Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Monday, December 23, 2019
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Heroes
There are a lot of heroes in this world. My father, his father, my brothers, all of my family members and countless others who put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms and protect our communities each and every single day.
This incredible gentleman, Mark Lawrence, courageously fought the battles that helped to legalize same-sex marriage in this country. He is one of those heroes. We all deserve the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He helped to ensure that right for millions out there in the LGBTQA+ community that has been marginalized for far too long! Congratulations on this honor!
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Focus - Part 2
At this time of year, I pray that we as a nation can re-focus on what is important in life! We have really lost focus on that. We need to take care of each other and our environment.
Monday, December 16, 2019
Happy Holidays 2019
I hope all of you out there are having a truly happy holiday season! I love each and every one of you out there. Thank you for reading my blogs and I wish for all of you love, joy and peace in your celebrations with your family and friends.
Yesterday, I spent a few hours with a few of my dear friends at the Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City for brunch. My dear friend, Marcie Jacobsen does this each year in celebration of her birthday and to allow all of us to be together for a few hours and celebrate each other and our lives together.
A truly gifted friend, composer, lyricist, a theater professor at Salt Lake Community College, Juan sang a truly beautiful song about Jesus Christ's birth from the viewpoint of his mother, Mary. He asked us to join in later in the portion of the song that switches to my favorite carol, "O Holy Night." Thank you, Juan, for sharing with all of us your talent, that truly uplifting song and for helping all of us to remember how much we love each other just as our lord and savior does.
No matter what your beliefs are, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season in whatever form that comes in. If you may be having a difficult time this season, know that you are loved, you are special, this world needs you in it! Only you have your very own unique contribution to make in this world.
God bless!
Yesterday, I spent a few hours with a few of my dear friends at the Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City for brunch. My dear friend, Marcie Jacobsen does this each year in celebration of her birthday and to allow all of us to be together for a few hours and celebrate each other and our lives together.
A truly gifted friend, composer, lyricist, a theater professor at Salt Lake Community College, Juan sang a truly beautiful song about Jesus Christ's birth from the viewpoint of his mother, Mary. He asked us to join in later in the portion of the song that switches to my favorite carol, "O Holy Night." Thank you, Juan, for sharing with all of us your talent, that truly uplifting song and for helping all of us to remember how much we love each other just as our lord and savior does.
No matter what your beliefs are, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season in whatever form that comes in. If you may be having a difficult time this season, know that you are loved, you are special, this world needs you in it! Only you have your very own unique contribution to make in this world.
God bless!
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Happy Thanksgiving 2019
I have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, but I am truly thankful for this!
Thank you, Governor Herbert, for protecting minors from this horrible and dangerous practice!
Thank you, Governor Herbert, for protecting minors from this horrible and dangerous practice!
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Dignity In Public Office
What has happened? I am so sad for our nation. We desperately need dignity returned to public office. This meme says it all.
Monday, October 21, 2019
Monday, October 14, 2019
Monday, October 7, 2019
Spiritual Genocide
I saw this article posted in a group I am a member of on Facebook and it really resonated with me. I wanted to share it. The LGTBQ+ community still has a long way to go before we can really be free of oppression in this world. My heart is very heavy tonight as I post this. I will be okay. I've dealt with this kind of crap all my life, and this too shall pass.
Friday, September 20, 2019
2020 Presidential Campaign
This current presidential campaign is groundbreaking for so many reasons. But one significant groundbreaking event is the fact that we have the very first openly gay presidential candidate in US history running. This is something to celebrate. I am so grateful to be alive at this moment in time to experience this. I may not agree with him 100%, but I personally feel he is a good man and one of the better candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination. We've come a long way!
Click Here
Sunday, September 1, 2019
The Hard Times
If I have learned anything in my life up to this point, it's this. I couldn't save my father from the vile clutches of Parkinson's Disease. I couldn't save my mother from the horrible ravages of Alzheimer's. I have dear friends in my life that have their challenges as we all do, but I can't take those challenges away. But I can definitely stand with them and support them and be there for them as a shoulder to cry on, to let them know that they are not alone and that I will be there for them no matter what. I have looked back recently on my life so far and realize that I wouldn't change the hard times for anything. I am grateful that I was able to care for my mother and to witness her fight against what her mind and body was going through. I can empathize with loss now and it makes me human, it helps me to understand more the incredible humans around me that have gone through the same thing as I did. I was able to be there for that incredible lady who brought me into the world, I, in turn, was able to help her leave this world in peace and to say goodbye to her, which was one of the most incredible and sacred experiences of my entire life! I am so grateful for the challenges and pain I've gone through. It has lead me to this incredible season of my life currently, which I wouldn't trade for anything!
Boys In The Arts - Part 2
I was thinking today about my reaction to the whole GMA debacle and why it was such a trigger for me.
I was born in El Paso, Texas right in the heart of the bible belt. El Paso is chiefly Catholic and Baptist, at least when I was growing up. The dynamics I'm sure have changed.
The one phrase I hear over and over again is "You guys are too sensitive. You need to stop taking everything so personally." You know what, I am sick to death of hearing that phrase dropped into sentences when people refuse to take personal responsibility for the venomous crap that comes out of their mouths. It's bullying, pure and simple.
I have dealt with bullies my entire life. When I was six years old, my mother enrolled me in tap/dance class at the local studio in Northeast El Paso off of Hondo Pass. I was the only boy in the class along with 12 girls. I loved every single minute of it. I felt confident in myself and my teacher was an incredible lady who always used positive reinforcement in her classes. The class was about to put on the first big show of the year when after a visit to my doctor, he and the other pediatricians on staff at William Beaumont Army Medical Center advised my parents to pull me out of that class because it would turn me into a pansy.
That word stuck with me for so long. In fact, through most of my adolescence. I didn't understand it at all when I was six years old. But, I knew I was different and I didn't like the typical activities that "normal" boys participated in. I hated contact sports, even though I enjoy watching them, particularly football and basketball. I went out for sports like cross country running and I loved golf. But when I began to grow into my teenage years I realized that I was indeed different. I knew I was gay at the age of 13 but unfortunately because of the stigma that carried with it and the bullying I endured during junior high and high school because I was involved in theater and music, I remained in the closet until I went to college and in the case of my parents, I didn't come out to them until I was in my mid 20's, after a suicide attempt that blessedly failed.
But, I endured so much bullying growing up and called a pansy, a faggot, and many more too vulgar to mention here. And due to the religious background I grew up in, I became a very self-loathing gay man as well as a self-loathing individual. Not being able to participate in dance and my non-interest in contact sports, I began to put on weight and drowned my sorrows, which I take full responsibility for, with food.
Because of my life up until now has been filled with so much self-loathing which has kept so much good in my life far away, the incident on GMA and the Fox news response, particularly from book author, Raymond Arroyo, I was triggered and I had every right to take it personally. Every single boy and man out there who has ever been bullied for their love of dance and art had a right to take it personally.
Today's society celebrates the bully. The bullies are put on a pedestal, they even get elected President. I am so sick and tired of everyone attacking one another and this stupid phrase going around "Make America great again." WTH? This country is already great, but it can be even greater if we can all embrace one another and learn to put out positive instead of negative words into the universe. Laura may have apologized, but the damage was already done. She may have not written the piece, but she laughed right along with the studio audience which really was the salt in the already open wound.
It's time we start to be adults here and stop tolerating bullying! It is NOT a normal part of growing up. It is a sign of weakness in the perpetrator and a compensating for his/her own shortcomings. They are taught that bullying is normal and that anything outside their own little world is strange and needs to be attacked and gotten rid of. Take responsibility for what comes out of your mouth and realize that words hurt. Words are powerful, and once uttered, can't be taken back.
I was born in El Paso, Texas right in the heart of the bible belt. El Paso is chiefly Catholic and Baptist, at least when I was growing up. The dynamics I'm sure have changed.
The one phrase I hear over and over again is "You guys are too sensitive. You need to stop taking everything so personally." You know what, I am sick to death of hearing that phrase dropped into sentences when people refuse to take personal responsibility for the venomous crap that comes out of their mouths. It's bullying, pure and simple.
I have dealt with bullies my entire life. When I was six years old, my mother enrolled me in tap/dance class at the local studio in Northeast El Paso off of Hondo Pass. I was the only boy in the class along with 12 girls. I loved every single minute of it. I felt confident in myself and my teacher was an incredible lady who always used positive reinforcement in her classes. The class was about to put on the first big show of the year when after a visit to my doctor, he and the other pediatricians on staff at William Beaumont Army Medical Center advised my parents to pull me out of that class because it would turn me into a pansy.
That word stuck with me for so long. In fact, through most of my adolescence. I didn't understand it at all when I was six years old. But, I knew I was different and I didn't like the typical activities that "normal" boys participated in. I hated contact sports, even though I enjoy watching them, particularly football and basketball. I went out for sports like cross country running and I loved golf. But when I began to grow into my teenage years I realized that I was indeed different. I knew I was gay at the age of 13 but unfortunately because of the stigma that carried with it and the bullying I endured during junior high and high school because I was involved in theater and music, I remained in the closet until I went to college and in the case of my parents, I didn't come out to them until I was in my mid 20's, after a suicide attempt that blessedly failed.
But, I endured so much bullying growing up and called a pansy, a faggot, and many more too vulgar to mention here. And due to the religious background I grew up in, I became a very self-loathing gay man as well as a self-loathing individual. Not being able to participate in dance and my non-interest in contact sports, I began to put on weight and drowned my sorrows, which I take full responsibility for, with food.
Because of my life up until now has been filled with so much self-loathing which has kept so much good in my life far away, the incident on GMA and the Fox news response, particularly from book author, Raymond Arroyo, I was triggered and I had every right to take it personally. Every single boy and man out there who has ever been bullied for their love of dance and art had a right to take it personally.
Today's society celebrates the bully. The bullies are put on a pedestal, they even get elected President. I am so sick and tired of everyone attacking one another and this stupid phrase going around "Make America great again." WTH? This country is already great, but it can be even greater if we can all embrace one another and learn to put out positive instead of negative words into the universe. Laura may have apologized, but the damage was already done. She may have not written the piece, but she laughed right along with the studio audience which really was the salt in the already open wound.
It's time we start to be adults here and stop tolerating bullying! It is NOT a normal part of growing up. It is a sign of weakness in the perpetrator and a compensating for his/her own shortcomings. They are taught that bullying is normal and that anything outside their own little world is strange and needs to be attacked and gotten rid of. Take responsibility for what comes out of your mouth and realize that words hurt. Words are powerful, and once uttered, can't be taken back.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
I Will Not Sing Here Anymore
This really speaks for itself. Powerful video.
I Won't Sing Here Anymore from Ross Productions on Vimeo.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Sunday, July 7, 2019
My Personal Journey Away From Religion
“Crazy world. Full of crazy contradictions like
a child. First, you drive me wild, and then you win my heart with your wicked
art. One minute, tender, gentle. Then, temperamental as a summer storm; just
when I believe your heart’s getting warmer. Your cold and your cruel, and I like
a fool try to cope, try to hang on, to hope. Crazy world, every day the same old
roller coaster ride; but I’ve got my pride; I won’t give in. Even though, I
know I’ll never win. Oh, how I love this crazy world.” – from “Victor/Victoria,”
lyrics by Henry Mancini.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Friday, April 26, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Friday, March 29, 2019
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Friday, February 8, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
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