domenica 16 febbraio 2014

Ellen Page's coming out: there are a lot of feelings in a non-straight heart too!

Ellen Page decided to came out at the Human Rights Campaign conference (HRC) the National association that, since 1980, when it was founded, advocates on behalf of LGBT Americans.

Watch the video and then we can talk about it!




The news is not the coming out in itself but the reasons Ellen Page choose not to do it 'till now as she clearly explain.

(...) And I am here today because I am gay (cheering, applause) Whooo! Hahaha. Thank you. And because maybe I can make a difference to help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless for me I feel a personal obligation and a personal responsibility. I also do it selfishly because I’m tired of hiding and I’m tired of lying by omission. (applause) I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered, and my relationship suffered. And I’m standing here today with all of you on the other side of that pain.
And I am young yes. But what I have learned is that love — the beauty of it, the joy of it and yes even the pain of it — is the most incredible gift to give and to receive as a human being. And we deserve to experience love, fully, equally, without shame and without compromise. There are too many kids out there suffering from bullying, rejection or simply being mistreated for who they are. Too many dropouts. Too much abuse. Too many homeless. Too many suicides. You can change that and you are changing it. But you never needed me to tell you that. And that’s why this was a little bit weird.
The only thing I can really say — and this is what I have been building up to for the last five minutes — thank you. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for giving me hope. And please keep changing the world for people like me. Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you.
This is not the only weirdness Page refers to.
(...) It is such an honor to be here at the inaugural Time To Thrive conference, but it’s a little weird too.
(...)
It’s weird because here I am — an actress, representing in at least some sense an industry that places crushing standards on all of us; and not just young people. Everyone. Standards of beauty, of a good life, of success. Standards that, I hate to admit, have affected me. You have ideas planted in your head, thoughts that you never had before that tell you how you have to act, how you have to dress and who you have to be.
And I have been trying to push back, to be authentic and to follow my heart. But it can be hard. But that’s why I’m here. In this room, all of you, all of us can do so much more together than any one person can do alone.
(...)
And I know there are people in this room who go to school every day and get treated like shit for no reason. Or you go home and you feel like you can’t tell your parents the whole truth about yourself. And beyond putting yourself in one box or another you worry about the future; about college or work or even your physical safety. And trying to create that mental picture of your life, of what on earth is going to happen to you can crush you a little bit every day. And it is toxic and painful and deeply unfair.
And sometimes it’s the little insignificant stuff that can tear you down.

Now I try not to read gossip as a rule, but the other day a website ran an article with a picture of me wearing sweatpants on the way to the gym. And the writer asked, “Why does this petite beauty insist upon dressing as a massive man?” (pause) Because I like to be comfortable. [I took this transcription from towleroad]
I guess for an actress both working in the mainstream and indie showbiz it's brave to point out that the industry of the motion pictures plants ideas in people's head.

That's quite what I try to make my students to understand, in the secondary school, where we work together analyzing stereotypes and clichés spreading from tv movies and the other mass media.
Is so rewarding to me that an actress say openly what I'm trying to point out with my students, boys and girls.

I suffer when I read some articles, here on the net, where idiots that call themselves journalist claim that Ellen Page is going public with her sexuality because to be gay does not refer only to your sexuality but deals also, if not primarily, with your feelings,  your hopes, your deepest emotions about people you love or you're falling in love with.

So there is still a lot of work to do, making journalist (and everybody else who do not get it) to understand that sexual orientations deal much more then only the sex only and that  there are a lot of feelings in a non-straight heart too!