute Necessity'; NPR, January 6, 2019

Michel Martin and Emma Bowman, NPR; In Newly Found Audio, A Forgotten Civil Rights Leader Says Coming Out 'Was An Absolute Necessity'

"He was an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and the organizer behind the 1963 March on Washington.

Still, Bayard Rustin's legacy as a leading figure in the civil rights movement is little known today, even among many history buffs and within the LGBTQ community. His homosexuality cost him that visibility and was considered by some as a hindrance to the movement's success. 

Rustin died in 1987, but his silenced voice was recently resurrected in previously unaired audio from an interview with the Washington Blade in the mid-1980s. The audio will air this week in an episode of the podcast Making Gay History. It was discovered by Sara Burningham, the podcast's executive producer...

To Rustin, asserting his identity as an African-American went hand-in-hand with identifying as a gay man. "It occurred to me shortly after that that it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality, because if I didn't I was a part of the prejudice," he said. "I was aiding and abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me.""

"Options", Bizzaro, 7/22/16

Dan Piraro, Bizarro:

"Options"

Diversity Drives The Story In The Latest Incarnation Of Superman; NPR, 7/13/16

NPR Staff, NPR; Diversity Drives The Story In The Latest Incarnation Of Superman:

"If you've stepped foot in a comic book store in the past few years, you'll have noticed a distinct shift. Superheroes, once almost entirely white men, have become more diverse.

There's been a biracial Spider-Man, a Muslim Ms. Marvel, and just last week, Marvel announced that the new Iron Man will be a teenage African-American girl.

Joining this lineup today is Kong Kenan, a Chinese boy who, as part of a reboot of the DC comics universe, is one of four characters taking up Superman's mantle.

"Kong Kenan inherits some of Clark Kent's powers," says Gene Yang. He's one of the writers on DC's New Super-Man. "These powers will change him; they'll change him both physically and morally.""

X-Men: Apocalypse Is Overstuffed, but It’s Not the End of the World; Vanity Fair, 5/26/16

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair; X-Men: Apocalypse Is Overstuffed, but It’s Not the End of the World:

"As is often said, in the X-Men movies, the personal is political, and vice-versa. These are stories largely about personhood and identity, struggles with self hyper-magnified to become battles for humanity. That’s a stark difference from Marvel’s Avengers movies, which are all about (or have become about) the larger civic politics of government and diplomacy, questioning systems of power and control in a globalized world. Both series can be read as contemporary allegories, with the Avengers’ stories grappling with our current fears and concerns about U.S. adventurism overseas, while the X-Men run parallel to, say, the maddening debate over who can use what bathroom. Perhaps that’s simplifying things—but the X-Men movies have (almost) always felt closer to the bone, more immediate and oddly relatable, than their shinier cousins.

Which is why it’s a shame that Bryan Singer’s latest X-Men film, X-Men: Apocalypse, contends with not a clash between man and mutant—a war so cleverly, and movingly, escalated in 2014’s spectacular, brain-itching time-travel epic X-Men: Days of Future Past—but with an ancient being, named Apocalypse, who aims to do nothing more interesting or creative than end the world so he can rule whatever comes after. Sure, sure, those are some mighty high stakes. But the X-Men are our tortured, emo superheroes, so I like when their fights are coming from within. You know, Magneto (a commanding Michael Fassbender in the last few films) going on some messianic, destructive tear while Charles Xavier (James McAvoy, always giving it his all) tries to talk him off the ledge. Yes, other big things (missiles, robots) get involved, but these clashes can always be boiled down to people trying to define and defend who they are."

Former NFL player to speak at Sewickley Academy on obstacles gays face; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 4/9/14

Bobby Cherry, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Former NFL player to speak at Sewickley Academy on obstacles gays face:

"Davis last year was named executive director of You Can Play — an organization working to end homophobia among sports programs from the youth level to professional.

The organization has partnered with teams and sports leagues in an effort to educate executives, players and coaches on providing equality, safety and respect for gay athletes.

“He'll be able to talk to students about being silenced for so long in a very public position,” Sewickley Academy spokeswoman Mandi Semple said.

School leaders considered Davis as a speaker after students said the school needed to do more to educate peers about equality, the school's Diversity Director Jeremiah Jackson said.

“(Diversity is) probably the most important thing we should be focused on as a school,” he said. “The most important thing in any school environment are the people. So when we're talking about inclusion and identity, we're not just talking about sexual orientation and identity or race, we're talking about the real identities of people. And if our true mission is to help students cultivate their individual potential, they have to be able to see themselves, explore themselves and take risks in a safe space and a positive way.”"