When I started dating Boyd, my now husband of 4 years, one of the first memories I have is the two of us standing in my kitchen and him saying that he had something important to tell me. I could see that Boyd was nervous about whatever it was he had to say. He then proceeded to let me know that his son was gay. My reply was simply... "So?" It makes me sad to think Boyd anticipated a different reaction from me, but the honest truth is, he and his family had experienced a good deal of unfavorable, and often unsolicited, opinions from people over the years. Despite my obvious acceptance, Boyd acted much the same way when he told me Trevor had recently come out in therapy as Transgender and wanted to be called River. My reception was the same. We simply stopped calling him Trevor and began referring to her as River.
Now, cutting our story abruptly short (maybe save it for another post or ten), within months of me meeting Boyd, River passed away. Her death was determined an accidental drug overdose. River's story is not unlike many, many other LGBTQ+ individuals who are treated SO poorly and turn to drugs at an early age to numb incomprehensible pain. And the sad thing is, most of these people who do so much harm call themselves "good Christians". Which brings me to the point of this post...
"Is He Nuts?" is my new favorite book. Dennis Schleicher went through abuse from his mother, was tricked and admitted into a psychiatric hospital for troubled teens, divorced his parents and became his own court-appointed guardian at age 16, ended up on the Sally Jesse Rafael TV show as well as Larry King Live, and participated in the process of a Connecticut hate crimes bill that took effect in 1991. I'm going to just stop here, because I don't want to ruin the book for you. I highly recommend reading Dennis's story no matter what religion, sexual orientation, or race you are. I applaud him for being so open. As of today, you can buy a hardback at Cedar Fort Publishing and the price has been slashed from $22.99 to $3.99!
