In the beginning...

When I was six years old, I remember watching TV in the basement at my grandmother's house. The news was on and - though I didn't know it at the time - Anita Bryant was on ranting about sick gay men while images of guys holding hands and kissing were intercut with the story. Even at that age I felt a twinge of recognition with these fellas and I turned to my mother and asked her why this woman hated these people? My mother said "because they're sick." At that moment, I think my innocence was destroyed like when you walk through the most beautiful, intricate spider web in the garden. In a split second, a thing of beauty becomes detritus in the wind.