Page 3
-
A barbershop experience begins a new chapter in the life of a transgender man
Following his transition, Charlie Poulson worried about “passing” as a man, and knew his concern would be put to the test in what is arguably a typical masculine setting: the barbershop.
-
Aunt Marianne: When is it going to be okay to call you ‘Albert the Faggot’?
Overall, Albert Eisenberg had a pretty great coming out experience and was given lots of support by his family and friends. There were two experiences he had, though, that show that there’s still a lot of progress that needs to happen in terms of LGBTQ acceptance and understanding.
-
‘Surprise!’ Abby comes out to her 90-year-old grandfather
Abby Fink has always been close to her 90-year-old grandpa. As she began to get older, he started to become a bit more inquisitive about her personal life, making it slightly uncomfortable, since she wasn’t out to him.
-
In this family of Seahawks fanatics, coming out must wait for the commercial
“My mom’s in her uniform — her jersey, her Seahawks jersey — screaming at the TV, ‘Go, Hawks! No! No!’ Just screaming. And I walk in just crying, and she just stops everything, literally goes into mama-bear mode and is like, ‘What happened? Oh, my gosh! What’s going on? Are you OK? Oh, my God!’ Hugs me, hugs me, hugs me. And I’m like, ‘Mom, I’m gay!’ …
-
Gay law student puts reparative therapy counselor in his place
You would think that after getting a phone call from Harvard Law’s LGBT group encouraging their son to attend the prestigious university, Scott Blair’s parents would be proud. Instead, they were devastated and joined an “ex-gay” counseling group in an effort to help turn their son straight. Scott agreed to meet with the counselor if his parents agreed to be more open-minded.
-
Gay student learns a valuable lesson about bullying, being true to himself
By the time Joseph Barden began his freshman year in high school, he not only knew that he was gay, he also knew how to cover up that fact about himself. One day, while Joseph was sitting with a group of upper classmen girls he had recently befriended, an openly gay student came by. “David was very flamboyant to put it mildly,” says Joseph….
-
Blind, gay man realizes he’s not alone after first encounter with homophobia
George Ashiotis started going blind when he was 5 years old. When he was a teenager, he worked at Lighthouse as an assistant counselor, helping younger visually impaired teens. After helping his sister dye her hair black, he ended up going to work with black fingernails, leading to his first experience of homophobia…
-
Cerebral palsy, wheelchair won’t stop Andrew from going to a gay club
When Andrew Morrison-Gurza, age 19 at the time, was preparing to go to a gay bar for the first time, he did what most young gay men do: He had a friend over, talked about what to wear, and put on some pre-party music. Andrew recalls: “We made a bunch of mix CDs with a bunch of early-2000s pop songs on it, like Christina Aguilera and all those things, and I just thought…
-
James Clementi: A family tragedy leads to a life of compassion, activism
In 2010 Tyler Clementi took his own life after being publicly outed on the Internet by his college roommate. His oldest brother James, who is also gay, is now an activist hoping to shape a world that’s more accepting and inclusive of LGBTQ people. James recounts how his own journey began when he was a child…
-
Queer Latina connects with Prince and lives a life of sex positive activism
In her youth Elicia Gonzalez from Broomfield, Colo., experienced a shocking exposure to Prince that would become “very much so representative of what would happen with my sexuality later in life.” As she became older and started to notice her sexual attraction to women, Elicia became confused: “I pretty much denied my sexuality until later college years, and then …