Outing the Relationship

Summer in Ottawa has officially come to an end. The leaves are changing colours and are dropping from their branches, and there's a constant coolness in the air now. I'm heading into my first real winter since 2005/2006, and it's going to be a challenge for me to get back into that lifestyle. As the season changes, I reflect now on where life has taken me.

I am now settled into a relationship with one man. He doesn't like being "out there" much, mostly because he values his privacy, but he's been mentioned here before, so I think it's fair to at least name him here, even if I don't discuss him a lot. Without much surprise, it's Etienne.

He surprised me by dropping in to my disorganized apartment very, very early on a Sunday morning to let me know in no uncertain terms that he wanted to be with me. To say I was surprised by his admission would be an understatement; you could have literally knocked me over with a feather. Etienne and I have had a strange relationship that included many months of believing he was completely indifferent to me. I was vehement when asked about him that there was no possibility of a relationship...and here he was, asking for one.

A complicated summer has turned into a quiet autumn. I don't know what the future holds for this relationship, but for now, I'm happy to let it unfold.

Dan Savage/It Gets Better

Dan Savage is tired of the way bullying of gay kids is handled in schools. Over the past couple of weeks, four high-profile cases of teen suicides have taken over the headlines, and the common thread that propels them to the headlines is that these guys were all bullied for being gay or suspected of being gay. And tired of schools in the US not addressing this issue, tired of the problem of bullying queer students not even being acknowledged by some so-called educators, Dan Savage said it's long past time that gay people stop waiting to be invited into schools to facilitate education about the issue.

He's bypassed the invitations, and through his Youtube project, It Gets Better, he's encouraged queer adults to submit videos that let gay kids and teens know that they've survived that awful period in their lives and gone on to lead happy, healthy lives...to let the kids today know that after the horrors of high school, especially in bigoted or rural communities, it is possible to escape and make their way in the world...to let these kids know that it gets better. So it's worth hanging on.