Ever since that young woman with pigtails and ruby slippers clicked her heels and uttered those five magic words “There’s no place like home”, we as a community have been obsessed with the idea of finding ours… All right maybe not the whole community… Some of us… Alright, me… I have been obsessed with the […]
Millions of LGBT men and women never got the chance to stand in front of their peers, or their families for that matter, and profess their love publicly…
The picture you’re looking was sent to me by a friend back east… It’s me in my junior year of high school way back in 1979 (I was 16). Now, after the initial shock of the hairdo wore off, there I was, all of a sudden, being bitch-slapped by a flood of emotions caused by […]
There are certain goodbyes that, regardless of how prepared we think we are, push us to the point of breaking… It’s as as if a hole the size of the Grand Canyon has been ripped into our souls… Grief comes in waves and at times we feel like drowning would be a welcome relief from […]
Birthdays are an interesting animal. Unlike most, I don’t dread the day (I live in LA), I actually rather enjoy it. In fact, the older I get the more I enjoy them… And it’s not because of the “party” aspect either (truth be told, I much prefer celebrating someone else’s birthday)… It’s because of the […]
I believe most of us have lived a moment (for some, self included, probably more like moments… Many, many moments.) where life becomes a bit painful. And, if we are grown-up enough, we can admit to ourselves that our pain is completely self-induced. And I say that because some of us have the propensity to […]
Ever wonder what you would say to yourself at a younger age if you had the chance? I look back at who I was when I was younger and have such compassion for that boy. He was lonely, scared and literally crippled by the circumstances that surrounded him. A little compassion goes a long way […]
I have spent a great deal of my life feeling as if I don’t belong… And for some strange reason the older I get the stronger that feeling, at times, can become… I’m not a big drinker (and in all honesty, drunk people tend to get on my nerves). I don’t do drugs (although in […]
“Family Values”… A term that, since the 2012 election, seems to be making a comeback… And not in a good way… There are some in our country that feel they have ownership of these words. And they feel it is their right to use them as a club to verbally (and also physically) ‘beat’ those […]
Why are so many of us so hesitant to utter this four letter word? Is it because we believe it shows weakness? Or because we are stubborn and believe we can do everything ourselves? Or maybe it’s because we don’t want to feel beholden to someone else? Whatever the reason, one thing is for sure… […]
We have all experienced times in our lives where we’re caught in a whirlwind. Times when every waking moment is consumed by the drama of our day, or week, or month, or year… Times when the best we can hope for is to just keep our heads above water. But when the dust finally settles […]
Dear Mom and Dad, First, I would like to thank you for the gift of my life. The weight of that gift, to me, is clear… I have a responsibility to live my life with love and respect… Compassion and hope… Patience and understanding… And not just for myself but for those who share my […]