Barbara Weicksel

Be honest, how many of you reading this column would have been charged with “lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12-16 years of age” when you were 18? This is assuming of course that you got caught, and the state you lived in had such laws. Gay sex, straight sex, touching, fondling, groping, licking, sucking – I’m talking sex of any kind. How many of you would right now be registered as a sex offender? [ Read more → ]

For those of you who wonder why it is I continue to write about equality issues and continue to ask you all to not give up the fight for what is right and just in this world, and wonder why marriage equality is so very important, it is because of Carolyn Compton, Page Price and their children. They are the reason. And because it could be you or me standing in a court room, watching helplessly as a homophobic judge wields his gavel down on us... [ Read more → ]

Do you consider Jason Collins a hero for coming out as the first professional gay male athlete? What about Ellen DeGeneres or Anderson Cooper, Neil Patrick Harris or Rachel Maddow? Are they heros? First, let’s be clear on the definition of the word hero. Dictionary.com defines the word hero as such: "a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities." [ Read more → ]

Marriage Equality is about being able to hold the hand of the person you love when they are sick and need your love and compassion the most. It’s about making decisions that all people will eventually have to make about life and death, and who you want with you at the end of your life. Two men have all the legal papers they were told they needed. They followed the law, and still, one man is in a hospital bed while his life partner is restrained and dragged from the premises. [ Read more → ]

There are just some people who will go to their graves believing what they believe. That is their journey – that is their little bit of racism, hatred and discrimination they will have to answer for. I believe at this moment in time, the red on the equality map needs to be celebrated. I believe the acceptance and support of our friends and families and co-workers and strangers needs to be celebrated, for these are the people who will stand by us and love us and help us to win whatever battles may lie ahead... [ Read more → ]

After years of struggling we are finally having our gay voices being heard and our civil rights are ever so slowly coming to pass. Why then must the voices who seem to speak for the gay community believe that it’s perfectly okay to start telling people where they can and cannot speak? If Tim Tebow wants to speak at Liberty University who are we to tell him otherwise? [ Read more → ]

Don’t you just hate it when the law actually protects the people you want to discriminate against? For those of you who believe that it’s only a cake and we (the gays) should just go to another bakery, understand this: it’s not about the cake. This has nothing to do with the cake. This is about living in a country where people are still under the assumption that they were given — by their God — the right, and the responsibility, to discriminate against another human being. [ Read more → ]

We will never know the sort of life Whitney Houston might have had if her Mother had been just a bit more compassionate, loving and accepting toward her daughter. If she is harboring this much anger still – one can only imagine what Whitney had to listen to while she was alive. [ Read more → ]

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s LGBT Inaugural moment, however… Even though the President mentioned Stonewall along with Selma and Seneca Falls in the same sentence, he doesn’t really see gay marriage as a civil rights issue that needs to be helped along by the federal government. For the truth of the matter is, no matter what President Obama may say, and no matter where he is when he says it – he still believes that marriage equality belongs in the hands of the States. [ Read more → ]

I don’t understand this whole philosophy that exists by some in the gay community that doesn’t tolerate any sort of weakness when it comes to a gay celebrity. This whole thing that says if you’re gay, and you’re any sort of celebrity, or have any sort of power, it’s your responsibility to pave the way for every other gay person in the world. I don’t believe its Jodie Foster’s responsibility to make my life easier. I don’t believe it should be the job of any celebrity to make my life easier... [ Read more → ]

What is it about your spirituality, your religion, that you feel you have the absolute right to judge another human being? It certainly can’t be from the teachings of the Jesus I know who simply said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” I see nothing there of judging or intolerance – only the commandment to love one another. Period. [ Read more → ]

Since the introduction of The Violence of Women Act in 1994, the bill has passed in a bipartisan manner – until now. Eric Cantor didn’t like it – so he killed the bill. He killed the bill because he and other House Republicans didn’t like the portions of the bill that had been expanded by the Senate to cover immigrants, members of the LGBT community, and the Native American community living within tribal jurisdiction. [ Read more → ]

So, let me see if I have this correct… if I use Equine Assisted Psychotherapy – which is sessions involving the stroking of horses – this will aid in the “curing” the “addiction” of my homosexuality. So says Raymond Bell, the Pastor of the Cowboy Church of Virginia. (I can’t make this up!) [ Read more → ]

Try and imagine how you would feel if you needed help and were turned away from a shelter simply because of who you are and who it is you fell in love with. Charity is defined as something given to a person in need, there’s nothing in the definition about exceptions for the LGBTQ Community. These exceptions belong entirely to The Salvation Army... [ Read more → ]

We did this. You and I and millions of other Americans – Gay, straight, religious, atheists, black, white, Latino, men, women; all of us together – we did this. We understood what was at stake, we went to the polls, and we made our stand for justice, equality and freedom for every American. I’m proud of every single one of us who simply refused to allow hatred, ignorance and discrimination to rule the day... [ Read more → ]

As gay Americans we need to remember those of our community who lived in times that were far beyond what I can imagine. These are the sweet brave souls who fought the fight and made it easier for us; and now it is now our responsibility to pay it forward – to make it easier for those generations of our LGBTQ family who will carry-on long after we’re gone. Remember this as you cast your vote on Tuesday... [ Read more → ]

If you vote Republican and we come in contact with one another – I’ll be asking you face to face why you believe I’m not equal to you, and why you believe I don’t have the same right to everything this life has to offer as you do. Don’t start by telling me your vote wasn’t anything personal against me – for it most certainly was – Start by telling me why your human dignity is more important than mine... [ Read more → ]

Life as a homosexual isn’t an easy life. From the time you know you’re gay until the moment you say out loud to the world around you: “I’m gay” could be 10 years, 15 years 30 years or in my case, 50 years. Some people never find the courage to say it out loud and live their lives hidden in shame and denial... [ Read more → ]

It was the 1970s reparative therapy for gays – you ignored who you were and tried to be what society, your church and your family wanted you to be. I did my best. I went to church, I sang in the choir, I had a job. I cooked, cleaned, did laundry and tried to be happy. The thing is – I wasted over 20 years of my life, and the life of my husband, trying to be someone I wasn’t... [ Read more → ]

Imagine, if you can, 400,000 gay youth forced to leave their homes, with no family, no support, and living on the streets. They become the most vulnerable among us. They become the epitome of what is an easy target for the criminals who want only to exploit their bodies for sexual prostitution; and not just prostitution, but commercial sexual exploitation. Children who are forced out of the only home they have ever known by parents, who can’t tolerate the thought of their child being gay, find themselves alone and on the street.... [ Read more → ]