Are We Really "Born This Way"? (2 of 2)

This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me,

Throw your sticks and your stones, throw your bombs and your blows,

But you're not gonna break my soul-

This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no.

--Katy Perry, "Part of Me"

When we last left our elementary school heroine, she routinely sat in the shrink's office, utterly confused as to why she was there.

Okay, enough with the third person.

I went to counseling on and off for about three years.  And one day, a lightbulb went off. I thought about Christmas, when I was roughly 6 years old, and I cried when my great aunt got me a Barbie doll. I thought about the Herculean effort it sometimes took for my mom to get me in dresses for church.  I thought about how most of my buddies were boys. I thought about how I was obsessed with baseball and played pretend games in which I was a male detective.

"I want to be a boy. I wish I was a boy" rang in my head.

Although it looks like someone else...even I can admit this is cute. (Age 6)

Where's the Accountability?!

I'm so upset today, I hardly know where to begin.  Read this article, and you'll know why.

What's especially sad is that this isn't the first, second, or even tenth such article I've read.  What I want to know is this:

How many kids will we have to lose to the bullying epidemic before progress is made?  Before kids stop seeing suicide as the best way to escape the torment?  What will it take?

Where is the accountability?

Jamey Rodemeyer

When You Get Caught Between the Moon and New York City....

Please forgive me an easy listening classics reference now and then. Christopher Cross was a favorite part of my nightly elementary school years, forced muzak bedtime routine (see “Alligator, Go Away!” for an explanation). And, that background has been invaluable to my “there’s a song for everything” philosophy.

Now, to the meaning behind my musical reference to romance and the Big Apple: as most of you probably know, last Friday night, New York became the 6^th state to pass a marriage equality measure for gay couples. Predictably, I had passed out with Anna while putting her to bed and I missed the actual vote. But I’m glad I woke up in time to hear the news and enjoy some of the jubilant coverage before dozing off again. Two years ago, we had such a celebration in my home state, thanks to a courageous legislature and governor….until a voter initiative narrowly stripped us of our newly found freedom to marry before we could even make it to City Hall for a license.