Wilson Cruz looks toward future after show cancellation

By Jeff Walsh

Truth isn't stranger than fiction for Wilson Cruz.

When Cruz portrayed Rickie last year on the acclaimed-albeit-canceled television show "My So-Called Life," truth doubled as fiction as he brought his own painful and sometimes repressed memories of growing up gay to the screen.

The show was lauded by critics for its honesty and willingness to talk about real issues concerning teenagers. And as many television shows spent the holiday season making oh-so-hip references to "It's a Wonderful Life" while showing family togetherness scenes that would make Newt Gingrich feel all warm inside, My So-Called Life told a bitter truth as it followed Rickie, who ran away from home before Christmas because he was having problems with his sexuality.

Prayers for Bobby

A new book examines a gay son's suicide, and his mother's new life.

By Jeff Walsh

Bobby Griffith's four-year struggle with being gay and trying to live a Christian life ended on Aug. 27, 1983.

On that day, the twenty-year-old California man backflipped off a freeway overpass in Portland, OR., timing his leap so his body would be struck and killed by an oncoming tractor-trailer.

Gay Pride

By Jeff Walsh

To this writer, gay pride always seemed an uneven mix of sex and politics. But that all changed when I went to the 1994 Pride Parade in New York City. I had written against gay pride parades before attending that event, but my viewpoint changed when I saw the school bus come down the street.

It's all kind of surreal now, so I don't know if it was a real school bus. For some reason, I think it was a fake float made to look like a school bus. In any event, the float was sponsored by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a gay city high school.

Latest journal entries.

alana's picture

don't want to fall apart again

my life is really awful. i don't even want to go into it, but i don't understand why everyone has to fuck with my heart. i just don't get it. and its always by the same people over and over again. sometimes i want to disappear...to fade away and see if anyone notices. but maybe someday i'll find someone who just loves me for me. maybe someday i'll love myself too.

out of the flames's picture

i just want to be seen and heard, please, please

I am so fucking angry i am shaking with rage. i can't even sit still. I am just in total break down mode. i know if i cut right now i would go way too far and most likely end up leaving forever. I don't even know what i am angry about!? I just want to be seen! thats why i don't eat, becasue i am never seen! i just want to be seen for what i am! i don't give a fuck what i look like as long as i am seen! nobody sees me anymore, i am problems, issuses.

desert13's picture

Sightings

In a valiant effort to avoid narcissism and talk about someone other than myself, I'm going to describe the life of Andrew, a crush of mine.

adbak's picture

You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown

On the way back home, I noticed something all to common in my town. You see, Carmel is a bedroom community, meaning that people sleep here yet work elsewhere for the most part. A side effect is empty streets, save for the people emptying from the high school after the aforementioned play. It was 9:30 on a Friday night, yet Carmel was a ghostown. Sometimes I just want to move.

Damnit, I can't remember this really good quote from "Sure Thing." So instead, I'll substitute something another.

out of the flames's picture

my parents

lets see...hmmm
well they don't accept me at all. they can't even look at me anymore. They cringe at my rainbow bracelet, the word CASTRO is like scary to them. I hate the feeling of not being loved. They think crazy things like my school did this to me, it is not fair. Nothing is fair anymore, i think the phrase has lost all meaning. They are always trying to change me, they won't let me form my own identity.

erroltheturtle's picture

time-travelling antarctic creatures

depression really is anger without enthusiasm. this one bloke i really was in love with, who of course didnt like me at all, ran away a bloody few hundred kilometres to a cultural abyss for uni. should i be upset, i dont know anymore. but today, maybe not long ago, he got in the car on the way to glorious where-i'm-not town. its like high-school love of my life, gone running away, probably oblivious completely.

vel's picture

Frustration

Lets get this clear, I am a go getter. I pretty much see something I want and I go for it, I see something I think needs to be done and I do it. I'm ambitious. And it pisses me off and makes me so frustrated to be closeted to the majority of my peers. I mean, I can't stand up for myself when I want to, I can't say something I am really feeling, and what's worse, I can't just be silent - I have to lie! I have to say "yes, blah blah blah, I would like to see that [horrible aweful terrible unrealistic] movie.... yes I don't mind that [sexist demeaning sick] song that you wanted to listen to. Because if I disagree I would have to explain myself and I'm (insert mocking tone here) too afraid.


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