Out Bigfooter Speaks Up For Lesbian Tolerance
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 8th, 2012
If you missed the news this week, Finding Bigfoot is big news again.
You can’t turn around without finding a new interview or story about the series. Animal Planet appears to have funded a few publicity treks, here and there, for various members of the crew to talk to all sorts of radio, print, and television news folks.
For example, I heard from Lee Speigel, who said: “I thought about you today as I sat in the Huffington Post TV studio interviewing Matt Moneymaker and Ranae Holland of ‘Finding Bigfoot’ fame. They were in NYC doing some publicity for the new season of their Animal Planet show and came by to see me so I could write up a story about them…very nice folks.”
Amazingly, in the midst of all of these media moments, it is obvious that an entirely unexpected result may be a broader tolerance for lesbians.
Ranae Holland, an out lesbian, is going on the record during her interviews about tolerance, and I applaud her for using her opportunities to do this.
For example, in “Lesbian biologist on cult hit ‘Finding Bigfoot’ spills the beans,” Ben Cartwright, for San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, writes, quoting Holland:
“”People need to be able to respectfully disagree about the concept and remember that it’s all about tolerance,” she said.
On the subject of tolerance, Holland said that she has not encountered much intolerance within the scientific community, recognizing that it does exist.
“I don’t find it necessary to discuss [being a lesbian] as I have matured and developed a competent sense of self,” said Holland, who noted that she tries not to concern herself with societal norms.
She did say, however, that people should be able to live openly and freely and not have to hide who they are. “We live in a society that still has an intolerant community and dragging people into the closet is reprehensible. LGBTQ rights are basic, civil rights,” she said.
Holland said she believes that women have more of an uphill battle within the scientific community, and that more people from marginalized communities need to come forward within the field.
“This shouldn’t even have to be a question, but because we are still fighting for these basic civil rights and acceptance, people need to come forward,” Holland said.
She offered advice for those who wish to enter into the field of biology or science, especially those in the LGBTQ or other marginalized communities:
“First and foremost know yourself, love yourself, and follow your passions. If your passion is conservation, the environment, physical sciences, or whatever it may be, find that person that you love and believe in and make them your mentor,” Holland suggested. “If you are LGBTQ, find a professional mentor, but also find a personal mentor. I recognize that I was surrounded by a community where I didn’t have to hide and this is recognition of the advocates that came before me.”
The program is having a wide societal impact, in a variety of ways. Yes, Finding Bigfoot is winning as an entertainment series, but think about this. When you consider that not one active National Football League or Major League Baseball player has declared himself an out and openly gay man, what Ranae Holland is doing, via the venue given to her, is a rather big deal.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Good for her. Probably hard enough for a women in a male dominated field. Much less for a gay women. I am glad to see her speaking out.
Now THIS is a Finding Bigfoot related article that actually does some good. (Relax Craig, no harm intended!) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Very nice article.
I find it very encouraging to hear how the world is changing their views of minority groups.
With luck, they will follow the trend and change their views of Bigfoot research as well. Perhaps, finding Bigfoot isn’t a bad thing, especially when they are presenting the people involved as real, feeling individuals who are more than just “bigfoot” believers or skeptics, but human beings. You can’t just label them as “nutjobs” like the press often tries to do.
Regardless of what our opinions of the personalities of members of the Finding Bigfoot cast (or even the presentation of the program), they are currently the official representatives of the bigfooting community to the general public.
I have to say, I admire Ranae for standing up for what she believes, or not in this case, because in the end, she’s a woman in a male dominated field striving to prove or disprove something that the general scientific field refuses to spend time even considering (which in my mind is very unscientific). She is a true pioneer.
Comments are closed on this thread out of emotional respect to other matters happening here. Please read Craig’s posting on Riley’s passing.