As a sometimes reader of the Huffington Post, I came across the article (linked to above) about the Emery Awards at the Hetrick-Martin institute. I was first fascinated by the legacy of the institute, not having heard of it before. The gay couple Dr. Emery Hetrick and Dr. Damien Martin were lifelong educators on gay and lesbian issues, with Dr. Hetrick being a psychiatrist, and Dr. Martin a professor at New York University. In 1979 they heard the story of a 15-year-old gay boy who had been beaten severely and thrown out of his emergency shelter because he was gay. After hearing this story, the Drs. Created the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth in cooperation with many other concerned individuals in 1979. The Institute was dedicated to supporting this young portion of the population that desperately needed support and protection. Later, in 1988, the Institute was renamed after its founders and their commitment, and is today known as the Hetrick-Martin Institute. Today, the institute also houses a school for gay youth.
This year marked the 24th annual Emery Awards, which honor individuals who support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. Several celebrities were honored, and many more attended, ostensibly showing their support for the LGBT community by proxy of their presence. As I read about the founding of this institute, I was astounded and impressed that two Doctors and life partners in the late 1970s in New York were able to found an institute expressly dedicated to gay and lesbian youth, and keep it open despite stigma and opposition that I am sure existed. Now, I do not know the entire history of this institute, but it seems to be a very progressive institution that realized the need for itself as soon as the Doctors knew of the problem of informal anti-gay persecution. It is possible that the United State’s allowance of free speech helped the Doctors in their quest to help the young LGBT community, as I am certain that there was not complete acceptance of homosexuality in the 1979, as there still is not today, over 30 years later.
One last thing that struck me the most about this article was its short discussion of some of the events, who the MC was, who hosted the live auction, etc. in that reality star Bethenny Frankel was the host of the auction, and was “promising high bidders oral sex with her husband. The audience roared with laughter”. What struck me about this was the use of heterosexual language or acts to support the inclusion of homosexuality into our society. I thought it was just such an interesting interplay between homosexuality and heterosexuality that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on the acceptability of this kind of open (hetero)sexual talk, and wonder if there were the same sorts of comments about homosexuality as well.
Can heterosexuality be used to support homosexuality? Is talking about sexuality becoming more accepted on the whole, or are we just becoming more comfortable with our “norm” of heterosexuality? And lastly, what does joking about heterosexual acts in the context of awards for supporting LGBT rights mean?
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