To Make You Feel Proud

It's been a year. One year ago Saturday, I stopped trying to hide myself behind the people I cared about and the version of myself I thought was more palatable for the rest of the world, and just said it out loud and proud. I'm gay.

It's certainly not a announcement I came to lightly, and frankly there are people in my family, chiefly my dad and my younger brother, who still don't know. It's still something that is difficult for my friends and family who do know to grasp and relate to, because well I've always just been Drew. Big, tall, lovable Drew. Constant shoulder to cry on, always the nice guy, and an asexual being for all time.

In the last year though, it seems the world and culture around me is trying to give as many opportunities as it can to make sure that I and thousands of other young people begin to understand that it's okay, and it will get better.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed in a stunning and grand statement made by the Commander of the Joint Chiefs, Congress, and the President to announce that no matter who you're boning, we can still be safe, corp morale doesn't have to be hurt, and heaven forbid we allow people to be who they are. Television and film has presented gay characters in all forms and levels of swishiness to suit even the most frustrated and easily grossed-out homophobe. The struggle of young teens trying to decipher the difficult waters of sexuality in the 21st century is on full display in a bold and brash way. Shows like "Glee" that reach a wide range of audiences in terms of age, are making their characters topics of discussion so parents and children can be more honest and think freely about how they feel.

Even after a rush of increasingly scary and increasingly heinous suicides of gay youths, Dan Savage, openly gay writer, activist, and sex columnist started the It Gets Better campaign to talk to the youth of the world to let them know that their pain and their eventual triumph is not in vain. Everyone from President Obama, gay-friendly celebrities like Kathy Griffin, and even the staff of Pixar Studios willingly put their voice where their heads are at on the rights of those who are bullied for being GLBT.

Even in my personal life, friends and I have been able to have serious discussions about the equal rights groups, what their preconceived notions are, how religion and politics work into this debate, and why they have reservations.

It's this willingness to improve our world and realize the importance of each of one its individuals that makes me hopeful that my eventual partner and I can raise children and we can honestly tell them that they can be whoever they want to be no matter what difference they have in the world that may try to encumber them.