lgbtq

Don't try to be brave all at once. Take it in steps.

I had zero idea of what I was doing.. I honestly had no idea where to start. All I knew was I had something I craved to say.. I wanted to create art that lived on longer than I do. Perseverance and teaching yourself, every day through stress and hard work proves shit really does progress without you realizing. One minute you're an amateur, knowing nothing, not even the basics. The next you can put pen to paper, write a song, and create art in such little time! It's crazy beautiful.

Those with unearned privileges often spin things as 'political correctness' to further silence those they wish to oppress.

The disaster, as Dad and others saw it, was the emerging AIDS crisis and the cultural attacks instigated by conservative against gay men and women in the early 1980s. It was found in the cruel indifference of President Ronald Reagan, who wouldn__ publicly address the epidemic until the end of his second term, after twenty thousand Americans had died, and the hostile rhetoric of conservatives close to Reagan like Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, and Pat Buchanan, Reagan__ future speechwriter. In 1983, Buchanan wrote of AIDS, __he poor homosexuals__hey have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution.

For those of us who are told our families are wrong, we can question more strongly what we believe is right.

The truth is, I have gay dads and I__ not damaged. I grew up with an incredible and loving family that always provided for me when I was younger and has continued to guide and support me as I__e grown older.

Our family had waited so long for this moment and had spent so many years being told we were undeserving of this basic right. But for me there was a sense of validation because after eighteen years, I was finally able to stand with my two dads when they legally wed.

People have the right to their opinions. But I also have the right to my family. No one in our country should be put in the situation where they grow up in fear because our society has decided some people are valued less than others.

Ultimately, the one thing that makes a family is love.

What I don__ understand is how some people say they can recognize the necessity to provide people with equal treatment under the law but they say it only applies in certain situations. People still use their religion and morality as an excuse to deny services to those perceived as other.

I asked my dad, __f we were going to have two dads, should we call you Dad Number One and Dad Number Two?

We can__ say it__ justifiable to deny some people their rights because we personally find something offensive. People have the right to their beliefs and they have the right to think that homosexuality is wrong, but they don__ have the right to use their religion and their beliefs to deny the rights of others.

It__ worth noting my family doesn__ use the word step regarding anyone who__ married into our family. Jerry isn__, nor has he ever been, my step-dad. His mom isn__ my step grandma: neither are my aunts, uncles, or cousins. While there was never a discussion regarding how we categorize or title our family, we all just understood that for us, we are all simply family.

My last thought before falling asleep last night was a realisation that I was falling in love with Andrew. Well, not me exactly. My stupid, traitorous heart.

I kissed him softly and left my lips pressed to his for a few beats of my heart.

And without my consent, with my defences in ruins, while my brain was sleeping, my stupid heart went and fell headfirst into love.

I think he won a tiny piece of my heart that day. If he didn't have the whole damn thing before then, he certainly had part of it now.

When I opened the door, Andrew was standing there like a remedy for heart palpitations. Or maybe he made them worse. It was hard to tell.