Why am I having flashbacks again?

I just posted a review of Joining the Tribe by Linnea Due to glbt_books, but I couldn't post there why it is the book got me so riled up. You see, I too was coming out in the period when the book was written. I came out in high school. But unlike the people in the book, I didn't have internet connections, or support groups, or much of anything. All I had was a boyfriend who I loved, and friends who kept stabbing me in the back. I remember going to the County library, and finding three books concerning homosexuality, and all three of them were anti-faggot. I tried the high school library, but it didn't have anything. Hell, I did every report I could on AIDS, or gay rights, or anything I could find that was tangently related to being gay in America just to have the reassurance that there were other gay people out there. And I also donated much of the material I had bought to the High School library for them to use in their vertical file. I wanted so badly for anyone who came after me to be able to find that someone had gone before and had survived the process. I mean, I understand the isolation the kids express in the book quite well. I was there. But other than Mike, I had no one I could really trust in my immediate aquantences with anything that was important to me. Hell, the only reason I managed to get my shit together in the first place was a random camp encounter in 1991, where one of my counsellors was a lesbian. She actually ran a program on being gay. And it was then I finally got my shit together long enough to begin coming out. I owe Dakota Walker a lot for that.
Kind of funny. These days I have no qualms about picking up GLB lit or magazines, as long as they aren't pornographic.(I still have my isses with that. The way I figure, if I want porn, I have an internet connection.) I remember a time when it took all my courage, three trips to a store, and finally getting it in the middle of the night just to buy a copy of Out magazine.
And I get to college, and most of the people in Lambda have either been out quite successfully for a long time, or have just started coming out. And none of them could understand why I felt like I had been fighting for so long at 18.
And now, I look and see that one teacher has come out at Urbana. Yeah, I hear she went through hell, but where was she when I was being harrassed? Two is stronger than one. Yeah, the class four years behind me had a few same-sex couples, who have no fear of expressing it. Mike and I could never do that. Now, finally, my hometown is slowly acknowledging that it does indeed have gay people, and is actually taking steps to support them. But that wasn't there for me, or for Mike.
And I know that this is a good thing. Someday soon, no one will have to endure the hell of small-town fag-bashing, just as I actually had the power to come out in High School, instead of waiting until college, or until after being married and having kids. But it still hurts. And I find myself hoping that no one ever has to go through that again. And yet, I still see ignorence among people, I hear people screaming about fags going to hell. And I know that we still have so far to go.
And I'm sorry to take up bandwidth with what amounts to a "no one feels my pain" rant, but it's been building up for a while.

More welcomes

I'd like to thank borracho and alphakitty2001 for adding me. Welcome to the list. Instruments are in the corner, rehearsals start at 9.

Ok, this made me laugh

My sister-in-law sent this. I actually got a kick out of it.

To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students... here is something to make you chuckle.

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was "DON'T!"

"Don't what?" Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve...we have forbidden fruit!!!!!"

"No Way!"

"Yes way!"

"Do NOT eat the fruit!" said God.

"Why"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!

"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.

"Uh ! huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?" said the Father.

"I don't know," said Eve.

"She started it!" Adam said

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"DID NOT!"

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own.

Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom m! isquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

6. We child proofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY!

Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home.

AND FINALLY: IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, TAKE THE ADVICE ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE: "TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"