Robert StGenis Voice empowered

As I start to write this, I again realize how quickly time flies and all the more so, it seems, as you get older. The It Gets Better Project was started in 2010 by activist, author and journalist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller following what seemed at the time to be an endless number of suicides of young gay kids throughout the US from varying backgrounds. As a gay man and one who never really was suicidal but definitely knows from being distraught, alone and in a state of despair, it definitively struck a cord. It motivated people like Dan and Terry to take on initiatives that I believe have helped many directly and equally shed a light and opened the minds and perspectives of many others. For my small part, at least in this direct "movement" I created this video. As you will learn about efforts I have made in the LGBTQ community, which are vast, they all should have some impact on a feeling of acceptance. Hopefully one that makes one feel less suicidal f...

The last high school graduation I attended in 2018 was in one of the best rated school districts in the state in a community in suburban Chicago where you think "it couldn't happen here." I was actually a bit nervous during the ceremony. It was in an auditorium with the exit doors mostly to one side and everyone seemed to be a "soft target." There was a police presence outside the school, but I don't recall any inside the auditorium. The fact that a police presence has become more essential than precautionary or, in some cases honorary (showing up as to participate, receive or give an award), is a clear sign of the times. The shooting at Parkland was only a few months before. Photo I took at Mom's Demand Action rally, Orlando, FL 8/17/19 My step-sister recently moved to a great community in suburban Atlanta. I wonder if those kids will go through drills in case of a shooting. I hope they do because it is necessary; but I am sickened by the though...