If you sense that I take great care when it comes to definitions, it is not a coincidence. Terms like sexual orientation, gay, straight, and same-sex attracted are socio-political constructs that seek to simplify what I view to be something for too complex to deserve simplification and relegation to categories or camps.

In times past, however, a lot of things have been said about me and to me. Sadly, the things that have been said to me are worse than the things said about me. Well, that’s life among the imperfect.

I was one of the oldest 12-year-olds you would have ever met. When they talk about people who have been “around the block a time or two,” I had been around the whole city, almost literally.

I grew up in an era where unkindness towards people of different races, sexes, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, socioeconomic groups, and even disabled people was thought of as a virtue. I also grew up in an era when these people were standing up for themselves in unprecedented ways. I never quite understood prejudice, although I knew it was a word that wasn’t flattering.

It is hard for some of us to understand, but there are people who think that controlling others is a virtuous endeavor and they excuse it by doing what in their estimation is for the other person’s good. It is when one person thinks that their ideas about another’s life is superior to what the other person wants.

This hymn has been on my mind a lot lately. Somewhat intentionally to be sure. It’s a hymn that’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and was one of my father’s favorite hymns. I’m at a point in my life where it’s become even more meaningful; especially the last […]

Right at a critical time when being close to my family would’ve helped the most, I had the choice of losing my job or traveling away from home to work. I was only going to be home on the weekends. It was good work and I couldn’t afford to give it up. At the same time, I was racked with the fear of being in a strange town where nobody knew me, where I could do things nobody would know about, and where that temptation might be more than I could resist.

With the new confidence I gained from coming to understand that I was not alone and that I had great worth in the sight of God, I probably could have stopped going to support groups at some point. Many people think I should. I haven’t and I’d like to explain why.

In 1947, the song writing team of Lerner and Loewe created a musical called “Brigadoon.” It’s a fantasy that takes place in the highlands of Scotland in a village that only appears once every 100 years. One of the songs that I’ve always loved and always brings tears to my eyes is called “There But […]

If you knew me 22 years ago, you would have not really have known me. Who I was on the inside and who I was on the outside were two different men. There’s an old Freudian-type of idea that men with facial hair are symbolically hiding something. I don’t really buy that idea, but for […]

I grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and knew that genealogy was an important thing. When I was very little, I didn’t know why, but my mother was into it, my aunts were into it, and my grandmother was really into it. She lived in a trailer behind my […]

Not fitting in is something I do well, and that includes in my reactions to the recent Supreme Court decision regarding same-sex marriage. I have never wavered in my belief that marriage is and ought to be between a man and a woman, in the eyes of God.

The reason wrong is wrong is because it hurts people including yourself.

Around the time I turned 16, as I have related before, I had a profound prayer experience where I promised Heavenly Father I would turn my life in a different direction. As difficult as it has been, I have kept the promises I made then. My life is everything I wanted it to be, except […]

I would bet that every person reading this has felt the frustration of having something to say and everyone else too focused on their own thoughts to really listen. Yet, even though we’ve all felt the sting of being misunderstood, very few of us make the effort to understand before we give our opinions.