#LoveWinsSunday

I love this especially since it uses the same song I used to propose to Scott

Skeletons Hug, Kiss, And Dance Before A Crowd. When They Step Out From The Screen? I'm Smiling.

UPDATE: Dad Who Accidentally Discovered Son Is Gay Proves Yet Again That He’s Doing It Right

Last week we stumbled onto an inspiring story of a father who unintentionally read his 13-year-old son’s Google search history and found out he was gay.

He turned to Reddit, where he received an outpouring of support and guidance, and in turn handled the situation with impressive sensitivity. Since our own stories so often veer from this ideal, it’s heartwarming to know there are parents like this one out there raising LGBT youth.

After the overwhelmingly positive response he received from strangers online (though he does say there were more than a few homophobic messages as well), our mystery Dad — Reddit user HeMeYou — decided to do an “ask me anything” on the site to field any more questions or curiosities about his experience with his son.

Here’s what he had to say:

Did your son ever tell you more about the boy from French class?

Haha he did, I asked him about it a few days after he came out. I find it really cute when teenagers have relatively ‘innocent’ crushes so I couldn’t contain myself and acted like a little school girl when he was talking about him.

Is your son aware of the viral post? What does he think of the whole situation?

He is aware. He told me it was “funny” that it became so popular.

How has your son’s mood been since the conversation?

His mood has improved a ton. He just seems so much happier and cheerful. It also makes me happier to see him that way.

Did you tell your son about your experiences with guys when you were a teenager? If not, it might help him to hear that. Or he might squirm and say “Ew dad, let’s not go there.” Which would be kind of adorable.

I haven’t told him, yet. He is aware of the posts, I don’t think he has read them yet, but he is pretty clever when it comes to computers and I’m sure with a few keyword specific Google searches he can find the posts, in which case, he will know.

I don’t think I’ll tell him, not until he turns 16 or 18 at least (my experiences were purely physical), but if he asks about it I’ll let him know.

I kind of want to know about these experiences now… And if you’d ever swing back around.

Well you know, I was about 16 or so and experimenting in sexuality was kind of a fantasy of mine, so I tried it out with a few guys and I genuinely enjoyed it.

I still see some guys as being attractive and even ‘hot’ and I suppose I could picture myself having a physical relationship. For some reason I’ve never been able to picture myself having a romantic relationship with a guy though.

Did you notice that [your son] was gay before you saw his history pop up? Or was it a bit of a surprise for you?

I don’t want to play to the stereotypes but I did notice a few attributes that some might consider gay-ish.. Regardless it was still a bit of a surprise.

Are you afraid of him being bullied? Since there are so many gay guys being bullied in high school?

We live in the south, and the south is relatively known, for the most part, to being against homosexuality, so it is a fear especially as he moves into high school, but I hope it won’t be an issue.

Has your son since learned how to clear his search history?

Haha I think he has always known, he just let down his guard for a while.

Note: the photo attached to this post is not the father and son from the story

The Pixar Theory

What if I told you that all Pixar movies are connected? That all the characters in those movies actually live in the same universe, only in different times? How is that possible, watch this video and you'll find out.

Most People Ignored This Homeless Man, But Those Who Looked Closer Were In For A Surprise

Big Daws is better known for his Youtube prank videos, like eating junking food at a gym and pretending to know strangers. But this time he decided to do something different. He lives in Tempe, Arizona, and found an interesting way to bring awareness to the homeless population.

According to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, in 2012 there were 22,350 adults and 5,805 children registered as homeless. That was a 12 percent increase over the previous year. The Arizona Commission on Homelessness and Housing (ACHH) was established by Governor Janice Brewer and is a formal state plan designed to end veteran homelessness by 2015 and chronic homelessness by 2016.

I'm An Otherwise Straight Man (Who Fell In Love With His Best Friend)

I’ve always prided myself on being open. I’ll try any new therapy or modality or New Age idea — and, believe me, I’ve tried them all. I’ve done the self-work. I’ve “found myself.” I’ve even practiced my affirmations. I knew who I was, without a doubt.

That’s why I found myself in unfamiliar territory when I — the open guy, the “figured out” guy, the unquestionably straight guy — realized that I was in love with my best friend, a man. A man I had known for seven years. A man I had never before even thought of in a romantic way. But, there I was, in love.

Only it didn’t start out as love. See, two summers ago, I came down with a mysterious illness. Not the common cold kind. Not even the achy back kind. This was the kind where you vomit massive amounts of blood throughout the day. The kind where doctors pass you from specialist to specialist. The kind where you’re bent over in pain with tears in your eyes.

And my roommate, Garrett, one of my best friends at the time, took pity on me. He took care of me. He picked up my prescriptions from the pharmacy. He cooked me dinner. He stayed in on Friday nights to watch movies. He’d even rub my back when I was in pain.

Each day, I waited anxiously until he came home from work. My face lit up when he surprised me with my favorite dinner. I replayed conversations we had when I was alone. I missed him when he was gone.

Gay teen kicked out of parents' home directs funds raised online to finance LGBT homeless shelter

Last week, a heartbreaking video surfaced of Daniel Ashley Pierce "coming out" to his family, who went on to disown him and kick Daniel out of their home.

An online fundraiser went viral and within six days, nearly $100,000 has a been raised to help Daniel get on his feet in a new home. Overwhelmed by the support and understanding there are many others in the same predicament, Daniel asked people to stop donating to him and turn their attention to an organization called Lost N'Found, which is renovating a building to serve as a homeless shelter for LGBT youth. Thus far, the organization has received roughly $10,000 from his post and plans to open in spring of 2015:

"I would say we're right at $10,000 (through Pierce donations), said Westbrook. "Daniel is an incredibly bright and courageous young man. He is the epitome of who Lost n' Found is here to serve."

In an interview, which can be seen here, Lost N' Found Executive Director says roughly 50 percent of gay teens in the southeast who come out to their parents are disowned and kicked out of their homes, calling it an "epidemic."

To all my blog readers....

NPR's StoryCorps Animates A Man's Tale Of Parents' Rejection For Being Gay

A snorkeler sees one-ton whale. As he approaches him, he makes a shocking discovery.

That's the way to reel them in!

This Is What Happens When Parents Love Their Children Unconditionally

Homeless Man Gets A Home

Actor proposes to girlfriend, on stage, in middle of Peter Pan

I love this. An actor proposes to his shocked actress girlfriend, on stage, in the middle of a production of Peter Pan in Glasgow, Scotland.

Adorable video. And she said yes.

From the YouTube description:

Romantic Sandor Sturbl stunned the audience and his girlfriend as he popped the question to Scots co-star Lilly-Jane Young as they performed at the Hydro in Glasgow.

It was the ultimate fairytale ending — Peter Pan proposing to Wendy on stage.

Sandor Sturbl, who plays Peter in a new musical of the classic tale, got down on one knee near the end of a performance at the Hydro in Glasgow.

And the audience erupted in cheers when Lilly-Jane Young, who plays Wendy Darling, said: “Yes” right away.

 

Holocaust Survivor Meets Her Liberator Nearly 70 Years Later

It’s been almost 70 years, but Marsha Kreuzman still remembers the moment she laid outside the steps of a Nazi crematorium wishing she could die.

Kreuzman had already lost her mother, father and brother to the Holocaust, and death seemed inevitable, she said.

But then an American soldier picked up her 68-pound body and whisked her to safety.

“I wanted to kiss his hand and thank him,” she said. “From the first day I was liberated, I wanted to thank them, but I didn’t know who to thank.”

Since then, the now-90-year-old Holocaust survivor has been on a decades-long quest to find American soldiers who liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp, one that didn’t have any success until she met Joe Barbella, two months ago, quite by chance.

Their unlikely meeting — and now a budding friendship — has given Kreuzman a pleasant twist to an otherwise-tragic story.

That tale begins in Krakow, Poland.

After the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, Kreuzman and her family were sent to the Krakow ghetto. In 1940, her mother was taken to the Majdanek concentration camp, where she was killed.

Marsha Kreuzman says the rest of the family was then taken to the Plashov, a labor camp just outside of Krakow, built on top of two former Jewish cemeteries.

There, she recalls, Nazis would punish or kill those who were too sick or weak to work.

“If they were able to work, they would be able to live,” said Michael Riff, director of Ramapo College’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “It was a matter of life or death

It was a strategy Kreuzman and her family would come to know intimately.

“They didn’t let us live, but they didn’t let us die,” Kreuzman said.

At one point, Kreuzman didn’t finish building a road because it was raining, and guards responded by beating her with a wet horse’s whip. The scars from knots that were tied into the whip remain on her back to this day, she said. Another time, they hung her upside down on a door for several hours during the night after she tried to visit her brother, she said.

On Yom Kippur in 1943, Kreuzman’s father was found hiding in a ditch, where the camp’s bathrooms were. Nazi soldiers lined up him and dozens of other Jews one by one in front of the camp’s occupants and shot them to death, according to Kreuzman.

“They shot him in front of us,” she said.

Her brother, Stephan Grunberg, would be next.

On May 13, 1944, Nazi soldiers rounded up some of the camp’s prisoners, including Grunberg. German doctors inspected each person and sent those they deemed capable of working to the right and those who were considered unable to work to the left.

Grunberg was sent to the left — and later to Auschwitz to be killed.

“Then I was alone,” Kreuzman said.

In January 1945, Kreuzman and other prisoners were marched for five days and four nights to Auschwitz. She said she was eventually transferred to concentration camps across Eastern Europe: Bergen-Belsen, then Flossenbürg and finally Mauthausen.

By that time, Joe Barbella was serving in the 11th Armored Division. Because he had learned to type at Central High School in Newark, when he was drafted into the Army, he was quickly assigned to be a record keeper for the division’s medical unit, he said.

On May 5, 1945, U.S. soldiers from the 11th Armored Division would cross the Linz border in Austria and liberate Mauthausen. Barbella wouldn’t enter the camp with the medical unit until the day after it was liberated, he said.

“When we got there, we saw all these people were skin and bones,” Barbella said.

Kreuzman said she remembers lying down just outside the camp’s crematorium when the soldiers arrived. She heard the words: “You’re free.”

She fainted and a soldier carried her to a field hospital, where doctors would start nursing her back to health, she said.

After the war, Kreuzman spent a few years in England before moving to the United States in 1952. Barbella returned to New Jersey, building a comfortable life with his wife, Anne.

Working as a nurse and living in New Jersey, Kreuzman always wondered about the American men who crossed enemy lines to free her and other Jews from the Austrian concentration camp.

She even wrote letters to men in telephone books she thought might have been connected to the Army division that liberated Mauthausen.

“I always look for liberators,” she said. “I wasn’t giving up.”

Then, in October, nearly 70 years after her liberation, she came across a wedding anniversary announcement in The Star-Ledger for Joe and Anne Barbella’s 65th anniversary.

“A veteran of World War II, Joseph served in the 11th Armored Division which liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp,” the announcement said.

The next day, a tearful Kreuzman called the Barbellas and told Anne Barbella that she was one of the Jews whom Joe liberated.

They arranged a meeting at the Barbellas’ home later that month.

“They really welcomed me with open arms,” Kreuzman said about the two-hour visit.

Barbella said he felt like he has known Kreuzman for years, though he shied away from her descriptions of his work as heroic. “I’m just an ordinary solider,” he said.

Since they met, the two have become fast friends. Kreuzman talks to the Barbella family regularly on the phone. Recently, she invited Barbella, his wife and daughter for lunch at her apartment.

And last week she brought him a Christmas gift.

“He deserves to be honored.”

Woman Responds to Antigay Neighbors Hate Over Pride Flag by Making House Even GAYER!

An Irvine, Calif. woman raised a rainbow flag on her home in a show of support for LGBT people last April only to become the target of antigay rhetoric and hate mail, reports The Pleasure Chest.com. But don’t worry, because Dr. Mary Pham beat the hate with an absolutely brilliant response that is actually also perfect timing for the holiday season!

Pham raised her pride flag last spring as her neighbors were raising seasonal and sports flags. A friend had warned her against the rainbow flag saying, “Not in Irvine, Mary,” but Pham hung her flag despite the protestation, according to our friends at the Pleasure Chest.

“Look, either you know what it is or you don’t,” Pham said in response. “Either it’s a pride flag, or it’s just a rainbow flag. And if it’s a pride flag, and you notice, either you like it or you hate it. And if you hate it then you’re just a jerk.”

Within a few months Pham heard stories that some of her neighbors had penned hateful letters to the Home Owners Association. One person deemed Pham’s flag a “fag flag.”

In the face of controversy Pham consulted with The Center OC, the local LGBT center, and the director there suggested she file a police report as a precaution.

Just this month she was interviewed for the OC Weekly and Pham told the paper that she had decided to fight hate with love (and thousands of sparkly rainbow lights). Here’s what Pham and her son did to make the biggest statement she could think to make!

Amazing Flash Mob Proposal

Adorable 5 y.o. signs Christmas carol for her deaf parents during school pageant

An adorable five year old girl named Claire was in her kindergarten Christmas pageant singing a Santa-version of “Bingo was his name-o.” But she wanted her deaf parents to be able to enjoy the song, so she signed it for them in the middle of the pageant.

The girl is a total ham. They also did Rudolph and Dreidel Dreidel too.

Football team rallies around 6-year-old suit-wearing water coach

Danny Keefe has childhood apraxia of speech, which means he doesn't speak very well. He also loves to wear suits and ties, even though he's only 6 years old.

So when 11-year-old Tommy Cooney heard Danny was getting picked on at school because of the way he talks, he decided to do something about it.

He put on a suit and tie, too.

Their relationship began this past spring when Danny asked his mom if he could join the Bridgewater (Mass.) Badgers peewee football team as water coach. The team's coach, Thomas Cooney, said yes and Danny was given a football jersey like the rest of the team.

"But he asked Coach Cooney if it would be OK if he didn't wear the shirt, but he could he wear his suits and a hat to the games," Danny's mother, Jennifer Keefe, told Yahoo News. "He just feels more comfortable."

Six-year-old Danny Keefe prefers to wear suits and ties. (Courtesy of Jennifer Keefe)

She's not exactly sure where his affinity for dressing up comes from, but she says Danny's wardrobe consists of five or six suits and various ties to go with them.

"They get pretty worn," Jennifer Keefe said, "because that's all he wears."

From the day he was born, doctor's warned Danny's parents that he would be severely disabled due to a serious brain hemorrhage, according to the Enterprise.

"You can understand a couple words, but you probably can't understand the story he's telling you," Jennifer Keefe explained.

That's why Danny was picked on. Other kids call him a baby, his mother said.

One day, Danny came home from school sad that kids were picking on him. Keefe's older son, who is a member of the football team, told Tommy Cooney. Danny said, "I don't care what those kids think of me, it's only what I think of myself," according to Jennifer Keefe.

Tommy Cooney went to his mom and told her that he wanted to wear a suit to school.

"I thought it was so nice, I was so touched that he wanted to do that," Jennifer Keefe said. "Then, next thing you know, I'm getting texts from various parents saying, 'Where do you find suits? My son wants to wear a suit.' "

All told, 45 kids showed up to school in either full suits or shirts and ties, according to Keefe, who said it all began with Tommy wanting Danny "to feel loved."

"He was showing him he was loved by dressing like him."

Danny's reaction to the boys swanky threads?

"Just his expression," Jennifer Keefe said — "his eyes got really big, and a smile, and then he said, 'They're dressed just like me!'"