Out Army ranger Ken Yasger hopes to ignite fireworks with pop superstar Katy Perry…well, maybe not fireworks but he has invited her to be his date to the his upcoming Ranger Ball.
“Katy, you’re an inspiration to me in a lot of ways,” Yasger says in the video invite, adding that he’s the first openly gay ranger in his unit. “Your music helped me get through it.”
He tells Perry that when he was feeling down her song “Wide Awake” would help him start his day.
We hope the entertainer gets the invitation, but since the ball is October 10, it might be wise to give a lady more notice next time.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Caleb in SC
I’ve got to agree. The woman needs a little more heads up than two weeks. Her celebrity aside, most women would appreciate more notice than that.
redspyder
”Your music helped me get through it.”
When she was singing “Ur So Gay”? Did that help you alot? Or calling guys who aren’t interested in her “gay” because that’s the best insult she knows?
Katy Perry has hired a fantastic PR team – that’s how she’s gone from ‘complete nightmare’ to ‘LGBT Ally’ on this site in less than 3 years. Sad when people have such short memories – or are incapable of using google – that they can’t see she’s no inspiration – just very, very good at faking it.
Greg Garavani
@redspyder I can’t stand Katy Perry as much as you, however I understand her lyrics maybe ‘inspirational’ in some ways for people (yes, including us gays), some have Gaga, others worship Madonna, there’s always someone. I think it’s cute, especially because he’s a service member and can see that obviously Katy has helped him out in times where it’s been very tough. I hope Katy does see this video and go to the ball, shit I would.
Jake357
Ever heard her perform live? Gawd! It’s enough to make you wish for a lip sync scandal. Horrible singer.
sportsguy1983
People who make this videos are ridiculous and place the celebrities in an awkward position. If they say no, then they are seen as self absorbed. If they say yes, then they open up themselves to a tidal wave of people doing the same thing. I honor this guy’s service to the country but he needs to get a life.
jaysofamous
Are yall seriously gonna be that low to harass him over this for something that he wants and DESERVES. First coming out to a ranger unit would be hard enough and then being able to accomplish becoming a ranger is even harder. You are so quick to judge him for asking her to be his date and saying how horrible she is. If thats what he wants let him try. I have much respect for this man for doing all that he has already accomplished and what fair few can do. I bet yall are all civilians being ignorant as always.
sportsguy1983
He doesn’t deserve a date with Katy Perry. No one deserves anything except our Constitutional rights and last time I checked, they don’t include a date with anyone, including a celebrity. He should be honored for his service to his country, but anyone who acts stupid (which he is doing by making this video) is open to criticism (or praise if you like what he is doing). Yes, if that is what he wants to do, he should go for it, but I and anyone else are allowed to call him out on it. If you don’t want public criticism, don’t post a public video that EVERYONE can view.
Niall
@jaysofamous: I generally agree with the “gist” of what you’re saying, but how does he DESERVE(note the meaning of the word) a date with Katy Perry? She’s not his girlfriend, wife, mother, family and owes him nothing, even though what he’s done is brave. Good for him if he gets his date, but he does not “deserve” it.
jwrappaport
Ken! Pick me! I’ll go with you – and you don’t even have to ask or make a video.
@sportsguy1983: I can’t resist invoking the fraternal: seriously, bro? People deserve a lot more things than are in the Constitution. Love, dignity, compassion, mercy, respect, kindness, affection – the list is a long one. You, many of my countrymen, and basically everyone I go to school with need to stop fetishizing that document. Go see it sometime at the National Archives (or an image online) – it’s just a piece of parchment with words written by living, breathing people just like you and me. It isn’t sacred text. No sir. That would be Bach.
sportsguy1983
It is a sacred document. A document that started the greatest experiment ever witnessed in the world. A document that has granted people individual rights that the VAST majority that have ever walked have never had. A document that has limited government control rather than limited people’s right.
I’d rather fetishize the U.S. Constitution than Katy Perry or this ranger who couldn’t come up with an original idea of his own.
KaitBot
You all are ridiculous. All he is doing is trying to show Katy Perry that her music helped him through things harder than probably any of you will ever go through. He is not banking of her coming, he’s thinking “what the hell it’s worth a try”. He really just wants to see how much publicity his video can get and if Katy Perry will actually watch it. He’s not going to hold a grudge or think she’s self centered if she doesn’t reply or says no. So instead of bashing him and telling him to get a life maybe you should get a life and do something with it other than criticize people for expressing their self. Keep being yourself Yasger! 🙂
sportsguy1983
That’s the other thing. We now live in a society that people need attention from the general public by posting anything and everything online for others to see. He should seek reaffirmation from his friends, family and co-workers, NOT random strangers.
RK
How about this novel idea? Why doesn’t actually ask a guy to be his date. He will have a greater impact than bringing Katy Perry.
jaysofamous
How does he deserve it? Maybe because he did something unselfish and joined to protect your country, or he signed up for one of the most dangerous and hardest jobs ever in the army. Look up army ranger qualifications and see if you can do it. He is just trying to get her attention and take her to his military ball. It would be a privalage and honor to me if I could go with a gay ranger and it should be a honor and privalage to her.
sportsguy1983
One of my brothers is a Ranger (and I have a cousin who is a Navy Seal) so I understand what it takes. That still doesn’t mean he deserves date with a Katy Perry. It makes him more appealing but not any more deserving than anyone else.
jwrappaport
@sportsguy1983: I don’t disagree that Madison and many of the Framers were geniuses (I do not drop that term lightly) or that their ideas culminated in a great social experiment, perhaps one of the greatest ever undertaken. What I reject is placing those ideas in a realm beyond question, reproach, or inquiry. In short, I reject the sanctifying of civic acts, especially when those acts can be credited with free speech and liberty just as they can be credited with slavery and the Trail of Tears.
You speak bold words of individual rights and limited government control – what did those words mean to a Choctaw in the Jackson administration? Or a black man during during Jim Crow? Or a factory girl during the Industrial Revolution? Those words meant nothing. To quote Frederick Douglass, what to a slave is the Fourth of July? It is meaningless to ask, because freedom and the tap of power have been so jealously guarded in our history. Any fair reading of the last 250 years would show that at the very least.
Without using Wiki, and I ask rhetorically, do you know what a bill of attainder is? Or a letter of marque and reprisal? What does equity mean (in the legal sense)? Where does that word come from? Or common law? What does that mean? I ask because so often, those who trumpet the Constitution as a sacred text know little about the actual document itself or the often sad and violent history that has shaped it, let alone the institutions that continue to shape it.
sportsguy1983
Yes I know what those terms are, but nice try saying I am unthinking.
And the beauty of the Constitution is that it allows us to make necessary changes, but not make it so easy as to be changed at a whim.
sportsguy1983
And FYI, I have NEVER said that the Constitution is infallible, but it is heads and tales better than any other legal document ever drafted.
jwrappaport
@sportsguy1983: First of all, it’s spelled “tails.” Second of all, that is an astonishingly bold statement. I have to ask, have you ever seriously read a single other country’s constitution or founding documents? Do you have at least some knowledge of how civil law systems work or how they deal with judicial review? Have you at least some working knowledge of comparative constitutional law? I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the answer to all the above is no. In fact, I’d also bet you were lying when you said you could answer all my questions, even though I clearly can’t prove it.
This is why people think Americans are stupid: because we always think we’re number one, even when we stick our heads in the sand and have no real idea of what’s out there. South Africa’s Constitution comes to mind. It takes lessons learned by our Framers, but it also integrates them with lessons learned in the intervening centuries.
sportsguy1983
lol It is tails. I rarely spellcheck myself. I can tell you my educational background but you wouldn’t believe me anyways so keep with the belief that I am just another ignorant American that thinks this is the greatest nation ever to exist but has nothing to back it up.
jwrappaport
@sportsguy1983: You could be Hans Kelsen reincarnated with an SJD from Harvard, and your claim would be just as laughable.
sportsguy1983
About as laughable as most of your comments on this site I would say. Luckily I don’t seek nor need to achieve affirmation from strangers (and even less from strangers online).
redspyder
@jaysofamous: “I bet yall are all civilians being ignorant as always”
Anyone using ‘yall’ in a sentence as if its actually a word should probably abstain from accusing other people of being ignorant.
@Greg Garavani: Katy Perry has demonstrated through both words and actions that she uses the word ‘gay’ as a means to emasculate and denigrate men she doesn’t like. If you can accept that – despite these facts – “her lyrics maybe ‘inspirational’ in some ways for people (yes, including us gays)”, then I hope you can accept that others see those people (especially the gay ones) as idiots.
jstepp88
UPDATE: I know Ken, he is an awesome guy and attended the ball sans one Katy Perry. However, she was made aware of his video, watched it, and reached out to him. He will receive tickets to a concert, with a back stage pass and Katy Perry called him to say she wants to meet him and thank him in person for making the video. 🙂