I love the Olympics. As long as I can remember, the Olympics have been a must-watch event for me and my family, and gave momentary inspiration that I too could be an Olympic athlete.
The London Games, however, offer a different challenge than in years passed. I still think I could find a random sport in which to achieve Olympic stardom, but as a spectator I have to decide if I want to find out results ahead of time, or wait until the American television coverage. I find I am choosing the latter.
The London Olympics are considered the first real-time Games, according to Mashable.com. NBC is hosting 3,500 hours of live coverage on nine TV channels, plus online streaming, compared to the 2,200 live hours provided from Beijing in 2008, and the 400 hours shown from Vancouver two years ago.
Chaz Bono danced with the stars, Lady Gaga spoke out after a “Little Monster” committed suicide, a gay teen’s video went viral when he defended his two moms to the Iowa legislature, and gay characters went all the way on “Glee.”
LGBT individuals and issues were everywhere in the media this year. Here are some of the biggest moments from social media, television, music, movies and theater.
The year’s biggest LGBT media moments
Credited with helping fuel uprisings in faraway places such as Egypt and Libya, Facebook is also revolutionizing the gay rights movement — and the overall LGBT experience — across the United States.
The social networking site was the primary tool used by grassroots organizers in numerous cities throughout the country as they planned protests in response to the passage of Prop 8, the gay marriage ban, in California in 2008. It has amplified the visibility of gay-affirming campaigns such as National Coming Out Day and the National Day of Silence, and provided broad exposure for new initiatives including the No H8 photo project and National Spirit Day, when people were encouraged to wear purple and infuse purple into their profile photo to express solidarity against anti-gay bullying.
But Facebook’s effect on LGBT lives has been far more personal than organizing and getting the word out about gay events. For LGBT adults, the site has dramatically altered the coming-out process — either making it easier by replacing countless, emotionally wrought conversations with friends, co-workers and people from one’s past, or complicating the effort to remain closeted when every status update or photo you post is showered with flattering comments from people of the same sex.