All-Story Love magazine featured (during its time) short stories and columns that are still quite entertaining, if a little dated. The story below was first published in April of 1951.


http://www.unz.org/Pub/AllStoryLove-1951apr-00058

Anyone who comes out to an ultra-conservative family member or friend (or reads the news on a daily basis for that matter) will tell you that she is no stranger to hearing "you're going to Hell if you do not change." There are days, though, when it feels like you're already there.

Your family won't accept you unless you "recant," some of your friends no longer want anything to do with you and, still in 2014, you see at least one article a day online (or in the paper) quoting a super-religious far right person comparing us to something loathsome. 

Really, I can't honestly imagine Hell being any worse than being alone with your own thoughts at night, trying to negotiate with your own parents so that you can be someone they actually want in their home for the holidays. And, on top of that, knowing (true, there's no actual proof, but you can just feel it in your bones) that someone you truly admire no longer can even look at you because they find who you are so counter to their beliefs.

I want to say to people like Bruce Barron, "Please. Please. Stop saying your rights are infringed upon by my wanting to fall in love with, marry and grow old with another woman. You can believe whatever you want, you can even write a column about those beliefs, but you should not have the right to deny me or my hypothetical/imaginary/ hopefully future wife the right to marry or live where we want to." 

It's exhausting to be this frustrated, even angry, and to have trouble letting go of all this angst. I think the holidays bring it out in me, that to be with my family for Christmas I have to be someone I'm not. Even worse, there is hardly a day goes by where I don't believe I am going to Hell.

I just want to add that I know I write about this issue a lot in my blog, but one reason I do is because of horrible things like this:

 
"We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively." — Gambian President Yahya Jammeh

Last Friday, a group of Gambian human rights activists supported by the RFK Center visited HRC's headquarters in Washington, DC and described atrocities going on in their country, many of which are carried out against LGBT people by the President of the Gambia, Yahya Jammeh – will you help put a stop to this?

Right now, Gambians are being imprisoned in deplorable conditions just because they are suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). Some of these individuals have even been held for over a month without any contact with the outside world and have no access to a lawyer. It is believed that they are being tortured, and there is tremendous fear for their lives and their safety.- source: HRC, Human Rights Campaign

I remember, in the early 90s, when I was in college some friends and I (all of us English majors) wondered about the lesser known books from the same time period of the classics we were reading. When we were in school, you would never have a problem finding a copy of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, of course, but just try finding a novel by a contemporary of his from the mid-1800s. Were they even still in print?

Thanks to sites like Project Gutenberg, archive.org and Munseys.com, you can find oodles and oodles of long-forgotten potboiler bestsellers from way back in the day. To dig even deeper, you can go to unz.org and read old issues of magazines that contain book reviews and top-selling novels lists. If you see something you like, all you have to do is go to Amazon or Google Play to download a free copy to your reading device.

A Lady of Quality (so different from The Secret Garden) by Frances Hodgson Burnett is just one example of hundreds and hundreds.

It's very hard to tell from the picture below, but unz.org is a fascinating way to delve into the past, with a wide array of choice in periodicals (even some old Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazines are free!)

 

 

I spent most of last night in a funk, because of the weather and because of a chance encounter where I work. Really, though, I only have myself to blame for letting it fester inside me, even for a second. 

I so dislike the things some married people think they can say to single people. The next time I bump into someone I haven't seen in a while who says, "You're still single?" (like being single is a disease or something equally bad) I'm worried I might actually reply, "You're still married?"

And the worst thing is I happen to know this person is wildly anti-gay and would be appalled if she knew I dream of marrying a woman, not a man. I don't know if "irony" is the right word, but if I lived in a state where lesbians can't marry, I think it would be.

This made me laugh, partly because a lot of it's true:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleyperez/24-things-single-people-are-tired-of-hearing

And, also, dear well-intentioned married people (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt) please (most of all!) do not pity singles! The only time I really mind being single and gay is the rare time when a casual acquaintance says they know someone I'd be perfect for and we could meet over lunch or dinner if I just say the word.

One time when I politely declined, the woman (having her nephew in mind) said, "Okay, but at your age you can't afford to be picky."

That kind of peeved me...I wanted to say, "I'm not picky, I'm a lesbian," but I didn't want to be confrontational and, quite frankly, I don't think someone should have to come out to a relative stranger to explain saying no to a date.

Okay, my rant is now over. :)

Here's to a good Monday!! "Velocity of Love" is very mellow and a nice listen for a bad day (or a good one.)

Also, some tips for a better Monday are here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Beat-the-Monday-Morning-Blues