April 21, 2025 - Celebrating 52 Laps Around the Sun

A Personal Reflection on Progress, Pain, and the Unfinished Journey

AI image created by the author

Today, as I mark my 52nd birthday, I find myself not just celebrating another year of life, but reflecting deeply on the journey of the LGBTQ+ community since 1973—the year I was born. My own story, shaped within the walls of a conservative Christian home, is woven into our collective struggle for dignity, safety, and love. The arc of these five decades is long, bending toward justice in society at large, yet the church—my first home—has often lagged behind, clinging to exclusion while the world changes outside its doors.

1973: The World We Inherited

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association finally removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, a watershed moment that began to chip away at the medical and social stigmas that had long defined queer existence. Yet, that same year, Maryland became the first state to explicitly ban same-sex marriage, a reminder that progress is rarely linear. The founding of the National Gay Task Force in New Yor…