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Identity

‘Heartstopper’ star’s response to fans accusing him of ‘queerbaiting’ is heartbreaking

The show’s creator, co-stars and fans are also coming to his defense.

Kit Connor; queerbaiting; LGBTQ; Heartstopper
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"Heartstopper" star's response to fans accusing him of "queerbaiting."

Sometimes it's fun to speculate about your favorite celebrities, guessing things like who they might be dating or if their recent hair change has something to do with a new role. But sometimes speculation goes too far and can become vicious for the celebrity target.

Kit Connor, the star of the Netflix show "Heartstopper," became the focus of intense speculation about his sexuality because he was seen holding hands with Maia Reficco, his co-star from “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow.” The accusation of the star "queerbaiting" is curious because bisexual people exist and shouldn't have to confirm or deny their queerness based on who they date in order to be valid.

But the intense scrutiny made the young star feel forced to out himself, which is ironic as the series he stars in is all about teens discovering their sexuality and keeping relationships secret until they're comfortable coming out. Connor, who is just 18 years old, popped onto Twitter to address the hurtful speculations.

The teen wrote a short but heartbreaking tweet that encompassed the pressure he felt, his hurt and his disappointment. He tweeted, "back for a minute. i'm bi. congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. bye." There wasn't much else that he needed to say to get the point across.

This situation sparks a larger conversation around speculating on someone's sexuality, even if people think it's harmless. Anyone part of the Taylor Swift fandom will have noticed increased speculation around Swift's sexuality and fans saying they had the right to speculate because it's not the same as outing the pop star. Others argued that it could make the singer feel pressured to confirm or deny something that she may not be ready to do publicly.

Swift addressed these theories on her being bisexual or a lesbian in a 2019 Vogue interview, but the #Gaylors, as they call themselves, continue to push the narrative. The difference between Connor and Swift is that the country singer turned pop star is 32 years old and has been in the spotlight since she was 14. It's safe to say she has learned a thing or two about dealing with this sort of pressure, even if it may still be hurtful to her.

Connor, on the other hand, is still a teen and this feels like a different level of harmful. Thankfully he's not facing it without support. Several of his co-stars and the creator of the show "Heartstopper" spoke out in support of the actor and so did several fans. One fan wrote, "im sorry kit i love you with all my heart, you are a wonderful person, you don’t deserve this, love you."

It's easy to forget that celebrities can read your tweets, watch your videos and even read the comments on things you post publicly. But speculating on anyone's sexuality, celebrity or not, should be off the table as it puts your curiosity above the person's feelings and privacy.

No one has the right to force someone out of the closet before they're ready. The bisexual identity is valid and just because someone is seen dating someone of the opposite sex doesn't mean they're any less queer or that they're "queerbaiting."

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Science

The longest — and probably largest — proof of our current climate catastrophe ever caught on camera.

It was the largest such event ever filmed.

Exposure Labs

All GIFs and images via Exposure Labs.


Photographer James Balog and his crew were hanging out near a glacier when their camera captured something extraordinary.

They were in Greenland, gathering footage from the time-lapse they'd positioned all around the Arctic Circle for the last several years.

They were also there to shoot scenes for a documentary. And while they were hoping to capture some cool moments on camera, no one expected a huge chunk of a glacier to snap clean off and slide into the ocean right in front of their eyes.


science, calving, glaciers

A glacier falls into the sea.

assets.rebelmouse.io

ocean swells, sea level, erosion, going green

Massive swells created by large chunks of glacier falling away.

assets.rebelmouse.io

It was the largest such event ever filmed.

For nearly an hour and 15 minutes, Balog and his crew stood by and watched as a piece of ice the size of lower Manhattan — but with ice-equivalent buildings that were two to three times taller than that — simply melted away.

geological catastrophe, earth, glacier melt

A representation demonstrating the massive size of ice that broke off into the sea.

assets.rebelmouse.io

As far as anyone knows, this was an unprecedented geological catastrophe and they caught the entire thing on tape. It won't be the last time something like this happens either.

But once upon a time, Balog was openly skeptical about that "global warming" thing.

Balog had a reputation since the early 1980s as a conservationist and environmental photographer. And for nearly 20 years, he'd scoffed at the climate change heralds shouting, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

"I didn't think that humans were capable of changing the basic physics and chemistry of this entire, huge planet. It didn't seem probable, it didn't seem possible," he explained in the 2012 documentary film "Chasing Ice."

There was too much margin of error in the computer simulations, too many other pressing problems to address about our beautiful planet. As far as he was concerned, these melodramatic doomsayers were distracting from the real issues.

That was then.

Greenland, Antarctica, glacier calving

The glacier ice continues to erode away.

assets.rebelmouse.io

In fact, it wasn't until 2005 that Balog became a believer.

He was sent on a photo expedition of the Arctic by National Geographic, and that first northern trip was more than enough to see the damage for himself.

"It was about actual tangible physical evidence that was preserved in the ice cores of Greenland and Antarctica," he said in a 2012 interview with ThinkProgress. "That was really the smoking gun showing how far outside normal, natural variation the world has become. And that's when I started to really get the message that this was something consequential and serious and needed to be dealt with."

Some of that evidence may have been the fact that more Arctic landmass has melted away in the last 20 years than the previous 10,000 years.

Watch the video of the event of the glacier calving below:

This article originally appeared on 11.04.15

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Pop Culture

Weatherman had 2 panic attacks on live TV and people are praising him for how he handled them

He got help, and now he’s sharing his story.

via Michael Belka/Wikimedia Commons

A weather man performing on a news set.

Nate Byrne, the weatherman on “The ABC News Breakfast,” had an unimaginably terrible experience in 2022 when he suffered 2 panic attacks on live TV on the same day. He believes the first attack was triggered by being a little late to the set for his segment and having to rush.

“As I stood there under the studio lights, talking to people having their morning coffee and wiping sleep from their eyes, my heart was racing, I was gasping for breath and sweat was pouring out of every pore as my brain screamed ‘RUN!’” he later recalled.

Byrne kept his composure and finished his segment. However, 15 minutes later, he was back on the air and had another panic attack. He went to a doctor that day who prescribed beta blockers, which reduced his symptoms temporarily.

People praised Byrne for how he handled the terrifying experience in front of a live audience. “Nate handled it extremely well,” one X user wrote. “Nate is an amazing person to take this step to share with the community the various impacts anxiety can make to our lives,” another X user added. “Well done, Nate!”

While some public figures would keep quiet about their panic attacks, Byrne has gone public to create awareness about anxiety. In a special segment for ABC’s Anxiety Project Byrne spoke with Psychologist Jody Lowinger about the cause of panic attacks.

"Our brain is wired to self-protect, but it's not so great at differentiating between perceived threat and real threat,” Lowinger explained. “So, the physiological experiences that you're experiencing, that rapid shallow breathing, that rapid heart rate, and the sweatiness are all there to help us in the case that we need to run or fight. But in the case of this situation, when it's responding to that magnificent, active mind that you have, it's not very helpful."


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Family

Heartbroken wife files for divorce after DNA test reveals 2-year-old son isn't hers

She first became suspicious when her son didn't have blue eyes.

via Liza Summer and Liza Summer

A woman in distress contemplates her future.

It’s pretty common to hear a story about a man whose life is turned upside down after a DNA test proves that he’s not the father of a child he thought was his. However, hearing a mother dealing with the same scenario is rare. That’s why a recent post on Reddit has so many people talking.

A user named ThrowRA-3xbetrayal claims that a DNA test shows her husband is the father of the 2-year-old boy they’ve raised but she isn’t the biological mother.

The story began 6 years ago when the couple tried to conceive but had no luck. The woman then discovered she had a “medical condition” that meant she couldn’t bring a baby to term, which resulted in a partial hysterectomy. The woman, who refers to herself as the family’s “breadwinner” took on multiple jobs to pay a surrogate to have their child.

“I still had my ovaries so we started looking into cost of a surrogate. It is really expensive! My close friend since college who'd already had 2 kids of her own, offered to serve as the surrogate for us to cut down on costs. After two disappointing IVF sessions that did not result in pregnancy, she became pregnant on the 3rd try and carried a boy to term for us,” ThrowRA-3xbetrayal wrote.

The couple was over the moon after the birth of the boy and the surrogate became a bigger part of their lives.

dna test, paternity test, maternity testA woman in distress being comforted.via Liza Summer

“My friend and my husband started talking more and I would sometimes come home from my weekend job to find her already hanging out at our house when my husband was there,” ThrowRA-3xbetrayal wrote. “I chalked it up as innocuous and it's good for her to know my husband better since she was in the process of hopefully carrying our child for us. I was grateful to have someone helping us have a child.”

But the mother became suspicious because the baby’s eyes were brown when she and her husband’s were blue.

The mother took the child to a doctor’s appointment and she received some devastating news. She discovered that her son’s blood type is B+ while his father’s is O+ and She is A+. The doctor said it was “biologically impossible” for her son to have that blood type given his parents’.

ThrowRA-3xbetrayal thought the fertility clinic made a horrible mistake. She took a DNA test and found that her husband was the boy’s father, but she was not the mother. “Then my husband confessed that he'd slept with my friend (our surrogate) on a few different occasions during our struggle to have her get pregnant with our embryos,” ThrowRA-3xbetrayal wrote. “This means what I thought was our son conceived by IVF and carried with a surrogate isn't my son at all and was, in fact, conceived the old-fashioned way, which I can't ever do.”

The woman says that the terrible news felt like a triple betrayal. The woman has decided to divorce her husband and wants to give up any parental rights to the child. Her husband, the surrogate and her family all believe that she’s wrong to give up rights to the child that she’s raised for 2 years.

She asked Reddit’s AITA forum to tell her if she was in the wrong and the community responded with overwhelmingly positive support, affirming her tough decision.

dna test, paternity test, maternity testA happy toddler playing on the beach. via Taryn Elliott/Pexels

The most popular commenter said that she should sue the surrogate for taking her money without having her baby. “One of the things that gets me is that you were working extra jobs to pay for the surrogacy which I am assuming included her medical bills and financially supporting her. I would speak to a solicitor about suing her for your money back. She knew that if she was having sex then there was always a chance that the child was biologically hers,” they wrote.

Another affirmed the wife’s decision to leave her husband and to surrender any parental rights. “He cheated... it's not yours. I will absolutely tell you what I tell men posting this. It would be wonderful if you love the kid enough to stay, but if you're in shock and damaged too much to do so, you aren't the A**le for walking away,” they wrote.

Another pointed out that if a man were in this position, no one would judge him for giving up his parental rights. “If these roles were reversed and you were a man saying that his wife had cheated and had another man’s baby, people would have no problem telling him that he’s within his rights to leave and have nothing to do with the child if he doesn’t want to,” the commenter wrote.

If the story that ThrowRA-3xbetrayal wrote tells is true, it’s an incredible tragedy. She fought so hard to have a child only to realize she was living a lie two years later. So, let’s hope she found some solace in the hundreds of people who supported her decision to move on with her life while also sharing some great advice on going forward.

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Joy

Donations take off after city closed boy’s ice cream stand fundraiser for special needs team

Danny was raising money for the Boston Bear Cubs, his brother's special needs hockey team.

via WPRI/YouTube

Danny Doherty's ice cream stand in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Twelve-year-old Danny Doherty of Norwood, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, was bored this summer, so he decided to try making some money by selling homemade ice cream to his neighbors.

His mother, Nancy, agreed, but only if Danny donated half of the proceeds to charity. So Danny chose the Boston Bear Cubs, his brother Patrick's hockey team.

The Bear Cubs are part of the American Special Hockey Association, which gives boys and girls with physical and developmental disabilities (autism spectrum, Down syndrome and similar disabilities) a chance to play hockey at a level adapted to their ability.

However, someone in the community had a problem with the ice cream stand and filed a complaint with the Norwood Health Department. A few days later, the town sent the family a letter demanding that Danny shut down the stand because it violated the state of Massachusetts health code.

Understandably, Norwood follows its rules, but it’s hard to imagine someone filing a complaint against a boy raising money for a special needs hockey team.

“The health department is just doing their job; they’re responding to a complaint. I was more disappointed and kind of shocked that somebody thought that this was something worth complaining about, a little ice cream stand serving 20 people that we know,” Nancy told Boston 25 News.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"I don't understand it. There are so many lemonade stands out there, and they don't get shut down," Danny told CBS News. "It's really disappointing it got shut down." When news of the health department’s decision spread, the Bear Cubs were flooded with donations and a local restaurant, Longboards in nearby Salem, decided to step up and help.

“We saw that article and knew we needed to do something," Matthew Mattera, owner of Longboards, told CBS News. "As a little family ourselves, we always try to set up stands; we're making lemonade stands, making rocks, and trying to sell those. We appreciate small business." The restaurant decided to donate 25% of the proceeds from one of its popular desserts, the Bazookie, and set up a donation jar.

You can donate to the Boston Bear Cubs here.



What began as a massive disappointment for the family has become a blessing in disguise.

“Clearly it’s against Massachusetts food code, we have no intention of continuing, but we really are thankful for whoever tattled on us at this point because now this organization has received so much exposure to the general public and we really hope that this generates other donations for them,” said Nancy told Boston 25 News.

The public's support for Patrick's special needs hockey team has brought a lot of joy to Nancy and her family. "Parenting any child takes an extraordinary amount of work but also an extraordinary amount of unconditional love. My Patrick has been a shining light since the day he was born," she told Upworthy. "I’m so in awe of the overflowing kindness and generosity that has arisen from a discouraging and disappointing situation. I hope our story reminds everyone that sometimes adversity can morph into prosperity and joy."

The story of the Doherty family and the Bear Cubs began as a sad commentary on contemporary society that a kid can’t go out and raise money for charity without someone complaining and the city shutting it down. But, in the end, it shows the triumph of a community and people’s belief in common decency that transcends those who scoff at a kid trying to make a buck.

You can donate to the Boston Bear Cubs at this link.

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Pop Culture

People are arguing whether this is a picture of Tom Hanks or Bill Murray

Can you tell?

via Reasons My Son is Crying/Facebook

Tom Hanks and Bill Murray


What do you think?


via Reasons My Son is Crying/Facebook

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ANSWER

Given the narrow beauty standards in Hollywood, there are a lot of actors and actresses that look look amazingly similar.

Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt look a lot alike…


As do Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel…

But has anyone ever said, "You know which 60-something actors look identical? Tom Hanks and Bill Murray." Because they don't look alike. Although, funnily enough, Bill Murray did famously turn down the leads in Hanks' hits "Forrest Gump" and "Philadelphia," but I'm guessing nobody has ever screamed, "Loved you in 'Ghostbusters'" at Hanks as he walked down the street.

But for some reason, call it fate, call it luck, call it karma, the man making the "waaah" face in the orange raincoat above could easily be either man.

Here's what people are saying on Facebook:

via Reasons My Son is Crying/Facebook

The truth (should you choose to accept it):

The photo above is of Bill Murray and Laura DiMichele-Ross holding her crying son, Alexander, at the Alfred Dunhill Links golf competition at St. Andrews in October 2012. DiMichele-Ross posted the photo to a popular Facebook blog "Reasons My Son Is Crying" in May 2013. The photo resurfaced in October 2016 on the Today Show website, reigniting the controversy all over again.

Regardless of what the Internet is saying, DiMichele-Ross backs her original claim that it's Murray. "It's totally Bill," she reiterated in a comment on her post. "I can vouch cause I'm the one in the photo with the massive grin thinking 'Oh my god this is going to be an awesome photo!'"


This article originally appeared on 10.26.16

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