LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 30

Day 30: Anything LGBT you’d like to end this on?

So many thoughts are running through my head. I’ve come so far from where I was 10 years ago. I couldn’t even say “I’m gay” in my head at that age. All that I ever remember thinking about was how/when to end everything if thoughts of sexuality even entered my mind. I prayed EVERY DAY for God to make me “normal.” Needless to say, it didn’t work. But I came through it. I’m ok.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a long way to go. I struggle with issues of masculinity, identity, dating, self-confidence, but I’m leaps and bounds ahead of even 3 years ago. Life is a struggle every day, but I’ll make it. I’ll figure it out.

This 30 day challenge has inspired me to record an “It Gets Better” video. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, but now it’s something I feel like I need to do. Look for it to be coming soon.

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 29

Day 29: SHOUT SOMETHING! IT CAN BE HAPPY AND ABOUT PRIDE OR ABOUT WHY YOU HATE HOMOPHOBIA!

Umm…YAY FOR NOT BEING DEAD!!! That’s what I’ve got. I usually only yell when I’m angry and I try not to be angry to awful often. 🙂 But I think this sums up how I feel right now.

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 28

Day 28: Write a letter to someone. It can be a coming out letter or a letter regarding how you hate their homophobia or whatnot. You don’t have to send it.

Dear Friends,

I started writing this letter to my family and realized that you are my family and I don’t want to focus on the negative. There are a few of them that will be there through thick and thin, but I expect most of them to not be permanent fixtures in my life.

You know I love you. I don’t have to tell you that. I just want you to know that I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you. I mean that literally. I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for you. I would have long ago given up. But you showed me what love is. That no matter who I am, how I fuck up,what I’m onto or not, you’re always there for me. I can call you at the drop of a hat and you’re there for me. There aren’t words to express how I feel.

Thank you.

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 27

Day 27: Your favorite LGBT blog/Tumblr/site.

Hmmm…I don’t know that I have a particular favorite site.  I’m kind of all over the place, as far as the internet is concerned.  Who am I kidding, I’m all over the place in my life in general.  I guess I’ll use this as an opportunity to pimp out a few of my favorite Tumblr’s.

Personal Tumblrs:

Dapper Fellow

KSC Redhead (Not always SFW)

Bears and Bowties

The Modern Southern Gentleman

Topic-specific Tumblrs

LGBT Laughs

FuckYeah Gay Kisses

FuckYeah Gay Couples

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 26

Day 26: Your favorite gay joke? (We all need to laugh at ourselves)

There was this man who walked into a bar and says to the bartender 10 shots of whiskey.

The bartender asks, “What’s the matter?”

The man says, “I found out my brother is gay and marrying my best friend.”

The next day the same man comes in and orders 12 shots of whiskey.

The bartenders asks, “What’s wrong this time?”

The man says, “I found out that my son is gay.”

The next day the same man comes in the bar and orders 15 shots of whiskey.

Then the bartender asks, “Doesn’t anyone in your family like women?”

The man looks up and says, “Apparently my wife does.”

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 25

Day 25: The LGBT slur you hate the most?

“Fag.” Unquestionably. I can’t STAND that word. It irks me to no end when I hear it. I heard it used so derogatorily as a kid so often, that it literally makes my skin crawl. I tried at one point to “take it back” and use it, but I just couldn’t do it for long. It’s just so hurtful to me for some reason. It definitely doesn’t bother me like it did when I was a kid, but I still just don’t like it.

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 24

Day 24: The stupidest argument/comment you’ve heard about gay people or an LGBT issue?

There are so many ridiculous arguments, it’s hard to choose! I guess I’ll list a few:

“Gay people shouldn’t raise children because their kids will be gay.”

Yeah, that makes sense because all straight couples have straight children.

“If gay people get married, it will open the door for people to marry animals!”

A Taiwanese man married a barbie doll in 1999.  The first country to allow same-sex marriage was The Netherlands…in 2001. Crazy people are going to try crazy things.  Period. Point. Blank.

“All gay people are possessed by gay demons!”

Yes, I’ve really heard that one.  And I don’t have a snide remark for it.  It just sounds ridiculous.

I feel like I hear these ridiculous statements all the time, but these are the ones I remember most.  Someday soon, hopefully we can all look back and laugh at how insane people sounded. 

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 23

Day 23: An LGBT image that makes you cry or makes you angry?

I don’t really think this needs much explanation.  It just makes me so sad to see that the anger and hatred I had hoped would die with my grandparents’ generation is still alive and well in America.

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 22

Day 22: An LGBT image that makes you smile.

I can’t even begin to describe how much I want to be a dad. 

LGBTQ 30 Day Challenge: Day 21

Day 21:Political LGBT issue that is closest to you and affects you the most?

I’d have to say marriage equality and adoption are both equally important to me and I think in many way, they go hand in hand.  Not that all LGBT people that want the right to marry also want to have kids, but I think there are many of them do. 

Marriage says to your neighborhood, your city, your county, your state, your country, your world, that you are committed to someone through thick and thin.  It doesn’t matter about gender, it’s about love. Just this past couple weeks while I was home with my mother, I made the comment that I wanted to get married and and have kids, and she was floored.  She asked me how I intended to do this and I said, “adoption, surrogacy, there are a lot of options.” Then she asked about the marriage and asked, “So, are you just not going to love her?” I was caught off guard this time.  It took a second for me to process and then I realized her thought process.  When I told her I intended to marry a man, she said, “that isn’t legal.” I’m so often surrounded by supportive friends and co-workers, especially in a university setting, that I forget so many people still feel this way.  That is way marriage rights are so important to LGBT people.  Just like not all straight people have to get married, neither do all LGBT’s, but we should have the right to.  We tried separate but equal in the 50’s and 60’s.  It didn’t work.  I don’t understand why that is so hard for people to understand or accept.  But I fully believe I will have the right to marry the man I love, gods willing we find each other, in any of the 50 states in this country before I die.  But if I don’t, as I told my mother, “I don’t give a fuck what the state says is legal.”  You can’t deny true love.