Janet Mock to Transgender Teens: It Gets Better

People.com Editor Janet Mock recently came out as transgender. Mock's history is briefly profiled on the GLAAD blog, which also features Mock's "It Gets Better" video, part of the YouTube campaign originated by Dan Savage to staunch a recent spate of bully-induced lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) teen suicides. Mock's decision to come out is courageous because transgenderism continues to be viewed by many worldwide as strange and/or sinful. In certain regions, homosexuality is legal grounds for death. Some believe that more LGBTQ people coming out will help to make being LGBTQ seem "normal" to more and more people around the globe. After reading Mock's history and watching her video, does Mock's revelation cause you to rethink your own ideas of what "normal" gender or sexuality are? What might your reaction be if a family member came out to you? What if it was your child?

World Poverty: What to Do?

In his May 18, 2011, New York Times editorial "Getting Smart on Aid," Nicholas D. Kristoff argues that what peoples around the world need is much more important than what we want to donate. Seem obvious? Kristoff says not so much. Foreign aid for decades has been dominated by what givers want to give, but this has not always been what receivers needed or wanted. Why the disconnect? Kristoff's examples--that deworming is a more basic need than new school buildings and that relationship education proves more effective than abstinence training--require us to rethink our ideas about what actually constitutes "help." After reading Kirstoff's editorial, how do you suppose poverty-stricken families around the globe might be changed by an aid attitude change?