Growing Up Hayden

 

We’ve named our blog, Growing Up Hayden because we feel it’s a testament to what it is to live in the now, in a world where the LGBT community is fighting for acceptance and equality.  Our content is focused on all aspects of what it is to live, love and thrive in what’s still a very judgmental world.  Growing Up Hayden is a live narrative that we hope will continue to illustrate positive changes and a more and more loving, open and welcoming world.

True Brotherly Love

Chi Phi, a fraternity founded at Princeton University in 1824, recently changed its membership policy to be more inclusive. The fraternity has voted to allow transgender men with legal documentation to pledge, stating that “one change is never a stopping point” and that it hopes “this opens the door to further discussion about inclusivity.”

Is Chi Phi the first Greek organization to be more inclusive? To Hayden’s List relief, no. The trend over the last year is towards inclusivity and in surprising areas of the country. In March of 2015, Gamma Rho Lambda at the University of Texas became the first LGBTQ inclusive sorority. During the summer last year, the national fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon stated it would consider transgender men as pledges. And last fall, Missouri State University’s Xi Omicron Iota sorority chose to accept anyone who “identifies as a girl.”

ThinkProgress.org spoke to trans students last year for their article, “Greek Organizations Are Slowly Becoming More Trans Inclusive” who stated they were attracted to being a part of a Greek organization because of the closeness of its members compared to other student organizations. Fraternity and sorority members know that they can find each other in every geographical area which can be reassuring to a trans individual.

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TransPortrayal

TransPortrayal

Summer camp frequently promises outdoor adventures, new friends and possible summer romance.  But in the new TV show, Dead of Summer, which premiered on the Freeform network in June, a summer of fun turns into a summer of horror.

Dead of Summer joins shows like Orange is the New Black, Transparent and I Am Cait, in featuring a transgender character. The big difference is that Dead of Summer is set in 1989.

Zelda Williams, Robin Williams daughter, plays Drew, a quiet but cool guy counselor who also happens to be a transgender man. It is very important to Zelda to accurately portray a transgender man, because as Zelda points out, transgender men are not reflected as frequently in Hollywood as transgender women. “The thing I’m most terrified about is the transgender community being insulted by him,” Zelda told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s great that [the public] will get to learn about a male-identifying transgender character as a lead in an ensemble show, but really, more than anything, he is for the transgender community, because they don’t ever get to see him.… I hope that they’re happy with him, because I’m proud of him…. I’m really excited for people to see who he is.”

Zelda did research for her role with transgender men in order to get an accurate portrayal. She told Entertainment Weekly that “The transgender community deserves an honest portrayal, I can’t choose if they like his plot because I didn’t write it, but I can choose if they think that he’s not a stereotype, at least in how I hold myself, and that’s all I can do.”

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“There’s hope.”

Michael Richman and John Rabbia met three years ago at NYC Pride when they joined a group of flag dancers named, “The Flaggots.”  After dating long-distance, finally they found themselves in the same city so John decided to propose. For the perfect proposal he received help from the whole Flaggots team. During their routine at NYC Pride in June, John emerged out of an abundance of LGBT flags, got down on one knee and proposed to Michael.

The video has gone viral so quickly that some relatives are finding out about the engagement via social media. John explained to BuzzFeed that the video is very uplifting especially after the recent tragedy in Orlando. “The Orlando tragedy was so heartbreaking and everyone in the community was so upset and devastated,” he said. “It’s nice there’s a ray of sunshine at the end. There are new beginnings and our community is resilient. Maybe it gives people something to latch onto.”
“There is hope,” he said.

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Conversion Therapy?

According to GayStarnews.com: At the GOP platform held in Cleveland on Monday, an amendment sponsored by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in the subcommittee on healthcare, education, and crime pushed for the practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ individuals.
‘We support the right of parents to determine the proper treatment or therapy, for their minor children,’ the amendment said.

Read more here.

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The Evolution of Star Trek

The Evolution of Star Trek

Actor John Cho of Star Trek Beyond announced to the Herald Sun that his character, Hikaru Sulu, will identify as a gay man and have a daughter with his partner. The impetus was to honor the original actor of Sulu, LGBT activist George Takei. However, Takei is not happy with this idea. He feels that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and long time fans will not accept the change. “I’m delighted that there’s a gay character,” Takei says. “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”

Sulu’s daughter emerged in the 1995 Star Trek novel The Captain’s Daughter. The novel states that Sulu has a daughter with a “stunningly gorgeous woman.” Takei feels that this change is a poor way to honor Roddenberry, who was a strong supporter of LGBTQ equality. Takei also states that Roddenberry always envisioned Sulu as straight and changing his vision now is a poor way to honor him as the 50th anniversary of Star Trek approaches.

On the flip side, actor Zachary Quinto, also a member of the LGBTQ community is “disappointed” by Takei’s reaction. Quinto understands that Takei has a personal relationship with the character Sulu, but he points out that “we established in the first Star Trek film in 2009, we’ve created an alternate universe”. Quinto hopes that Takei can see the other side, which is “the enormously positive response from especially young people, who are heartened by and inspired by this really tasteful and beautiful portrayal of something that I think is gaining acceptance and inclusion in our societies across the world — and should be.”

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Teammates for Life

British field hockey players, Helen Richardson-Walsh and Kate Richardson-Walsh, are more than just teammates on the field, they’re also a married couple.  They’ve played field hockey together for nearly twenty years, been a couple for eight and finally married in 2013.  And if that weren’t enough, it gets better: the world will get to watch them work their “near telepathic magic” (as one of their coaches puts it) on the field in the Rio Olympics.

We can’t wait to cheer them on next month and the other 34 Out LGBTQI athletes heading to Rio!

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Splash “I’m Gay!” Mountain

Splash “I’m Gay!” Mountain

Gina, a 16 year old from California, has known that she was gay for about a year. During this time, she was contemplating ways of coming out to her family. Gina knew that she wanted her “come out” to her family to reflect her personality and a family trip to Disneyland was just that opportunity. Gina posed with her hand-made “I’m gay” sign while riding Splash Mountain with her Mom. Gina told BuzzFeed “I am not the type of person to have a deep, sit-down conversation, so I wanted to tell them in a lighthearted and fun way.”

Gina’s Mom then texted the photo to her Dad and brother and the response from family, friends and social media has been positive. Gina’s twitter picture has been re-tweeted over 4000 times. “People have responded saying I’ve inspired them to do the same thing, which I think is the coolest part of it all,” she said.

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