All of you who have recently come out to your parents, including TryingtobeHappy, need to pull out your family newspaper TODAY and show this to her parents. Have them read the middle letter! http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/
It does seem like a typical agony aunt response to a subject she knows very little about but she tried to understand, make some useful suggestions and gave a couple of helpful resources where TORMENTED GIRL and other readers can get more support. It would be good if she was able to give EC as a resource too, but it could cause problems with the wrong people finding the website.
Dear Abby has mentioned PFLAG over and over again in her column. That's why we gave her the Straight for Equality award at the last National conference. She is a wonderful supporter of PFLAG. I'd like to see her mention EC too. Probably looking at the benefits verses attracting the wrong people would be beneficial for the staff to review. Also Dear Abby is published in almost every American newspaper including those in the midwest and the Bible belt where acceptance is so difficult for kids.
>>>Dear Abby has always been gay-friendly. Actually, no, she hasn't. A bit of backstory. Dear Abby (Abigail Van Buren) and her twin sister Ann Landers both wrote syndicated advice columns for several decades. Ann Landers wrote from 1955-2002, and the original Dear Abby wrote from 1956-1995, when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. At that point, she turned the column over to her daughter Jeanne, who has continued to write under the "Dear Abby" name. Both writers tended to be more or less in tune with the times, although both could be somewhat progressive. Back in 1973, Ann Landers wrote in support of the legalization of homosexuality, and said acts, saying that she had been "pleading for compassion and understanding and equal rights for homosexuals" for 18 years. That said, she used the terms "unnatural," "sickness," and "dysfunction" to describe homosexuality during that period. I don't have any citations from old Dear Abby columns, but I'm positive she wrote similar things. These were the prevailing opinions of the time, however - I don't think they should be held against them. Jeanne, also mirroring the prevailing attitudes of the times, has a much more enlightened view on homosexuality. A few random tidbits since I'm talking about these two. * Both Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren are pseudonyms. Their real names were Esther ("Eppy") Friedman and Pauline ("Popo") Friedman. Which makes sense - would you write Dear Popo for advice? * Despite being twins who did precisely the same thing for a living, they spent most of their lives estranged from one another. Lex
Ok,sorry! Maybe I should have said,since I have been reading Dear Abby,I have not seen a negative comment about gay people. Thanks,Lex,the trivia was enlightening and interesting!
This is reeeeally random... But my grandma went to high school with the original Dear Abby. And of course, that's a really neat response :]