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I’m watching that documentary “Before Stonewall” about gay history pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.

So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.

Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

It appears that no one has made the connection between Dale Olson the publicity agent instrumental in the AIDS debate and Dale Olson the 22-year-old first openly gay man on TV. So I thought I’d make it. For Pride month, an unsung gay hero.

The last resort

I will never not love that he's literally in a fantasy/horror show where there are magic schools and witchs' staffs

And he escapes to the human realm, discovers sci-fi for himself (plus corny realistic wolf T-shirts) and is invested in nerddom like never before

ok yeah 

He’s a great influence (Tim broke into his flat)

"The general was vainly searching for the shadow of the past on this innocent face. The large drops of tear reflected a weakness that should not have appeared. "

i worry that someday, furina might actually try and sue venti. Not because venti could be stronger than her, and i'm certainly not worried about venti.

I worry because venti is a bard and bards are known to talk well. Not only will he talk himself out of all charges, he will probably somehow push them all onto furina and the fontaine justice system will need months to figure out what the fuck just happened.

And chief justice neuvillette will not speed up the process. Let the hydro archon learn her lesson as she spends like two months in jail.

Imagine the uproar. The hydro archon, god of justice, in jail. Venti would visit her daily.

Older Damian from the future for post related reasons: *is wearing glasses*

10yr old Damian: This is outrageous! I am a Wayne! An al Ghul! I would never succumb to such weakness as needing a visual aid!

Older Damian: *so done* Listen, whether you want to admit it or not we are, in fact, a human being. And as such there are only so many concussions we can get before there are consequences.

10yr Old Damian: But father has no such difficulty! And as his son neither should we!

Older Damian: Father is a lying little bitch that secretly wears contacts like the coward he is.

Bruce: *has been outed*

10yr old Damian: *shocked Pikachu face*

Older Damian: *smirks* And besides. Its not like I need to keep up the appearance of being invincible. I'm not even a vigilante anymore. I'm a doctor.

10yr old Damian: *demonic screaming*

tosses flower petals at u

did this as a lowkey redraw of this pic, for fun :')

yk i was expecting a turn but that was about 2 lefts, a right, a u-turn, had to go back cause we missed an exit, made a break stop, before finally getting the highway and landing what

wanna hear a wild story? my brother’s history professor is closing in on 80 and basically lives at the university. one night my brother visited him for a meeting, and it came up that my brother was gonna be performing as a court jester at the castle the following day. and his professor busts out: “ah, that reminds me of my youth!”

he then proceeded to tell the tale of when he and his friends went backpacking to greece back in their early 20s. then one day they found themselves completely penniless. so they decided that the only reasonable thing to do was to set up acrobatic shows in skimpy outfits on the beach at day, and then drink up the money at night.

after a week or so they gained some traction, and a gang of young greek men walked up to them like “hey y’all are cool as hell, can we join y’all for drinks tonight?” and my brother’s professor was like “of course! y’all have to wear these revealing outfits and do somersaults with us tho” and the greek gang said “sounds dope. y’all are invited to live with us for however long y’all want.”

anyhow, they proceeded to live like this for the better part of 3 months, doing shows, drinking, and sleeping at the greek gang’s apartment. but after a while they decided enough was enough, and said thank you for everything, but we’re going back to sweden now. and the greeks said “sure! love y’all have a safe trip xx”

half a year later my brother’s professor gets contacted by the greek police. they ask him about the months they spent in greece, and then informs him that their greek friends have been convicted of serial homicide and robbery. that the group of young greek men had joined up with several tourist groups for several years “for drinks”, and then killed and robbed them all, terrorising the beach city for several years. with one exception, of course, because “this one group of swedish acrobats in slutty strongman suits were just ‘so damn nice’”.

and that’s the story of how one swedish history university professor survived sharing a flat with a group of serial killers for several months by performing acrobatics in slutty outfits on the beach. moral of the story? be kind of heart, thicc of ass.