Most influential internet videos of 2011

To kick off the new year I thought I’d post internet videos that were influential to me (and others) last year.  Not all these videos were published in 2011 but that’s when I first watched them.  Here they are.

Early last year Republicans proposed legislation that would eliminate abortion funding for rape victims.  Jon Stewart made them look pretty foolish on The Daily Show.  Wordpress won’t let me embed this video, so click the link below to watch it.  You’ll be redirected to The Daily Show website.

Rape Victim Abortion Funding – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

ABC has a showed called What Would You Do?  This is the first episode I saw which depicts a lesbian couple with their daughter being confronted by their waiter.

Here’s a video by Linda Stay.  She relates how she learned her son Tyler is gay and what that experience was like from a Mormon perspective.  She goes into more depth on these experiences in the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition.

Emily Pearson also appeared in 8: The Mormon Proposition.  In this video she relates experiences with gay men she was close to and her journey out of the LDS Church.

Here’s an ABC Nightline report on Journey into Manhood, a gay conversion camp many gay Mormons participate in.

2011 Tribute to Lady GaGa

And of course, no blog authored by a gay man would be complete without a tribute to Lady GaGa.  Here are my top videos by the Lord herself.  To start, here’s a video by Jonah Mowry that captured Her (capital H-E-R) attention.

Lady GaGa responded to teen suicide possibly more than any other celebrity.  She brought these suicides to the attention of officials in the White House.  Although she is written off too frequently because of her eccentricity, she’s doing some pretty cool things for LGBTQ youth.  Here’s her tribute to Jamey Rodemeyer who committed suicide in 2011.

Here’s a story by ABC about GaGa’s efforts to stop bullying.

Finally, here’s a parody of Lady GaGa’s Edge of Glory reminds me of our commitment ceremony.  This was created around the time New York passed gay marriage.

Stay together for the children: divorce and mixed-orientation marriages

This story from the New York Times is all too familiar in the gay Mormon community: a gay man, who doesn’t understand his attractions for the same sex, marries a straight woman.  (These marriages are referred to as mixed-orientation marriages.)  When women are viewed as the ticket to heaven (or exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom), the situation can be quite complex.  Emily Pearson, daughter of Carol Lynn Pearson, tells about her experience and the experience of her mom in her I’m an Ex-Mormon video.