My life is my creation, my responsibility. Now, at the age of 34, I find myself reevaluating what is important: what is worth fighting for and against, what is unnecessary and what is essential. This is primarily a realization that my integrity, identity and power to defend them form the bases for all other good things in my life. Queer Visions is but one embodiment of this realization.
Being willing to speak up and draw attention to those who seek to segregate me through legislation and who base their anti-gay efforts on heinous lies and irrational fears is incredibly important to me now. Being willing to seek others who don’t cowardly comply with the extremist aspects of society but seek to change it or, at the very least, oppose it is incredibly important to me now. Being willing to cast aside those superficial values trumpeted by many within, specifically, the gay subculture plus being willing to embrace a healthier outlook on love and work – these are incredibly important to me now. And being willing to work for a life which may include my own children and/or my own husband and all the privileges, commitments and responsibilities which come along with them is incredibly important to me now. Primarily though, my willingness comes from the thought of those gay and lesbian people who come after me.
I am admittedly naive when it comes to some areas of life (as is everyone) but not when it comes to the fundamental ones. When looking within, I see an honest open willingness to be vulnerable, humble, positive, hopeful and compassionate; but I also see a healthy willingness to embrace my anger at the sickness and insanity of the society around me. This anger is a deserving anger which will not subside until institutionalized homophobia is no longer accepted as acceptable, no longer dismissed as inconsequential, no longer considered reasonable and no longer promoted behind mainstream pulpits. Being willing to express this anger by standing up to corrupt religious and political leaders and by challenging those around me who do not understand what’s at stake is right and good and my responsibility.
Here I wish to honor those gay and lesbian people who courageously fought before me and upon whose shoulders I stand. Here I wish to bring attention to the life of those gay and lesbian people who were, and still are, unable to fight for their right to exist fully. Here I wish to honor those gay and lesbian people who were, and still are, tormented by the ignorant and ostracized by their own loved ones for simply being different from them. Here, too, I wish to honor my journey out of the darkness of religiously-inspired homophobia, both external and internal.
Sincerely and with hope for a better tomorrow,
Patrick
Patrick!
Please keep up the good fight for what is right! Your outreach is growing and I could not possibly be more proud!
Mike
Patrick
I love you for what you are doing and I want to help in any way possible.
My name is James M. McDonald, but please call me Mike. I’m 57, a Viet Nam Vet, a 9/11 Survivor and a committed lover of 26 1/2 years with my partner, Joey Infante. I am an artist, a musician, writer and poet. I want to use my talents and energy to help make this a better world for people like Joey and myself.
It looks as if we’re going to be forced to take a stand or be wriped out by bigotry, ignorance, fear, religion and hatred. I have seen “Paragraph 175″ and have not been able to get those horribly graphic pictures out of my mind. Imagine being toitured, beaten, brutalized and ultimately murdered for something you are born into, not something you choose.
When you say I’m wrong for being gay, remember it was God who made me this way!
I don’t know what it’s going to take, but we must stop the anti-gay sentiment growing in America. So let me know what I can do to help. I mean it with all my heart and soul!!!
Sincerly and Respectfully,
Mike
NYC
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