• 38,775 Plays
  • BraveSara Bareilles

I adore this woman — her voice, lyrics, humor, potty mouth…everything. Her new single is streaming online today and will be available on iTunes on 4/23. This is a good song about taking control of your own destiny.

davidnation:

“You can be amazing. You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug. You can be the outcast, be the backlash, of somebody’s lack of love. Or you can start speaking up. Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do when they settle ‘neath your skin, kept on the inside, no sunlight, sometimes a shadow wins. I wonder what would happen if you say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be Brave. Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be Brave. Just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I wanna see you be Brave. Just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I wanna see you be Brave. Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down by the enemy. Falling for the fear and doubts are disappearing; bow down to the mighty. Don’t run, stop holding your tongue. Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live. Maybe one of these days you can let the light in. Show me how big your Brave is. Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be Brave. Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be Brave. Innocence, your history of silence won’t do you any good, did you think it would? Let your words be anything but empty, why don’t you tell them the truth? Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be Brave. Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be Brave. Just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I wanna see you be Brave. Just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you. See you be Brave. Just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you, I just wanna see you.”

(via sarabfans)

Source: davidnation

If you want to see how far we’ve come, check out Time’s recent coverage of changes in attitude toward marriage equality. If you want to see how far we have to go, read the public comments. timelightbox: Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME Jake Harrison, 31, interior design & Christopher Cunningham, 38, talent agent Together for 4 years, live in Los Angeles Christopher (right): “We met in Brooklyn in 2008 and we pretty much knew a week in that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Getting married always seemed like something that wasn’t an option and never would be so we tried not to think about it too much. We knew we were happily committed and we made do with that. Now, just because of the way things are changing so quickly, we might get married.” Continue reading here.
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If you want to see how far we’ve come, check out Time’s recent coverage of changes in attitude toward marriage equality.

If you want to see how far we have to go, read the public comments.

timelightbox:

Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME

Jake Harrison, 31, interior design & Christopher Cunningham, 38, talent agent Together for 4 years, live in Los Angeles

Christopher (right): “We met in Brooklyn in 2008 and we pretty much knew a week in that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Getting married always seemed like something that wasn’t an option and never would be so we tried not to think about it too much. We knew we were happily committed and we made do with that. Now, just because of the way things are changing so quickly, we might get married.”

Continue reading here.

The (Rainbow-Colored) Elephant in the Room + a Book Recommendation

It’s been roughly four months since I sent the coming-out letter to my parents, and I have mixed emotions about where things stand. In short, my being gay has become the (rainbow-colored) elephant in the room; it’s simply not discussed…at least not with me. I don’t press the situation because I’ve said everything I have to say, and I suppose I should be thankful that my father is no longer offering to send me to Straight Camp. Still, I feel that there’s a certain artificiality to our relationship, though it’s certainly not as plastic as it was before I came out to them; I no longer feel the need to edit my life, and I’m not afraid of slipping up and saying something that will give them a coronary. For the first time in my entire life, I feel I can, for the most part, let down my guard around my parents.

On occasion I get reports from my brother that my dad has made some comment to him about how he’s done research and has found stories of happy ex-gays, but of course they’re all from websites of ex-gay ministries or others who believe gay people should and can be cured. I’ve stated in no uncertain terms to my father that I don’t need to be “fixed,” so all I can do is continue living my life in a way that proves to them that all of the negative images they have of gay people don’t apply to me, and hopefully they’ll eventually realize that I’m the rule, not the exception.

On a related note, last month I had the immense pleasure of reading a book called “Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate” by Justin Lee. This book is simply fantastic. Like Justin, I grew up a “God boy” with a relatively normal and happy childhood, so I throw a kink in the belief that gay people are the product of an absent father and/or domineering mother or that we were all sexually abused as children. He provides a very level-headed dissection of all of the Bible verses and other arguments many Christians and their churches use to vilify gay people, challenging the church to rethink its stance on the LGBT community and vice-versa.

When I tweeted my admiration of the book, my brother looked it up and immediately purchased a copy for our parents. I’m not sure if he’s given it to them yet or if they’ve read it (or if they even will), but it does an excellent job of articulating all of the ways I was able to reconcile my being gay with the Christian faith that I was raised with. It says everything I’d want to say to my father and others who are so staunch in their beliefs, and I hope he will one day be able to read it with and open mind and process what it has — and, by proxy, I have — to say.