Oil City, Bruce Springsteen, & A Single Shot To The Head

Comment on the Out In The Silence film web site from John Doe, formerly of Oil City, Pa. --

I grew up in Oil City, graduating in the early 1980s and had a bad high school experience.

I am straight, however, since I was small and awkward and did not fit the prevailing view of how masculine a boy should be, I was called gay, fag, wimp, you name it.

You could say that I was a straight boy who experienced anti-gay bullying.

Starting in 7th grade, I was spat upon, pushed into lockers, had my hair pulled and pretty much treated like scum. The trauma was severe for me.

As a 12 year-old, I constantly wondered how I would deal with this and my only comfort was knowing that there was a way out, that a single shot to my head would end this -- a path that I am glad that I did not take.

It got much better once I got to the upper grades of 10 to 12, but the damage had been done.

Like that Bruce Springsteen song I felt that I was like a dog that had been beat too much and had spent half my life just covering up.

I wish anti-bullying efforts had been around when I was a kid.

I would not say that I have a positive view of Oil City. The overall climate was very narrow minded and nasty, however, at the same time I would ask not to paint all residents there with the same brush.  I am not living there anymore, but know that there are some very decent and open-minded people there.

I am sorry to hear that others experience this.

One of the biggest problems that I have seen in society is that we are not civil to each other and accepting of others' differences.

I am very sorry if any of you out there are treated like this, and I hope that anyone who is treated like this gets the help that they need to improve the situation.

Why LGBT History Is Important

If only Venango County school districts could break free from the tyranny and demonizing propaganda of a local anti-LGBT hate group, the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, to help all young people survive and thrive in their communities.

By David Mixner:


An enormous amount of energy went into Governor Jerry Brown's office in California surrounding legislation insisting that the LGBT community's struggle and history be included in text books and class room discussion. Happily, it was announced late Thursday that Brown had signed the FAIR Education Act (SB 48, Leno) into law. Congratulations to all involved in this great success, especially Senator Mark Leno, who authored the bill, and Governor Brown whose signature made the bill a reality.

A friend of mine today said he didn't understand why it was so important and shouldn't we just be included with everyone else. Well, he is right on the second point, we absolutely should be included with everyone else in the text books. And as to his first point, nothing could be more important.

There are many ways to kill people and one of the ways is to pretend that they never existed at all. Remove all traces of their journey and hope no one discovers their story. Often the issue of self-esteem among young LGBT citizens stems from the fact that they think our common denominator is just sexually based. They have no idea of their noble, proud and heroic traditions and actions of their pioneers.


LGBT history is filled with dramatic courage, dignity and determination and innovative and extraordinary leaders.

Unlike other communities that have struggled to preserve and create awareness about their history, we have seen systematic attempts to destroy and distort our journey. When we lost so many of our storytellers from AIDS, their surviving family members usually destroyed any trace that their family member was a LGBT citizen or had AIDS. Tens of thousands of stories of courage and heroism were lost. Boxes upon boxes of historical documents were burned. The shame of the families about their LGBT son or daughter made it even more difficult to keep our history intact.

In addition, we have organized groups now attempting to quash any positive role models, stories or epic struggles by this community. Some have linked us to Nazis and others insist we are nothing but pedophiles. Any positive portrayal of a community whose history is rich and full would threaten those lies.

If you feel like you have come out of nothing then you might feel you are nothing. If you think only sex is the basis of our journey then you will miss the remarkable stories that define this community as one of heroes, heroines and a very proud people.