Author of Contemporary Gay Fiction
Today I have the pleasure of hosting the annual GiveOUT Day over at Smoocher’s Voice. We’re raising $2000 for homeless lgbt children (and we’re halfway there!). You can win prizes, meet new people and help us reach our goal by giving to the part of our LGBT community that need it most. Stop by, have some fun, win some prizes. And even if you can’t give, please help us share the event.
For me, being called gay has never been an insult. I don’t worry too much about what people say, as much as what they do. And being somewhat physically aggressive myself, I have (in the past) sometimes welcomed the opportunity to stomp some manners and sense into those who believe themselves on a higher moral ground. But there are other, and better ways, to handle such situations as the video below shows.
Cole Strona from G.J + Iziki + Cole talks with Equality Hawaii’s Mathew Bellhouse-King about being bullied, getting called “gay” and how music can make a difference.
“Gay” is not an insult… from Equality Hawaii on Vimeo.
On any given night, there are between 500 and 2000+ local homeless gay youth trying to survive on the street. They may be right in your small hometown, or in the nearest city. Nationally, the numbers are estimated to be between 100k-250k+ homeless lgbt kids living on the street. We’re going to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about homelessness and lgbt youth.
Assumption: I never see them, those numbers can’t be true. [Read more...]
“You can’t save everyone.”
These were the hardest four words I ever heard in my life and they were given to me by a spiritual mentor who picked me up from the floor and held me after I heard the news of the suicide of a very close personal friend. I have never gotten over the death of my friend, but her death prompted change in my own life and in the lives of others that were touched by her presence.
This month, Lost-n-Found was informed of the death of a young man who approached them for help, and then left the program because he didn’t think he could stop doing drugs. I don’t work directly with the LnF board, or any of the volunteers. I’m just one of those spreading the news about the work they do. But I know personally how something like this hits you. Hard and below the belt. [Read more...]
Often people ask what happens to my donation? How does it affect the lgbt kids you support? Who are these kids? Lost-n-Found, like most youth-serving organizations, is very protective of the kids that seek them out for help. Often, you never see the faces of those that you help. These brave young souls have been through hell, but they also got off the street because of people like you who have donated and given them hope for a better future.
Lost-n-Found has helped over 200 lgbt kids to get off the streets all around the South. You can help us help them by donating at the link below.
Welcome friend and MM Romance author DP Denman to the blog with an important post about finding hope.
I read a story recently on a new website called YouthResource.org. Ok, so they’re not exactly “new” but they’re new to me. The online resource run by LGBT youth for LGBT youth isn’t flashy or impressive but it addresses the basics from how to come out to your parents and topics like HIV. It also has sections where youth involved in the peer program can share their stories. One of them ended a tale that I know glossed over the worst parts by saying, “Sometimes you have to make your own light at the end of the tunnel but you don’t have to do it alone.”
Those simple yet inspiring words cut right to the heart of what groups like The Trevor Project and Lost-n-Found Youth are trying to tell LGBT kids. It’s difficult to be a teen and sometimes things happen that you never expected and would rather not deal with but that doesn’t make it hopeless. [Read more...]
My friend and fellow author Elin Gregory and I share passions, LGBT youth and history. And while I don’t write historical fiction, she does it wonderfully. ~B.
Many thanks, Brandon, for agreeing to host me on your blog.
One of the big problems for an historical novelist is how much information to dump into your text. Whatever makes it into the final version has no business being there if it doesn’t move the story along, so sometimes hard decisions have to be made. One of the hardest decisions for me, while writing On a Lee Shore, was to cut out a lot of the text involving a very minor character – Will, the link boy. [Read more...]
From the Front Line: A weekly post about what Lost-n-Found, a Homeless LGBT Youth organization in Atlanta, deals with on a daily basis. Names are changed or removed to protect the youth.
From the Hotline for Homeless LGBT Youth:Often when we talk about LGBT kids prostituting themselves for survival, people automatically think of some kid standing on a street-corner waiting for a john to cruise by and pick them up. And while that does happen, too often there’s a more insidious form of prostitution going on behind the guise of a safe place to stay. [Read more...]
A weekly post about what Lost-n-Found, a Homeless LGBT Youth organization in Atlanta, deals with on a daily basis. Names are removed to protect the youth.
From the Hotline for Homeless LGBT Youth:2:37 PM: The Hotline gets a phone call from a gay youth who states that his mother has locked him in a basement because he’s gay. She left him his phone and a pop-tart.
Further investigation reveals that this 17-year-old has already been to the police. His situation at home was so bad that he ran away. (He is an African American youth and his family is Muslim and will not tolerate his sexuality.) [Read more...]
From the Hotline for Homeless LGBT Youth:We hear a lot of youths’ stories on the HOTLINE and most would simply wretch your heart. This cry for help started out that way, but quickly turned to a positive.
We got a call from a gentleman that had run into a young man that he thought we could help. We asked that he give the youth our number and to have him contact us so that we could verify his story.
The youth could not call but could text because he is deaf. His mother had him declared mentally unstable and got him onto disability, so she could control the money. [Read more...]
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