HomoQuotable - Michael Glatze

"God loves you more than any dude will ever love you. Don’t put your faith in some man, some flesh. That’s what we do when we’re stuck in the gay identity, when we’re stuck in that cave. We go from guy to guy, looking for someone to love us and make us feel O.K., but God is so much better than all the other masters out there." - "Ex-gay" nutter Michael Glatze, interviewed by his longtime friend Benoit Denizet-Lewis for the New York Times.

Glatze was the founder and publisher of the gay youth-oriented title XY Magazine, but suddenly became "ex-gay" after Jeebus "cured" his heart palpitations. Read the entire article. Previous JMG posts on Michael Glatze are here, here, and here.

Online Magazine For Men Launches

A new online magazine for men (including gays) has launched. From their press release:

Good Men Media today announced the launch of The Good Men Project Magazine, a timely and provocative online publication that explores issues facing modern men and that seeks to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a good man?” The Good Men Project Magazine is part of The Good Men Foundation, a registered 501(3)c charitable organization designed to help at-risk men and boys. The magazine is a cross-platform, multi-media destination featuring compelling writing about parenting, sex, relationships, identity, ethics, humor, and health. The publication’s contributors include top-tier journalists commissioned to provide feature content as well as volunteer writers and bloggers.

Among the magazine's featured contributors is JMG reader and openly gay author Benoit Denizet-Lewis, who debuts on the site with an amusing story about step-moms. Also of note today, an interesting look at learning how to shave, from the perspective of a transman. Bookmark this site, it looks promising.

Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of the publisher, today's Swag Tuesday prize is the latest book from gay author Benoit Denizet-Louis, American Voyeur: Dispatches From The Far Reaches Of Modern Life, which is now available at booksellers nationwide.

Award-winning New York Times Magazine writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis’s scrutiny of American youth culture and the social politics of sex has made him one of the most influential young writers in America today. In AMERICAN VOYEUR: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life, (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks; January 5, 2010; $15.00), Denizet-Lewis presents, for the first time in one book, sixteen of his gripping journalistic feature articles providing an evocative, wide-reaching snapshot of modern life in the United States. From his controversial Times Magazine exposé of African American men on the “down low” to a day in a summer camp for young anti-abortion activists, Denizet-Lewis’s examination of American youth and sexual politics is as compelling as it is thoroughly researched and expertly composed. Each story included in AMERICAN VOYEUR takes the reader deep inside the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, communities, and subcultures, unearthing remarkable examples of human diversity.

We have three copies of American Voyeur to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to leave your email address in the text of your comment. Entries close at midnight Wednesday, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

RELATED: Benoit Denizet-Lewis being widely quoted in the national press today for reporting that Tiger Woods has entered a sexual addiction rehab center.

Coming Out In Middle School

This weekend's New York Times Magazine features a lengthy Benoit Denizet-Lewis piece on kids that come out in middle school. An excerpt:

Though most adolescents who come out do so in high school, sex researchers and counselors say that middle-school students are increasingly coming out to friends or family or to an adult in school. Just how they’re faring in a world that wasn’t expecting them — and that isn’t so sure a 12-year-old can know if he’s gay — is a complicated question that defies simple geographical explanations. Though gay kids in the South and in rural areas tend to have a harder time than those on the coasts, I met gay youth who were doing well in socially conservative areas like Tulsa and others in progressive cities who were afraid to come out.

What is clear is that for many gay youth, middle school is more survival than learning — one parent of a gay teenager I spent time with likened her child’s middle school to a “war zone.” In a 2007 survey of 626 gay, bisexual and transgender middle-schoolers from across the country by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (Glsen), 81 percent reported being regularly harassed on campus because of their sexual orientation. Another 39 percent reported physical assaults. Of the students who told teachers or administrators about the bullying, only 29 percent said it resulted in effective intervention.

A middle-school counselor in Maine summed up the view of many educators I spoke to when she conceded that her school was “totally unprepared” for openly gay students. “We always knew middle school was a time when kids struggle with their identity,” she told me, “but it was easy to let anti-gay language slide because it’s so imbedded in middle-school culture and because we didn’t have students who were out to us or their classmates. Now we do, so we’re playing catch up to try to keep them safe.”

I was out to a handful of schoolmates by 11th grade, but I can't imagine having had the nerve in middle school. Read the entire piece, overall it's much more positive than the above bit about combating bullying.

Perez Hilton Is Worse Than You Thought

If you think your opinion of Perez Hilton couldn't be any lower, you'll probably change your mind after reading what he tells Advocate writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis about his dust-up with the Black Eyed Peas, during which he called their lead vocalist a "faggot."

But Perez tells me that, in the heat of the moment that night, he almost chose to use a different word. “I thought about calling him the n word,” he says over the phone a week after the incident, “but I thought the f word was even worse. I was so filled with hate at that moment because I was hated on so much, and I reacted in the worst way possible. Then I went on to make a bunch of other mistakes. I shouldn’t have made the video. I shouldn’t have released so many statements. But what’s come out of all of this is that I’ve learned so much about myself, and I’m in a much better place. I’m actually thankful that it happened."

Impressive! He only "thought about" using the n-word! He restrained his racism! Hilton goes on to compare himself to Madonna, saying that like her, he will "soldier on" no matter how much he is hated. That's a lot of soldiering.

UPDATE: More on this story at Good As You, Gawker, Examiner, Pink Paper, and 365gay.