Lesbian Pop Culture Reviews

The Whole 9 Yards: Year in Review

We associate the number nine with extremes: highs (cloud nine), lows (the ninth Psalm, predicting the coming of the Antichrist), good luck and bad. Considering the spectrum of events we lived through in 2010-2011—from the greatest victories to the worst tragedies—the number nine seems a particularly apt symbol for the past twelve months’ happenings. On the plus side, DADT was repealed; on the minus side, a near-apocalyptic disaster devastated Japan. Last year, we opened our Annual Year in Review with the crisis in Haiti, which proves again that life is fragile.

11. ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG

Last fall, five gay male teenagers killed themselves because bullies persecuted them. Tyler Clementi, the best-known case, was a Rutgers University freshman who discovered that his sexual encounter with another man had been secretly recorded by his roommate and live-streamed across campus. After posting the words “forgive me” on Facebook, he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. In response, sex columnist Dan Savage launched “It Gets Better,” a video campaign of encouragement for LBGT youth. In January, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed the country’s most comprehensive anti-harassment law, a bill directly inspired by Clementi.

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