My Coming-Out Q&A (Part 1)

I was recently inspired by a Youtube video I watched several months ago called "Overcoming Adversities as a Gay Teen: One Generation at a Time." The video was a documentary created for a senior project by a gay high school student. In it, he interviewed various local openly gay people of all ages about their sexuality and their coming-out experiences. (This is the video—it is 90 minutes long, so I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to sit through it. But for those who do, here you go.)

To recap, the student asks everyone a series of questions and then played their responses. It is the typical interview format, but I think what was interesting was being able to see the variety of responses (or lack there of) amongst the many interviewees.

I was inspired by this project, and I wanted to do something similar. I am a firm believer in sharing our stories, because no matter how boring or mundane our story may seem to us, it is unique and has the potential to influence someone else.

So without further ado, here is my version of such a Q&A:

Thoughts On The "Red Facebook Explosion"

An interesting phenomenon happened on Facebook recently that thoroughly caught my attention. Anyone who logged on to the social networking outlook on Tuesday, March 26th and Wednesday, March 27th would have seen it. Thousands of profile pictures changed to this red and pink equals sign, painting everyone’s Newsfeeds in a sea of red.

The image being used was a modification of the logo for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC is an advocacy group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals), typically a yellow equals sign with a navy background. This trend was inspired because on March 26th and 27th the U.S. Supreme Court heard cases regarding the constitutionality of Proposition 8—the California ban on same-gender marriage—and DOMA—officially “Defense of Marriage Act,” which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-gender marriages as marriage, thereby prohibiting the federal government from granting them the 1,100 or so federal benefits for married couples regardless of which state they live in.

Now, I am well privy to the type of groundswell movements that often take place on social networks. Granted, most of the time it goes something like this: my Facebook Newsfeed is suddenly swarmed with “GO BIG RED!!” statuses, and I instantly know the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing. But this was much bigger than that, because EVERYONE—coast to coast—would have seen it.

Musing on CPMC Annual Meeting

Not too long ago the Central Plains Mennonite Conference (CPMC)—which my church is a member congregation of—held its Annual Meeting. This was actually my fourth time in attendance to the delegate sessions, although this was my first time not actually being a delegate but simply a guest.

Attending Annual Meeting is always one of the most enjoyable parts of my summer. I like it because I always seem to leave feeling like I am a part of something bigger. This year, in particular, saw the end to a long and painful saga as St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship finally withdrew their membership from CPMC and instead joined the Central District Conference (CDC) of MennoniteChurch USA.

The Littlest Things Make All the Difference

I quite often play soccer whenever I am home with one of my best friends, who is currently engaged. Recently, after one of our scrimmages, he offered to give me a ride home.

This particular time around, I had decided to walk because I only live 5-ish blocks from the field; so I did not really think a ride from my friend was necessary. Nevertheless, he had offered, so I thought…why not? I’ll be courteous.

On the drive to my house he asked, “Do you like men?”

Civil Unions vs. Gay Marriage

Many people in the United States of America think that by offering civil unions or domestic partnerships, they are doing LGBT individuals a favor. A large portion of this comes from the belief that marriage is a religious ceremony, and homosexuality is a big taboo for a lot of religious people.

But this actually ignores one very important thing: marriage is not just religious, it is also civil. Now for years this has been wrapped up into one thing, but ever since the separation of church and state they have become two different animals. Basically you can be married without a religious ceremony, and you can be married without recognition by the government (the situation currently tied to cases of polygamy).

Green Lantern is Gay?

Hal Jordan

If you know me fairly well, you know that I am into comics; and my absolute favorite superhero is DC Comics’ Green Lantern, one of the founding members of the Justice League—alongside other notable members like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. 

Recently, all of the comic book producers have been on a kick to make their stories more LGBT inclusive. DC has already told us that Batwoman is a lesbian. In fact, Marvel is just about ready to have Northstar, their openlygay Canadian member of the X-men, marry his gay partner Kyle Jinado. If there was ever a time to be gay and reading comics it is now!

The Land I Cannot Love

After going back to live with my parents were I grew up, I recently realized something that I did not like: inevitably, probably not in the too distant future, I will be forced to move away from here for good.

This scared me; the thought of packing up a U-haul with everything I own and going to live in a new place—although it sounds exciting—brought tears to my eyes. Tears not of joy, but of sadness. I, very much down to my deepest bone, want to love this place—to call it home. The problem is I cannot. Being gay is just too much of a burden.