+
More

Out magazine just put Obama on its cover. It's a historic moment.

President Obama has, yet again, made history.

Every year, iconic LGBT publication Out magazine honors 100 people who've helped fight for progress.

The list is called the Out100, and lots of people pay attention to who makes the cut.


Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Out magazine.

While each year brings its own unique batch of change-makers from various walks of life, 2015 was one of truly historic proportion.

For the first time ever, a U.S. president was photographed for an LGBT publication.

President Obama, named Ally of the Year, graces the cover of this year's Out100 issue.

The magazine explained its decision to honor the president by highlighting a range of his accomplishments — from repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to becoming the first American president to publicly push for marriage equality.

"Yes, there's work to be done — we are still waiting for Congress to pass comprehensive federal LGBT protections, for a start — but whichever way you look at it, this president and his administration have ushered extraordinary change into the lives of LGBT Americans. For someone who at first seemed coy, even awkward, on the subject, President Obama's evolution on marriage equality has been something to behold."
— Out magazine


In the issue, Obama touches on several points regarding his administration's push for equality.

But one of the most compelling? He speaks on how his daughters have influenced his own views.

"The next generation is spurring change not just for future generations, but for my generation, too," the president says when asked about older Americans' reluctance to embrace LGBT equality.

"To Malia and Sasha and their friends, discrimination in any form against anyone doesn't make sense. It doesn't dawn on them that friends who are gay or friends' parents who are same-sex couples should be treated differently than anyone else. That's powerful. My sense is that a lot of parents across the country aren't going to want to sit around the dinner table and try to justify to their kids why a gay teacher or a transgender best friend isn't quite as equal as someone else."
— President Obama

Although the president's inclusion in the Out100 made this year's list particularly historic, many other trailblazers are certainly worth mentioning.

Like Carrie Brownstein, star and co-creator of the TV series "Portlandia," who was named Artist of the Year.


And athlete and reality star Caitlyn Jenner, who was crowned Newsmaker of the Year.


There were several lesser-known but equally instrumental folks who made the list, too.

Like model, YouTuber, and trans activist Aydian Ethan Dowling, whose efforts to grace the cover a men's health magazine became an inspiration to many. He's also a vocal advocate for prioritizing transgender-related health care.


“It's important that we get doctors and mental health workers educated on the transgender experience," Dowling says. “I hope the visibility of my story impacts that in a positive way."

Two of the leading activists behind Black Lives Matter, Deray Mckesson and Alicia Garza, also made the Out100, showing just how consequential the movement against racial injustice has been thus far.

Mckesson speaks at the GLAAD Gala in San Francisco. Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for GLAAD.

“The best moments are when black people stop me in the street and share with me the impact that [Black Lives Matter] has had on their lives and on their faith that another world is actually possible," Garza told Out.

And British pop sensation Olly Alexander, whose music doesn't shy away from featuring his sexuality, was honored as Breakout of the Year.


“I love performing music," he told Out. “You get to construct your own personal slice of reality, be whoever you want to be. You don't have to worry about whether you're saying or doing the right thing."

If one thing's clear about 2015's Out100 list, it's that LGBT equality has gone mainstream.

Like, the White House is lit up like a rainbow mainstream.

Whether you're talking about Washington, D.C., your television screen, or the streets of St. Louis where protests for justice unfold, this year's Out100 list proves that LGBT people — and those who support them — are making a profound difference in this world.

Sponsored

ACUVUE launches a new campaign to inspire Gen Z to put down their phones and follow their vision

What will you create on your social media break? Share it at #MyVisionMySight.

True

If you’ve always lived in a world with social media, it can be tough to truly understand how it affects your life. One of the best ways to grasp its impact is to take a break to see what life is like without being tethered to your phone and distracted by a constant stream of notifications.

Knowing when to disconnect is becoming increasingly important as younger people are becoming aware of the adverse effects screen time can have on their eyes. According to Eyesafe Nielsen, adults are now spending 13-plus hours a day on their digital devices, a 35% increase from 2019.1. Many of us now spend more time staring at screens on a given day than we do sleeping which can impact our eye health.

Normally, you blink around 15 times per minute, however, focusing your eyes on computer screens or other digital displays have been shown to reduce your blink rate by up to 60%.2 Reduced blinking can destabilize your eyes’ tear film, causing dry, tired eyes and blurred vision.3

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

18-year-old took her college savings and bought the restaurant where she was a dishwasher

Samantha Frye, the newest owner of Rosalie's restaurant, is proving there's more than one way to invest in your future.

Canva

There are many way to invest in your future

Eighteen year old Samantha Frye has traded college life for entrepreneurship, and she has no regrets.

Frye began working at Rosalie's Restaurant in Strasburg, Ohio at 16 as a dishwasher, working up the ranks as a kitchen prep, server, then line cook. All while working a second job, sometimes third job.

After graduating high school, Frye started college at Ohio State with plans of studying business or environmental engineering. But when she came back to work a shift at Rosalie’s for winter break, an opportunity arose—the owners had planned to sell the restaurant.
Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
Keep ReadingShow less

Karlie Smith shows the meal she's bringing to the restaurant for her son.

A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

The video posted by Ohio mom, Karlie Smith (unbreakablemomma on TikTok), has received nearly 600,000 views and has over 1,850 comments.

“Call me cheap, call me whatever, but if we’re going out to a restaurant, I’m packing my kid a meal," Smith, 21, said in her post. "I do this for many reasons. On Friday nights, my family and I get together, and tonight, we’re getting food out. My son is not getting food out.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

12-year-old Texas girl saves her family from carbon monoxide poisoning

She knew something was wrong with her mom and brother, which wound up saving her whole family.

Fort Worth 12-year-old helps save family from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide is called a silent killer for a reason. Many people don't realize they're experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning before it's too late. The gas is colorless and odorless and tends to have a sedating effect that causes people to sleep through the fatal poisoning. Having carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most effective ways to identify the gas before it's too late to get out of the house, but not every home has one.

A little girl in Fort Worth, Texas, experienced a terrifying encounter with the deadly gas, but her quick actions saved her entire family. Jaziyah Parker is being held up as a hero after she realized something was wrong with her family members and called for help.

The girl called 911 after she noticed her mom pass out. On the call with the dispatcher, Jaziyah says she thinks her mother has died before explaining that there was something now wrong with her baby brother, who was just 5-months-old.

Keep ReadingShow less

Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Barrymore has consistently starred in hit films and movies that are rewatchable cable-TV staples, such as “Charlie's Angels” (2000), “Never Been Kissed” (1999), “Scream” (1996), “The Wedding Singer” (1998), “50 First Dates” (2004) and “Fever Pitch” (2005).

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS. So far, the show has been a big success, attracting an average of 1.21 million views per show, and ranks as the #4 talk show in syndication. It was recently renewed through the 2024 season.

Keep ReadingShow less