NEWSLGBT CELEBRITIES

More than 7,000 people have signed Illinois-resident Lair Scott’s Change.org petition calling on Sesame Street to marry Bert and Ernie.

“I started this Change.org petition because I believe we need more media representation of gay and lesbian people in children’s programming,” said Scott. “There are currently no LGBT characters on Sesame Street, nor in any children’s television program.”

Scott sees the campaign as about more than just LGBT characters as individuals, but as family units. According to 2010 U.S. Census data, it is estimated that one quarter of all same gender couples are raising children, and same gender couples are raising children in 96% of the counties in the United States.

“Thousands of kids are growing up in homes with two moms and two dads,” he said. “They need to see families like their own on television.”

Change.org received a statement from the United States Postal Service (USPS) in response to a petition with more than 8,000 signatures started by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force urging USPS to make a stamp honoring Harvey Milk.

Roy Betts, a spokesperson for USPS wrote:

I am pleased to respond that Harvey Milk is under consideration by the Committee for possible future stamp issuance. The Committee is responsible for reviewing stamp proposals and making subject and design recommendations to the Postmaster General.As additional information, the Committee decides on new stamp subject recommendations far in advance of the issue date in order to provide time for planning, design, production, and distribution. Currently, the 2012 and 2013 stamp programs are completed, and stamp subjects for the 2014 program and subsequent years are being selected. Although many of the subjects for upcoming new stamps have been identified, no public announcement of individual new stamps is made until the entire stamp program for that year has been approved. This occurs in the fall preceding the year of issuance.

It is reassuring that a Harvey Milk stamp is still under consideration. The committee could have dismissed the idea by now, but they chose to keep the idea alive.

This weekend there will be celebrations throughout California and the United States for Harvey Milk's birthday on May 22.

Harvey Milk was a pioneer for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights. He was the first non-incombant openly gay man elected to office in the United States.

Milk was relentless with his passionate call for equality. While he was a Supervisor for San Francisco, he helped pass the first city wide civil rights ordinance for gay people in San Francisco.

He was always concerned about LGBT youth. His now famous saying, "You've got to give them hope," is still as relevant today as when he said it nearly 30 years ago. Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" campaign is a living example of Harvey Milk's philosophy. Closeted and and oppressed LGBT people need to know that life can be better.

Sadly, Harvey Milk was assassinated by Dan White before he could complete his important work. Nevertheless he remains an inspiration to all of us who care about social justice.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force started a petition on Change.org to encourage the United States Postmaster to create a Harvey Milk stamp. More than 7,000 people have signed the petition so far.

You too can celebrate the life and legacy of Harvey Milk by signing the petition and sharing it with your friends. If successful, this will be the first United States postage stamp featuring a LGBT civil rights hero. Harvey Milk would sure be proud.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

You might not have heard the name Marsha Ambrosius before, but you have likely heard of Floetry, the British duo she was a part of earlier in the aughts. She's now a solo R&B singer and songwriter for other artists. And she's a gay activist, as she is proving with her new music video.

"I go to my shows and my audience is predominantly gay," Ambrosius says. "I've been approached by many who've said my music has influenced them and we'll speak about experiences that they've had. It's just only right that I give that voice back."

The song "Far Away" was written after a close friend of the singer attempted suicide. The video, she says, will speak for those that do not have a voice. In the clip, Ambrosius and a man walk in a park and say hi to various adults and children. Later, we see that same man kissing another man. When he revisits the park hand-in-hand with his partner, the woman pulls her children away from him. When he is alone at a different point in the video, he is violently assaulted in front of an American flag. At the end of the song, the man is lying on a couch with a suicide note and dozens of pills scattered around.

Gareth Thomas has made a contribution to the It Gets Better campaign and his video is a shining example of how somebody's life really can make a full 180-degree turn.

In the video, the gay rugby player confesses that he considered suicide. It is a brave admission from one of the few openly gay athletes in the world, and I am sure it will hit home for many kids.

“One day I sat beside my swimming pool with my legs dangling in the pool, bottle of vodka in one hand, trying to find the strength and the courage somewhere to drop myself in the water. Close my eyes, never wake up again," he says in the video. “I used to walk along the cliffs near where I live. Everyday get a little bit closer to the edge hoping that there would be a gust of wind from somewhere that would just come along, push me over the edge."

I will be the first to admit that I hate when celebrities come out as part of a media blitz. And, yeah, Chely Wright definitely did that with the way she coincided the public declaration of her lesbianism with a memoir and  a record. But I like to give gay celebrities the benefit of the doubt. I'm thankful that people are brave enough to come out at all, even in 2010. And many of those gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender entertainers go on to do wonderful things with the platforms they are afforded.

Thankfully, Chely Wright is forging ahead to make herself a real voice for LGBT people in the world, and especially in more rural and red parts of America, where her country ties lay. Wright is a spokesperson for and the founder of Like Me, an organization that provides assistance and education to LGBT people, as well as their friends and family. And now that organization, named after the singer's memoir, has announced a scholarship for the people it hopes to reach.

Wright announced the award recipient on "The Nate Berkus Show" on Wednesday. The first scholarship prize will be given to Shawn Walsh, the brother of  Seth Walsh, who committed suicide in September after facing rampant anti-gay bullying in his California school district. As you may have seen on our site, Walsh's mother has been active in voicing her opinions on the seriousness of bullying.

It's been a good week for Elton John, right? In case you haven't heard, Mr. John and his longtime partner, David Furnish, welcomed a baby boy this week via a surrogate. I don't know how a 62-year-old has the energy for a newborn, but that's one lucky kid right there. I mean, think about the hairpieces, wigs and eyewear alone. Dress-up fun!

But Mr. John doesn't only have his focus set on his child. Instead, he has put his money where his mouth is and shown that he truly cares about LGBT people, and about gay youth in particular. Even with babies on the brain, The Elton John AIDS Foundation made a generous $25,000 donation to a Texas organization this holiday.

Out Youth is based in Austin, Texas. The agency supports LGBT youth between the ages of 12 and 19, providing a variety of services. Predictably, the Elton John AIDS Foundation put forth the money to help in HIV prevention, testing and counseling.

We all know Janet Jackson is a gay icon. There's a reason she's going to be on the new issue of Instinct magazine, after all. And she has long voiced her support for the LGBT community, both in her work and in interviews.

But now she's taken on another cause: The Trevor Project, and telling LGBT people that "It Gets Better."

Janet -- Miss Jackson if you're nasty -- just recorded a public service announcement for gay teenagers considering suicide. It was done for The Trevor Project, which runs a 24-hour hotline for queer and questioning teens. It is toll-free, confidential and much, much needed.

"I know that sometimes life can seem insurmountable ... and if you're lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, you're probably thinking you're all alone. But you're not. There's a world of acceptance waiting for you," Jackson says. "I can relate because I was one of those kids that internalized everything. I held everything inside, all of my pain. And I didn't release it. I wasn't able to let it go until I finally met that person that I could trust and who was truly willing to listen."

I straight-up love Whoopi Goldberg. I've read her books. I tape The View on a daily basis. And somewhere in my parent's house sits an autographed photo of the Whoopster herself. She's awesome.

I won't list the hundred or so reasons why I love Whoopi. But I'll list the most recent one: her new public service announcement, where she teams up with Fight Back NY to stand up for gay equality. It's a cause she continuously champions on her talk show, and the second time Whoopi has made a video like this.

“This is the U.S., and we're all supposed to be equal,” she says. “Keeping certain people not equal as Americans, kind of messes us up … you know, as Americans."

December 1 is World AIDS Day. It is a day to show your support in this important fight. It is a day to celebrate the lives of those who are living with HIV and those whose lives were lost to this devastating disease. It is a day to wear red and to display your red AIDS ribbon proudly.

This year, interestingly, it will also be a day to resurrect the life of your favorite celebrity ... in the digital world. Tomorrow, a growing list of celebrities will sacrifice their lives as they're displayed shamelessly on Twitter, Facebook and others. Kim Kardashian, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Justin Timberlake, and Lady Gaga will halt their use of these social media tools in the name of AIDS awareness. Their online activity will not resume until their fans donate $1 million toward AIDS research.

No tweets, no status updates, nothing. It's going to be a quiet day around the cyber universe, unless their fan base reaches into their wallets to save them.

We can thank Alicia Keys for this innovative and really cool idea to combine celebrity, social media, fund raising, and AIDS awareness.  It is the latest fund-raising venture for her charity, Keep a Child Alive, which provides funding for medical care and other supportive services for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.