New Blog

[Yettie One]

Hey everyone.

 

I have been working on a concept of establishing and creating a online blog for the gay community around the globe.

 

The reason I am posting here is I am looking for contributors to the blog. Basically that will mean that you write as and when you can for the blog, giving thoughts, ideas, reaction to various news and stuff within the wider gay community, things going on in your own country, stuff you think would be interesting to other gay people.

 

The blog will also carry resource material for gay people, links to good and reputable organisations and other sites, and recommendation for reputable places for gays to meet other people.

 

One of the advantages of blogging through this new domain is that it will be set up in such a way that what ever contribution you make will route directly back to your GA page through a weblink similar to a signature at the end of your post. Hopefully this will bring a good way to bring extra readers to GA.

 

The idea is to get enough people to add to the blog so that there is a constant stream of new information pulling traffic through the site, and then launch a section where we will try encourage a couple of gay celebrities to join and blog as special guests.

 

One of the main reasons for the idea is centred around my work with African communities and the isolation and fear that Gay African's feel. Many of them live in countries where it is illegal and taboo to even consider same sex relations. It would be nice to be able to reach out and touch a part of our Gay family/society that doesn't always get the support it needs. So while the blog will be generic with contribution from all over the world, there will be a dedicated portion of the site to African cultures and gay men and women in Africa.

 

This is still an idea in concept stages, so if you have any ideas or thoughts, your input is appreciated. If you are really interested in getting involved, please give me a shout and we'll drive the project forward together.

 

Thanks for your time and consideration.

[Mark92]

It sounds like an awful lot of work Rob Let me get the piglets over with and I'll have more time. Good Luck

[Ashi]

It does sound like an ambitious project. How are you going about to gather source materials? It looks like it's going to be great for the gay community and put things into perspective in a more grassroot sort of way, the ones that common people can relate more. I'll look forward to see your final result.

[LJH]

i would love to be involved from the African perspective. It's a sad situation that being gay in countries like Malawi and Zimbabwe and even Southern Africa are still stigmatized and devoid of their rightful place in society. African lesbians especially take the brunt of the war against homosexuality. Corrective rape, beatings and even murder have been reported almost on a daily basis. This is not a sign of the times we live in. This is a case of the uneducated taking revenge on a minority whom they feel do not exist because the word Gay, Homosexual, Queer, does not exist in their vocabulary. In the Johannesburg metropolitan area, several young gay men have been murdered. The modus operandii is the same every time, yet the police refuse to believe this could be a serial killer. They have not found anything to link anyone to to the murders, and they believe that the murders have been committed by a different person every time. Why do they refuse to look into the suggestion that it is one person? Maybe this is because we are in the minority and the minority do not deserve the same rights as the majority who are married with families.

 

So yes, if you would like me to contribute, I will be happy to.

 

Regards

[Johnathan Colourfield]

I'm interested.

[Yettie One]

Thanks to everyone that has contacted me behind the scenes or posted here, your support for this idea has been incredible.

 

To answer a few of the thoughts/concerns brought up please allow me to respond to some stuff.

 

 

It sounds like an awful lot of work Rob

Heya Marky Mark. Yeah it will be a lot of work for those behind the scenes that help with running and establishing the blog, but the idea is to in the initial instances aim to gather a team of 30 bloggers. That would mean that each month, anyone of the contributing bloggers would only need to post once to mean that each day we have something new on the blog. Of course some people will have more time or more inclination to post more regularly, but it'd be based on people contributing what they can, when they can.

 

 

How are you going about to gather source materials?

Hi Ashi, thanks for your comments. The resource part of the site will be based on a system of readers being able to recommend resources that they use. These will then be vetted and provided that they offer something seen to be beneficial, advantageous or useful for the wider community, links will be placed into our reference section.

 

As for the subject matter of the blog posts, that will be left to each individual contributor. The idea is to create a place where gay people from every walk of life can come, read what other people are going through, read about others perceptions on current affairs, get a giggle from some humour or just find out what is happening in the world at large from other peoples point of view. It is about giving people a platform to share and communicate to an audience that is sometimes oppressed and lonely through isolation of their circumstances, people who just need to know they are not alone and there are people out there that understand what they feel and are going through.

 

Hope that explains it a little better.

 

 

i would love to be involved from the African perspective. It's a sad situation that being gay in countries like Malawi and Zimbabwe and even Southern Africa are still stigmatized and devoid of their rightful place in society. African lesbians especially take the brunt of the war against homosexuality. Corrective rape, beatings and even murder have been reported almost on a daily basis.

Hi Louis. Bro you are so right. I am not sure that many people really appreciate the life that African gays have to lead, and I appreciate that you have reached out and shared your own observations.

 

Life as a homo in Africa is bloody hard, especially as a lesbian you are right.

 

But this is also the case for a lot of the world still. Places like huge parts of the Arab world, Israel, parts of the old Eastern Bloc in Europe, Russia, Communistic states and even places in our own countries here in the free world.

 

A blog that seeks to encourage, support and share by people within the community for the community just seems to make sense more to me. We don't need something fancy or polished, just real, genuine and honest. That is the aim we are targeting for.

 

I've chatted to some people on Skype already, and been messaging with other behind the scenes. There is so much love and support which I really do appreciate and it inspires me.

Some really brilliant ideas for working in collaboration with other projects and ideas of bringing the community together in other ways are becoming apparent, so it is really exciting to be part of things.

 

Anyone interested please get in touch, even if it is just to ask one or two questions. It will be great if we can all come together to make a difference.