Oasis and OutProud have always been sister sites, and after 16 years of providing services to LGBT youth, OutProud shut down recently (and is forwarding its web traffic here).
OutProud was the first organization in 1993 to provide outreach to queer youth on a national basis -- first on AOL and then over the Internet.
We will be adding more resources here in the future, but for now, feel free to join Oasis and start making friends with other LGBT* youth from around the world.
By Jeff Walsh
"The New Twenty" is a movie about a group of college friends who live in New York City. When the movie starts, we see them posing for a picture on their graduation day from college. After that we jump ahead a few years and see how they are growing up and apart.
There are two gay guys in the group of friends. One is an overweight guy who continually gets rejected on Internet sex sites. And the other is an Asian guy who starts falling in love with someone HIV positive. Most of the story revolves around the one friend who is starting a business and how that affects things.
For me, the movie just never grabbed me and made me interested in any of the characters, plots, or subplots. So, it wasn't that the movie was bad, inasmuch as it was just… there.
By Jeff Walsh
"Finding Me" is an interesting movie to watch, because most of the time I watched it, my verbtaim thoughts were soon repeated back to me. The main character of the movie, Faybien, starts off as an aimless guy who has no academic interests or a good job. But, we see him phone a friend when he sees Lonnie, a hot guy that often appears at his bus stop. In the call, he is excited to see the guy there again and decides he needs to finally say hi.
It's only after that point that the character keeps going in circles, where he keep deciding what he wants in life. But that's where it got amusing, because when the character would frustrate me and I'd think 'What is this kid's problem?', one of the characters in the movie would say 'What's your problem?' Later, I'd think, he needs to do something already and stop thinking everything through so much. Then a character would say 'You need to just go for it.'
So, on one hand, I guess I really understood how taxing it is to be Faybien's friend, but I don't think that was the point of the movie, which is really about him getting over his homophobic father, his dead mother, and other issues, and finally decide how he wants to live his life. But since you sort of know it's the only clear path, and the one he's likely to take before the credits roll, it takes him a long time getting there.
I had the weirdest dream ever while napping! But that shall come later. I had an unusual day! First of all, it is the most Februaryish day that ever Februaryed in the long prominent history of Februarying. In other words, it looked like a cold London day, with a constant misty rain falling, and no light at all. It was slippery, and I almost died several times going to school. Then a friend was angry at me, but it was something that wasn't my fault, so no drama ensued, unfortunatly. I was also in the newspaper for some article my friend wrote, which was neat! But I hadn't read it until just now. It was really good!
First it was him
And then it was me
And now its you
It spread like a disease
and now it effects us all
We all were looking for a way out
Or maybe we were jealous of the attention he got
He was the weirdest of us all
His pain was noticed and we still blended in with the rest
Then we each had cuts to match
A cut for each ounce of self-hatred
A cut to numb
A cut to show the world what we experienced
Too many people stuck between rocks and hard places lately. And jumping from frying pans to fires. God, I wish I knew you people in real life. Then I could help you out and make out with the girls and have lots of zany, queer fun. But I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Homophobic, no-gay-zone environment vs. lots of hot, hot girls with which to make out. Most of the kids seem okay with gays, but I'm worried about the Albertans and other gay bashers.
A rant of who I hate and why, and why I am crazy. I don't know why?....................................................................(will the dots ends?)...................(perhaps)................................(then perhaps)..................(not)..
A piece that came to me while I was sitting in Econ class today, mulling over the ever-prominant fact that none of my friends here know that I'm gay.