If you wanted to really screw up your children, you’d convey constant messages to them that who they were, wasn’t okay.

A Lifetime of Self-Loathing

Kids are pretty resilient.  Even after decades of attending a religion that constantly said I wasn’t okay and being told by organizations like Boy Scouts that I was inferior, I was still able to grow into the successful, self-confident man that I am today.  Who knows, maybe it was because of those negative messages that I succeeded.

I was reminded of the impact of this in a great documentary on HBO Sports, called Back On Board:  Greg Louganis.

As a hormonal gay teenager and young adult, I considered this man to be an Adonis…beautiful and graceful and probably the most talented diver of all time.  The latest movie about him really humanized him in my mind and gave me great insight into what made him so great and in some ways, so flawed.

He’s still an amazing man in my mind, but the movie did remind me to “not judge others’ outsides with my insides.”

It also reminded me of the shameful way we treat our LGBT youth and how we continue to send terrible messages to our young gay children…every time the Catholic church says we’re not okay (and they still say it often…every time organizations like the Boy Scouts say it’s okay for local groups to exclude gay leaders…every time someone uses the term fag, faggy, gay in a pejorative way…it damages.

Current Knitting

Almost finished with Zanzibar and  I am in LOVE with this design.

So far, it’s about 45 inches long and will end up being about 50 or so inches.  This scarf would make an amazing gift for someone…especially someone that loves vibrant, wild color.  Working this pattern has made me fall in love with Koigu KPPPM all over again as well.