By Jeff Walsh
Justin Clouse was never beat up because he's gay. He wasn't threatened, harassed or even suicidal. He began telling people he was gay in the tenth grade, and no one freaked out or called him names.
"I realize that doesn't make for interesting copy," Justin says apologetically. "I think that's a lot of people's misperception -- If I'm going to come out, a lot of people are going to beat me up and harass me."
By Jeff Walsh
The thought of having sex with a guy turns Sara Webb's stomach.
"The first serious boyfriend I had wanted to have intercourse," the 17-year-old Atlanta resident recalls. "I threw up on him. I was repulsed by it."
Webb doesn't have a problem with guys, though, just sex with guys. "To this day, guys, I find, are my best friends," she says. "I love them to death as friends and I'm emotionally attracted to guys, but if anything physical ever happens, I'm just repulsed."
By Jeff Walsh
Matt Marco was everything a student should be.
In his Edwardsville, Ill., high school, he was a chairperson on the student council and a member of the National Honor Society, drama club, chess club and French club.
"I had the basic overachiever resume," Marco says. "I was very well-known, very well-liked and I was going to be a foreign exchange student to France my senior year."
I think about Chris intermittently through the day, but I mostly think of him at night before I close my eyes and try to sleep in earnest. I don
Assuming, of course, that these "blogs" take the place of our much coveted discussion boards... Here we go...
My girlfriend and I broke up last week. She lives in Toronto... I live in Vancouver. It just wasn't going to work out, I guess. But you know how it is? You really love someone and you're really intimate with them and then *POOF* its over. Sigh. I'm not as Sunny as I normally am. I guess it's for the best though. We can both meet people in our own region now... the long distance thing just shouldn't have happened. I don't know how we managed to keep it alive this long. heh. It makes me laugh thinking about it. I miss her though. I wish she'd hop on the next plane home just so we could make love for the weekend. Sigh. It's a delusion. Nothing more.
I should've known this was coming. I've felt it approaching for weeks, like how you can sense an impending storm by the smell and feel of the air. I'm sure I did know, somewhere inside me. But I ignored any warnings I may have given myself and now I find myself sitting at my computer struggling not to cry.
You called your letter a reality check and a letter from one adult to another.
Excerpt dated October 25, 2000.
"Unfortunately, school does not teach all the important things in life. Now that you are in your mid 20s, you will begin to gain a greater respect from life experiences in the next 10 years
None of my friends here know that I'm a lesbian... I think that will be changing soon.