Living Proof

"Well what do other Christians say about the Bible?"  "Oh, you mean 'other people' and their book of rules?"  At the age of 19, I walked into a confessional booth, guilt-ridden and ashamed that I was dating another person of the same gender. The palm of my hands were sweaty as I entered into the small confessional booth, which had a tiny bench and a black mesh in between the priest and myself. I knelt down before the mesh and told him how long it had been since my last confessional (eek) and then poured out my heart, especially now that I was dating girls. "What do you mean you are dating girls?" "Well, I'm dating 'a' girl." "What do you do with her," he asked as silence followed. I didn't know what to say, other than tell him it was no different than dating a man, in some sort of innocent 'dating' way. I didn't want to describe my sex life with the priest, but he kept on asking me detail...

So many of us like to place titles on our lives, like "I'm a salesperson" or "I'm a Trump supporter," and even, "I'm a lesbian."  Before I make this statement, please know that I am not lumping an entire group into a "whole", but from only what I have seen for myself. I don't like to label myself. Hate it. But it is what it is. I'm gay. I guess the technical term would be "lesbian". Whatever. I do not belong to any "community", although I am an advocate for the LGBT community as best I can. I've never been to a pride parade, simply because I can celebrate who I am right here as I am. I am not embarrassed about being gay, or about having a lifetime partner of 23 years -- I just don't want to be lumped as a "community". With that being said, I have experienced on numerous occasions, other lesbian women who do not respect my marriage with my partner. They will either try to pursue an affair...

The one thing I've noticed, especially as of late, is that people seem to thrive off of negativity. They can say that their thoughts and actions are justified, but they stir things up, wreak havoc or just throw themselves in a pit of depression. I was one of them. I stayed in my depression for long periods of time. But the one thing I noticed was that my negative energy only fed off of others alike who were also negative. I couldn't get much from the positive people because their frequency was much different. But in the same aspect, because of their higher frequency, they sometimes pulled me out from that dark pit. So in turn, I learned another thing: it's nobody's responsibility to save you. Nobody is obligated to help you in any way. One day, I just decided that I was no longer going to torture myself. I mean, granted -- I still get anxiety from time to time, which leads me in a very exhausted depressive state, but I pull myself out of it quickly now. I try to be ve...

It's so hard to keep up with the ever-changing times, and acceptance of those who've come to the forefront out to the unexposed. But let's face it, I'd say there are about 85% of people unexposed to transgender men and women. Ask anyone if they know a transgender person -- ask any straight cisgender (biologically male or female) person to see if they themselves, know everything there is to know about someone who is transgender. It wasn't too long ago, maybe eight years back, before I met my first transgender female friend. (MTF male-to-female). She used to be a "he". So let's rewind the story. "He" was married to a woman and had a child with her. "He" always felt as a she. The wife had no knowledge of this whatsoever. But eventually, in "his" 60's, "he" transitioned into a woman. Now a "she" -- she still preferred women, so now she was a lesbian. Most people would just look baffled and say, "...

Most of us adapt to our cultural backgrounds and even current influences. Most influences are cultivated by our own relation to whatever we were brought up to believe in. But what if your core beliefs were shaken up a bit? What if God came down to earth and said, "You got it all wrong! Why did you solely rely on words that men wrote? Some of that wasn't inspired by me." How would you look at the world? And if you are a conservative Christian -- if everything you read with total conviction came tumbling down, how would you respond to those you warned about hell? Many conservatives are angered by the whole transgender bathroom fiasco. I've covered this a million and one times, so to save you the pete and repeat -- let's just say this: how does this affect you? Most unexposed people who have never met someone who is transgender are assuming that they all look the same, dare I say that derogatory term mostly used in the porn industry of "tranny". They ...

"Why are you mad at God?" It was a question asked while I was going through a horrible night of seizure-like episodes which kept me from sleeping for more than five days in a row. Why would God let this happen? Doesn't He want me to be productive in the daytime? Does He need me to help other people? Doesn't He need me to take care of my family if they need me? Doesn't He? Yes. As I tried to make my way across the day's fatigue and exhaustion, I thought to myself, "Well, my body's gotta shut down sometime, right?" And it did for about four hours. But then it was back to zero sleep. I could've gotten angry at God again, but what exactly am I expecting my imperfect and vulnerable body to do? Are we meant to live in perfect health all the time with no aches, pains, ailments or issues? Are we supposed to float through life without problems and distress? So when they say, "If He brought you to it, He'll get you through it," -- t...