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For a lost soldier…
They had grown up in eastern Ohio, in a small rural farming community. They played football, went fishing, did farm work, and discovered that after a few failed attempts at pursuing the fairer sex, that their real romantic interests laid in each other. By the time they had graduated from high school, the Vietnam conflict had escalated and rather than wait to get drafted, they decided to join the U.S. Marines together. They went to boot camp and not long after graduation found themselves on troop planes headed for Vietnam…
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Memories and Memorials — for the countless many, lost far too young
For me, Memorial Day is about honoring not only those who died fighting for our freedom, but also those closer, lost to far different battles, particularly AIDS. … And so, this Memorial Day, I’ll pause and honor the many of my own troops who have fallen in battle. They may not have had the uniform or the recognition of our armed forces, but the wars they fought were just as valiant, and I, for one, am richer for their many, varied gifts and sacrifices.
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Kaitlyn Hunt’s Life – It Haunts Me
The Kaitlyn Hunt story haunts me. I can’t sleep restfully, my mind keeps wandering, and my heart is heavy. Kaitlyn Hunt’s story could be my story. My first love was in high school – I was 15, she was 17. Then, I was 16 and she was 18. All of the kissing and touching and experimenting – it was consensual, it was emotional, it was… love. And apparently, it was a felony.
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Sex and the teenage girl: The Kaitlyn Hunt tragedy
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?
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A boy named Issak
My name is Issak. I am a high school senior at Red Lion Area High School in Pennsylvania. As a student who happens to be transgender, my life isn’t all that different from other students in my class, except that I came out the summer before my junior year and have been going by my male name ever since. I try hard to make good grades, work at a part –time job, and have a wonderfully supportive family and an awesome girlfriend…
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Homophobia’s cruel Mothers Day
I can not help but be in awe of the horrible force that homophobia still exerts in our world. It is the force that inspires a mob to destroy a teenage girl, it is the power that drives a family to abandon a daughter at a time when she needs them most, and, worst of all, it is a hatred that through its destruction can turn the brightest, most unconditional love a human being can experience in on itself and into a dark and evil grief that devours every iota of life…
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Everything is bigger in Texas – even the homophobia
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…
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A Mother’s Day Card to all LGBT parents
On Mother’s Day mornings, my son, Jesse, leads the way in bringing me breakfast in bed with flowers. He got the idea on his own three years ago at the age of seven. “You do everything their mothers do,” he explained at the time. “This is your day, too.” So with that, I would like to send you an open Mother’s Day Card for all LGBT parents, including gay, bisexual, and transgender dads. I offer this up as a Father’s Day Card for all lesbian, bisexual, and transgender moms, as well…
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How my exclusion from speaking at my school’s graduation led to healing
I remember vividly, a moment as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old Arkansas kid, sitting on a pew at the First Baptist Church. While the preacher delivered his message, I was busy praying. I was asking God to make me bisexual. Not for acceptance, and not for fear of sinning, but because for my young, sheltered mind, it was the only way to one day become a father. Often in small, southern towns like mine, people manipulate religion to cause turmoil for LGBT people, and anti-gay folk hold the Bible up as the reason for their intolerance…
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An openly LGBT cabinet member? Let’s talk about key priorities…
An openly LGBT cabinet secretary would be another milestone for LGBT inclusion and an important symbol of pride for our community — but let’s be clear, this should not be a key priority for our community. Moreover, the idea that this would be a mark of failure on the part of the President doesn’t sit well with me. … To me, a “key priority” for our community should be something tangible that actually advances our equality or improves our lives through policy or action.