A psychology definition - a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or their certain ways of doing things. Prejudice is the affective component and discrimination is a prejudice reaction. Within LGBT - conventional formulaic generalizations, opinions, or images based on sexual orientation…homophobia stereotype -- gays are not religious. One of the [...]
Dad's birthday was this week, he would have been 75. He's a Virgo, which equates to a whole slew of positive things in my book -- an outgoing life of the party, a connector, and organizer. He also happened to be a gay man from a time where it made him an outcast and placed [...]
I have had my fair share of angst because my dad was a gay man. For so long I wanted to share with friends and peers, that yes, my dad was gay. I also wanted to shout: Can we all just get over the stigma that comes with that? More than anything my dad [...]
I moved to Chicago in the early 90’s after my divorce at 25. My apartment was 7 blocks from the lake, straddled between Wrigleyville and Boys Town. I educated myself by attending street fairs on Halsted where gay men partied, commiserated, openly hugged and kissed, supported, and loved one another. I’d never seen such openness [...]
Figuring out how I fit in became a question when I was three years old, left living with Dad, and began living with Mom…first with her parents in Davenport, Iowa. As my parents finalized their divorce when I was two it hadn’t occurred to me that I needed to fit. It was living with grandparents I [...]
When I was a little girl I didn’t know our family was off or different, things just were the way they were. Yes, I felt the ups and downs of first living with Dad, then with Mom…really with Grandparents shortly before Mom found a house for us. The important thing is I was unassuming, resilient [...]
I spent my life in a strange, wonderful, questioning, beautiful dance with my dad. He was a man that made it look easy, the way he walked, stood tall, and often took command of a room. He moved effortlessly through conversations especially in large gathering. That’s what I saw when I was young. When I [...]
My family was not like others I knew or was related to for that matter. Because my parents divorced when I was two I never knew a traditional family day in and day out. We were different. It was a pulse I felt most days, most holidays, all my life growing up. Family became important [...]
The one time a year I could count on seeing my dad was at Christmas. Right around dusk on Christmas Eve he would ramble into town and land on our doorstep. When the knock came that we’d been expecting my siblings and I would hot foot it to the door. There Dad stood, my big [...]
It was the quiet spaces that were the killer. The fact that I saw things about Dad we didn’t talk about. The quirky way he and Jim would look at one another after having drinks after 5, after being separated all day, then joining back together with us kids for the evening. It was the [...]
