Does it matter? Yesterday, Joe and I gassed up just south of the border of North Carolina, then, we drove straight through. We didn’t stop. We didn’t buy a single thing. They got none of our gay money. When we planned the trip, we calculated driving time and, if we stuck to our routine, we’d […]
Speaking for myself. I don’t want your thoughts and prayers. I kept hearing about your thoughts and prayers all day today as I listened to news reports of the mass slaughter of LGBTQ people at a gay club in Orlando. People of all stripes, from all parts of the political spectrum, kept sending thoughts and […]
Right now Joe is rushing around getting things packed and ready. We leave our vacation paradise today, the kids and their Mom flew out yesterday, and we leave this morning. When we got back from dropping them off at the airport, we were quiet. The ride home was eerily silent, having two kids in the […]
It was hot. It was humid. We’d already been at the park for 4 of the, what would become, 11 hour day. We came upon Moe’s Tavern, recreated from the Simpson’s television show, where they had tables, with umbrellas, set up outside. Several were vacant what with most people preferring the air conditioning inside. A […]
I was with the girls as they did a craft at an activity centre near where we were staying. The weather wasn’t great but they didn’t notice because they were having fun. The door opened and a woman rushed in with her child. She spoke to one of the women at the desk and started […]
At the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals conference I gave the closing keynote for the first day. During that talk I told a story about my time back in the early days of service, working in a small institution in Victoria called Glendale. The next day, when we were done and loading into the […]
“It’s just a surface friendliness,” she said. We had been talking about my experience yesterday in downtown Atlanta. I was describing how nice everyone was, from the people who worked in the shops and restaurants to the security guards who helped me navigate, and find, accessible entrances. I spoke with two police officers who both […]
Hey, Hollywood!! Hey, Hey, Over Here. Yeah, it’s me, the fat guy in the wheelchair. Listen up. I SAID ‘LISTEN UP!!\ Do you know what I’m doing right now? Right now. Right freaking now. Nope, that’s not it. No empty pill bottle beside me. Nope, that’s not it. I don’t even own a razor blade. […]
I rolled into the shop for the first time. Up until now Joe’s just headed over and picked up what I needed when I needed it. Today I decided that I’d like to go take a look at what they had and ask a couple questions of the clerk. I’ve not been in a shop […]
I saw him. I know he knew that I’d seen him. But also, and this is unusual, I knew that he had seen me. Seen me past my physical shape, past my mode of movement, past every stereotype of every kind. He’d seen me. And, as I said, I saw him. We were going south […]
