I am going to do a profile on a famous gay person. I have thought of going to a gay bar this weekend, like the stone wall, but I can't find anyone to go with me and I never go to bars alone. So I have found a list of famous people I am going to do research on. Here is some: Ru Paul, Matthew Sherpard, or Chastity Bono. Any Suggestions would be great.
Profile:
Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge is a singer of modern rock who has come out of the closet so to speak. She was born in Leavenworth, Kansas to John and Elizabeth Etheridge. Her father died before her coming out but her mother is still living. I went to ask her some questions about how she feels about the turns of events. Now that she is a mother and a strong female idle.
Melissa, you seem to be a strong woman figured today how you feel about people saying that you are a feminist. Do you think that you are one? ”Absolutely. When my first album came out in 1988 people would ask me, "Are you a feminist?" and I wouldn't know what it was. Feminism had gotten such a bad reputation. I'd say "Oh no, I'm just making music." I didn't understand what feminism was until 1992 when I read Susan Faludi's book, Backlash. I realized that what we were being fed about feminism, not feminism itself, was scaring away young women like myself who were just coming into their own. I believe in equality - professionally, politically, personally. That's feminism.”
When you came out at President Clinton's inaugural ball and told the world that hey I’m gay what made you do it. "I have a lot of reasons for it," she said of the turnabout. "If I'm willing to talk about it and be up front about it and truthful, the majority of the people actually respect that and leave me alone. I get more privacy.” How did your mother take it? “That was one of the first real discussions we ever had. She knew I was gay, but we hadn't really talked about it. I said, "Hey, I think we should talk about this a little bit," and that was when we had out first real conversation. She has been very supportive.” You and her didn't along to well there at first. Why was that? "I didn’t really get to know my mother until I was 25. After my father died and she retired, we got really close. She went through a big change. She discovered herself, and it made a big difference to her own personal journey. Right now she's one of my best friends.”
How do you feel about your values in life and how you have changed over the years? “Where my values come from is in recognizing intolerance, in myself and in others. I am a growing, learning human being. I've certainly changed from 10 years ago, from the 25-year-old who wrote the first album. The experiences now are different, what I draw on is different, and I want to be different. I want to get more into different places of my life for writing.
You spoke out about the proposition 22 in the March 7th ballot which would prohibit California from legally recognizing same-sex marriages that was legally done in other states. What are your views on that? "What Proposition 22 does is tell me, my partner, my children, that we are less than my neighbor."
On this last note what do think the future has in store for you. "It is new territory. It gets kind of scary. You just hope. You try to believe in the inherent goodness in human beings. We all have different opinions, and that's fine. But we all live and let live. It actually gives me a lot of hope about this world, and especially about our country. I don't know what ultimately will happen there. As long as I stay true to myself and honest in my work and create respectable, good work, then all that other stuff will eventually fade."
How true those words ring a bell it only people can stay true to themselves and judge people on their works and actions and not on their character and how the live or look we could all get head in life.
Web page: cybernietic.com/etheridge/home/idex.php
Quotes from: Maureen Littlejohn, “Modern Woman”, April 1996