Before the winter olympics last month, the name "Johnny Weir" never even registered with me. Granted, we have opted out of the evil entity that is Cable TV, so we are somewhat insulated from the steady stream of media that soothes our society's addiction to information (by design, I might add).

Nevertheless, when "Johnny Weir" hit the subject field of so many email threads on my Parenting Listserv, I had to check out who this character was. And boy, was I ever glad I did!

YouTube.com has many clips of him "doing his thang" and excerpts from his new reality show. I can say that I instantly became a huge fan of his:  the way he holds himself, his confidence, personality, freedom to be who he is and express himself in the way that shows the world how special he is.... stars in my eyes I tell you! I knew right away that he serves an even higher purpose than representing the United States on ice--he is a role model for today's LGBT youth. Making no assumptions about his sexual orientation, I can only comment on how he has presented himself to the world.

One YouTube clip is taken from the opening credits to his show on Sundance Channel. In it, he is wearing spandex pants and stiletto heels. How can you not love that?

I previewed this clip with Alex. I was delighted and a little surprised to see how readily he identified with Johnny. His eyes grew sauceresque when he saw a man in heels. Immediately, he had to know everything about Johnny. He wanted more, more, more! Who is this guy? He's wearing high heels!

"Is he famous?" Alex asked. I could see Alex' gears spinning in his head excitedly.

"Yes he is. Very famous. And he is a  hero to a lot of people," I said. A moment of silence while this sunk in and then Alex said, "Does he have a lot of money?" (Money has been one of Alex' most recent obssessions.)

"Well, probably. He is certainly very popular and people love him." I was hoping my message was clear: that by just being himself and expressing himself honestly, Johnny is accepted and revered by many people.

 This dialogue got me reflecting again on the role models in our culture for today's LGBT youth. More and more, LGBTs are represented in our media as mentors, heros, idols, and just generally individuals that our youth can identify with. And this makes me happy beyond words.

This morning as I was driving in to work, I was listening to my local NPR station. There is a segment on it that airs every morning at the same time called "Perspectives" in which ordinary citizens can write and read a piece on anything that comes to mind.... sort of like here at Open Salon.

The piece this morning was presented by an 18 year old boy. In his piece, he reflects on what it's like being a gay youth attending a formal high school event with his boyfriend. I was moved almost to tears to hear it. It's so real, so heartfelt, and yet only if you have some compassion for what it means to be different in our society, can you really fully appreciate it.

I wanted to share it here because I believe that Adrian Ferrari deserves a standing ovation. He is literally setting the tone for children like Alex and others like him to one day be fully accepted in our society. In my opinion, Adrian is a very strong, positive role model and deserves a shout out. I hope you agree.

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R201003040737