Our Year in Review: 2012

Gays can now serve openly in the US military

2012 has been a mixed year for the LGBT community around the world.

While some countries had their "ups" with marriage equality being signed into the law in some States of the US and countries around the world, Macklemore's gay-friendly hip-hop video racking up millions of views, and India legalizing homosexuality.

Other countries saw the other extreme with some Russian cities and Eastern European countries banning pride parades, and Uganda attempting once more to pass it's homophobic "kill the gays" bill.

But we here on Freedom Requires Wings have had a successful year with tens of thousands of you reading, sharing and commenting on our articles which have made you happy, angry, brought laughter or tears, pushed you to make a donation to help save gays in Iraq from brutal kill-lists, and helped many of you through some of the hardest days of your lives. To thank you for your support and belief in our work we've put together this post.

Happy New Year! Here are the articles that you all liked the most...

1

"I feel sorry for Tyson Gay" In August, during the Olympic Games in London, American athlete, Tyson Gay, ran the men's 100 meter sprint against Usain Bolt and other great names in running, and came 4th. Not even one hour after he gained his place in the history books, 70% of tweets containing the hashtag #gay didn't even acknowledge his achievement and were homophobic. This article by Patrick was the most-read on the blog this year and left some food for thought for many readers. Click here to read this article >>

2

How I Came to Understand Asexuality - A Sexual's Account This October from the 22nd to the 28th, Freedom Requires Wings ran an Asexuality Awareness Week in partnership with AVEN, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. This article is about being a good ace ally, eating cake, and most importantly making an effort to understand asexuality. Click here to read this article >>

3

Why Facebook Doesn't Have Gender Neutral Pronouns Social networking giant Facebook tries hard to fit in with our lives, gay or straight. You can even show you're married to a person of the same sex. But what of gender choices? Here's a theory as to why Facebook doesn't have that 'Other' button, much-wanted by the trans* community. Click here to read this article >>

4	Nature is Unnatural... Apparently Michael's first post back in May took a very brief but educational look at examples of homosexuality and transgender animals in nature and also earned the place of the 4th most-read post on the blog. Click here to read this article >>

5	Google Is So Much Gayer Than You Thought Google decided to officially announce their support for equal rights for LGBT people around the world this Summer. Here's Patrick's look back on Google's "in the closet" acts. Click here to read this article >>

6	The Myth of the Bisexual Male Dutch author, Mees, wrote about bisexual men coming out and everyone saying they're using the 'bisexual bridge' to test the water for coming out as gay. He also used his own personal experiences to add more advice to his post. Click here to read this article >>

7

Sexual Orientation in Fantasy Video Games Daniel P. from Ontario, Canada, geeked-out in a post about the portrayal of different sexual orientations in fantasy video games such as Dragon Age: Origins and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, this August, earning this post the place of the 7th most-read in 2012. Click here to read this article >>

8

This Is Why Your Relationships Suck Carly wrote a post that offered an invaluable read, no matter who you're attracted to, in October. She looked into why so many relationships crash down around people's ears in one heartbroken big mess and offered advice on how to dodge the trap. Click here to read this article >>

9

How Being Casual is not Always OK Every day, around the internet, thousands of messages of hate are exchanged. Whether you're on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr, the haters are never too far away, no matter what you're gender identity or sexual orientation is. Romilly gives them something to think about... and a piece of her mind. Click here to read this article >>

10

French TV Series Introduces Asexual Character Another part of our highly successful Asexuality Awareness Week (even though we say so ourselves!) was Gabrielle's post about an asexual character on Number 1 French TV soap opera, Plus Belle la Vie, and the portrayal of her sexual orientation. Click here to read this article >>