Despite visible figures such as Ellen Degeneres, Lady GaGa and shows like Glee, questioning lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered youth (LGBT) still have a difficult time finding people or resources to help answer their questions. However, two young women, Dannielle Owens-Reid and Kristin Russo, have created a blog called everyoneisgay.com where anyone can submit questions anonymously and receive an unbiased, educated, humorous (and sometimes very vulgar) response. Not only does the website appeal to questioning youth, but parents of people in the LGBT community and even straight couples find support within the website because the blog has succeeded by using humorous rhetoric to help bring comfort to web users as well as help the general population understand the issues that are occurring in the LGBT community.

Sigmund Freud believed that the expression of humor releases “the tensions of repressing the impulse to be aggressive.”  Danielle and Kristin channeled this concept when they responded to a poster who said “I hat gay people. Sorry.” Kristin and Dannielle stood their ground and did not explode towards this person but simply responded with “They make hats out of gay people?!” This reveals a lot about their character. By appearing to not even understand the insult, the everyoneisgay.com team seems to be the innocent ones, reiterating the fact that they are being attacked while saying very few words. Kristin Russo states in a video interview with Space Station Media that everyoneisgay.com wants to bring the community together- “not just the gay community, not just the trans community, and not just the queer community, but the entire community,” letting everyone know that we are no different and that we all struggle. This identification the two women make with their audience is crucial to making the blog successful and attempting to unite different communities. Finding a common ground or an understanding of each other allows the persuasive argument to move forward. Their response to the anti gay post was a very smart and subtle way of doing exactly this. David Paletz claims that viewing “something humorously is generally to cease to regard it as an enemy… to laugh at someone in political humor is to step toward community with him.” Instead of choosing to argue back with the attacker, Dannielle welcomed the attack and turned it into a positive example for readers.

Another aspect of the site that comforts visitors is the raw honesty, openness, and the fact that the women poke fun at themselves. On Saturday postings they write about a topic of their choice. Danielle opened one post up with “I hate to be a total stereotype, but like, I wanna talk about our cats again… so I will.” Poking fun and admitting that she is the stereotypical lesbian cat lover is an excellent and hilarious way of pointing out her own weakness and making herself more personable, letting the readers know that she does not claim to be all-knowing and powerful. This appeals to younger readers because the blog is written by two youthful women instead of parental- like figures.

The use of silly, slang sentences like “you gotta put some communicaysh in your relaysh” is a way of lessoning tensions and saying “you need to incorporate communication in your relationship”  and encourages young readers to follow their advice without feeling preached to. If one finds themselves confused by the vocabulary the site provides a “Glossary of Things Dannielle Says.” Many of the words are unique to everyoneisgay.com and are not seen anywhere else. When referring to the male anatomy, Dannielle addresses it as a “peeneewoo.” This draws visitors back because the humorous vocabulary and syntax cannot be found anywhere else.

The unique and odd humorous blog entries by Kristin and Dannielle are succeeding in their goal of uniting their audience of different sexual orientations and helping them reconsider the legitimacy of the sexually orientated stereotypes. The success is apparent by the attention the site has received from a wide variety of people who send in questions every day. The humor breaks down barriers of hostility and doubt of the drastically different heterosexual and homosexual communities to show the struggles that each of them shares.