+
upworthy
More

Years ago Wheaties refused this gay Olympian a spot on the cereal box. They can still make it right.

In 1988, Greg Louganis became the first male athlete to sweep the diving events in two consecutive Olympic games.

His record has remained unbroken for nearly 30 years.

He also received the James E. Sullivan Award for Most Outstanding Amateur Athlete in the United States in 1984, the year of his first Olympics sweep, and he was named "Athlete of the Year" by ABC's Wide World of Sports in 1988.


He probably would have won in the 1980 games, too, if not for the United States' boycott of that year's summer games (he only won the silver at his first Olympics in 1976, when he was 16 years old).

Photo by Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images.

Greg Louganis is also an out, gay man.

Which everyone is all cool about now, but at the height of his career, that wasn't really the case. For all his remarkable accomplishments, there's one place where being gay was, and is, an obstacle for him.

Louganis has yet to be featured on a box of Wheaties cereal.

As Louganis says in an upcoming HBO documentary about his life, he did not fit the criteria for Wheaties' "wholesome demographic."

And yet, the so-called "Breakfast of Champions" has depicted hundreds of athletes on the box, from front-runners of diversity, such as Jesse Owens and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, to not-so-upstanding citizens like Joe Paterno and Alex Rodriguez.

Tiger Woods made it onto the box multiple times! Photo by Getty Images.

Of course "you don't fit the criteria for our wholesome demographic" is not-so-coded-corporate-polite-talk for, "Your status as an HIV-positive gay man makes you a moral and promotional liability and outweighs everything else you've done with your life."

Let's just say that blowout hair and acid-wash jeans weren't the worst things about the 80s.

It's time Wheaties honors Louganis with the cereal box cover he deserves.

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on marriage equality in June 2015, a petition began circulating to get Wheaties to right their wrong and put Louganis on the box.

Wheaties recently made a special cereal box with the visage of Evan Wolfson, a lawyer, gay rights activist, and founder of Freedom to Marry. There's also Caitlyn Jenner, champion of both the Olympics and transgender rights, who famously graced a Wheaties box decades before she came out as transgender earlier this year.

In the past couple years, General Mills, Wheaties' parent corporation, has come out in support of LGBTQ rights.



Wheaties can't undo the decisions it made in the past, but it can take a few small steps to fix things in the present.

It's not too late to give Louganis the Wheaties box cover he was denied years ago.

Something as simple as a retroactive Wheaties box featuring the face of, say, record-holding champion Olympic diver Greg Louganis would go a long way toward saying, "We've made mistakes, but we have learned the error of our ways. People deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments and talents regardless of what mutually consenting adults do in their bedrooms or what's in their blood."

Humans, as well as corporations, are capable of learning and changing and making the world a better place, together. And, yes, a cereal box cover is one way we can do that.

If you'd like to show your support, go here to sign the petition.

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Mom’s blistering rant on how men are responsible for all unwanted pregnancies is on the nose

“ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it."

Mom has something to say... strongly say.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, are a conservative group who aren't known for being vocal about sex.

But best selling author, blogger, and mother of six, Gabrielle Blair, has kicked that stereotype to the curb with a pointed thread on reducing unwanted pregnancies. And her sights are set directly at men.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Dad takes 7-week paternity leave after his second child is born and is stunned by the results

"These past seven weeks really opened up my eyes on how the household has actually ran, and 110% of that is because of my wife."

@ustheremingtons/TikTok

There's a lot to be gleaned from this.

Participating in paternity leave offers fathers so much more than an opportunity to bond with their new kids. It also allows them to help around the house and take on domestic responsibilities that many new mothers have to face alone…while also tending to a newborn.

All in all, it enables couples to handle the daunting new chapter as a team, making it less stressful on both parties. Or at least equally stressful on both parties. Democracy!

TikTok creator and dad Caleb Remington, from the popular account @ustheremingtons, confesses that for baby number one, he wasn’t able to take a “single day of paternity leave.”

This time around, for baby number two, Remington had the privilege of taking seven weeks off (to be clear—his employer offered four weeks, and he used an additional three weeks of PTO).

The time off changed Remington’s entire outlook on parenting, and his insights are something all parents could probably use.

Keep ReadingShow less
Science

She tattooed half her face and you'd never know it. Her skills are just that good.

This incredible medical tattoo technology is giving renewed hope to burn victims.

All images via the CBS/YouTube

Basma Hameed runs a tattoo shop, of sorts...


Meet Samira Omar.

The 17-year-old was the victim of a horrific bullying incident.

Keep ReadingShow less
Images via Alan Taylor/Flickr, used with permission.

Updating the kitchen.


Remember those beloved Richard Scarry books?

Books from when you were a kid?

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

Voice recordings of people who were enslaved offer incredible first-person accounts of U.S. history

"The results of these digitally enhanced recordings are arresting, almost unbelievable. The idea of hearing the voices of actual slaves from the plantations of the Old South is as powerful—as startling, really—as if you could hear Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee speak." - Ted Koppel

Library of Congress

When we think about the era of American slavery, many of us tend to think of it as the far distant past. While slavery doesn't exist as a formal institution today, there are people living who knew formerly enslaved black Americans first-hand. In the wide arc of history, the legal enslavement of people on U.S. soil is a recent occurrence—so recent, in fact, that we have voice recordings of interviews with people who lived it.

Keep ReadingShow less