By Alicia Oliver

This would be simpler if I could just pretend that I was straight, but I can’t. I can’t live a lie like that.

By Richard Lewallen

There were lots of hugs, laughter and tears. Then I knew that I was okay and would be okay. I would be okay with myself and with God. And I knew things were changing for the better—a big step in the search for my true self.

By LIsa Salmon

When his name is read out, I whisper a prayer for my friend: “You matter. We all matter.”

By Craig Archibald
As I entered the restaurant, surrounded by these brave and talented gay pioneers, I caught my reflection in a window. Still so very gay, now completely out, and neither pathetic nor a fallacy.

By Kristina Ebanez

I’ve left my hometown in Hawai’i three times. The first time was when I was fifteen. The second move was when I was eighteen. The last and hopefully final time was when I was twenty-six years old. Each time I left, I got asked the same question: “Why did you leave?”

By Melanie Mitzner

While all good stories come to an end, our art lives on.

By Wayne Hoffman

I haven’t missed a Bear Week since then. I go dancing every day, shirtless. One week every year. It recharges me when my self-confidence is running low.

By Joseph Gorrell

The church would abandon him. And if his parents followed, they would abandon him too. He wept. He couldn’t envision a world without his family.

By Mary McGrath

Perhaps my sexual orientation didn’t matter after all. In the end, my mother viewed me as a person.

By Stephen Smith

But why would I mourn the loss of that boyfriend? I’ve decided that he was not the only one in our relationship who was needy.