TERRY BLAS

There is a new episode up of The Gnerd Podcast! It’s an all Gnerd News episode with guest, Matt Grigsby, creator of the webcomic, Grigsgaggleby!

We cover a lot of topics in this episode, Sprouse leaving OSC’s Superman story, Happy Endings Harlems Shake video and casting of the new Kerkovich sister, The webcomic Best Friends Forever, Korra casting news, Turkish Oil Wrestling, Taylor Swift vs. Tina and Amy, Carly Rae Jepsen vs. Boy Scouts, King of the Nerds, Asaris in Mass Effect, Arkham City, Jinkx Monsoon and other (g)nerdy goodness! Give us a listen here or search “gnerd” on iTunes!

http://terryblas.com/thegnerdpodcast/

All right, here is the cover to my autobio/reaction comic to the youtube video going around about the gay Mormon who comes out to his family. I was so saddened to see him telling young gay kids that they were now expected to live a life of solitude and loneliness that I am doing this to let everyone know that isn’t the case. I’m going to post it in two batches.

Coming soon!

Gay/Ex-Mormon/Latino/Nerd and other labels.

Yesterday I watched 8, The Mormon Proposition. It wasn’t the first time I had tried to watch it, I had actually made a few attempts that resulted in me crying and shutting off the movie. But I was inspired recently by the wonderful speeches that have been made at The Human Rights Campaign events for the past several years by different honorees and celebrity allies. Specifically Patricia Clarkson, Anne Hathaway and Vanessa Williams.

These speeches gave me a certain kind of hope and I decided to throw on the documentary once again. This time, I watched the whole thing, disgusted. All of the money the church sent from Utah to California to fund the movement against gay marriage, the organizations they funded to stop civil rights from being given to me had me horrified. And all the secret meetings! Sometimes it’s too much for my brain to handle that a group I was raised in, is in a large way responsible for hindering my progression as an American, and an individual. I’m not considered equal. I’m a second class citizen and the taxes I pay go toward printing marriage licenses for other people who are considered first class citizens.

If you know me, you know that I’m gay, I was raised Mormon, I’m Latino, and I’m a geeky nerd. I won’t ever be able to shake these things from my being and in some cases, I would never want to, but at times I struggle with the fact that I’m gay and being raised in the LDS church will always be a part of my past. Those two things fight each other all the time. I don’t struggle with being gay any more, it just that I don’t consider myself a member of the Mormon church. At first it was BECAUSE I was gay, and now it’s more due to the fact that I just really don’t believe in what the LDS religion believes.

Over ten years ago I was a missionary for the LDS church, doing what I was expected to do and obeying the “First Law of Heaven”: OBEDIENCE. Recently, I wrote this piece that I’ve modified slightly, explaining how I feel about my life and the strange things I’ve encountered while living it. I’d love to hear what you think.