The first time I noticed my attraction for another woman I was 19 years old. She was a beautiful blonde I met at a bar and it was 1984. A rush of feelings came over me that I had previously never felt. I noticed the same feeling again with an old...
For some people to come out? I came out later in life and this is very curious to some people. Early out gay people, and straight people as well, pepper me with questions of curiosity. Did you know? When? Why did you wait? Inevitably gay...
My partner, Tonda McKay, is a professional photographer and I went with her to a shoot as her assistant. I had the opportunity to roam around the new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is a truly visually pleasing gem of a...
Grief As a society, and many of us personally, are terrified by this word. This word is the purveyor of the difficult emotions. A mentor once told me there are only four emotions in this world mad, bad, sad and glad. I would add a...
It was February and two months before I had left the home I shared with my husband of 27 years. I had made arrangements to house-sit to save some money and to have a place that I could call my own for a couple of months before I would make a decision about my...
My name is Anne-Marie. I am in my fifties and like all of us I have many roles in this life. I am a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend, ex-wife, partner, minister, chaplain, colleague and yogi. I am also a newly out lesbian and proud...
My therapist asked me at the end of the six months, “As you move forward what kind of woman would you like to meet?” After some reflection I said, “I would like to meet a woman who has been out for a long time and who has no children ." Why did I want a life...
In my last post I talked about the inertia that comes over us when we get stuck in the in-between, or for some of us, Gethsemane. It is so very hard to create a new life when we are clinging to an old one. My most difficult time of transition was when I...
I have a secret to share with y'all. I am a transplanted southerner, so I have to try and speak the language. As of today I know one word. A cool side effect of coming out later in life, is that it brought into my consciousness that somewhere in the last...
IN ACKNOWLEDGING MY SEXUALITY I KNEW THAT EVERYTHING WAS GOING TO CHANGE AND THAT BROUGHT ME TO MY KNEES IN FEAR. EVERYTHING I HAD WORKED SO HARD TO ACHIEVE WAS NOW SO VERY FRAGILE AND VULNERABLE. Several weeks later, on a tearful Saturday morning after I...
PART II To speak of the presence of God that night shows how far I have come. I was one of those allies to the LGBTQ community who was very accepting of anyone being gay, it just wasn’t ok for me. I have since realized that I had internalized homophobia,...
Ordained to Come Out Part 1 My name is Anne-Marie. Like all of us, I have many roles or labels in this life. I am a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, ex-wife, partner, in-law, minister, chaplain and yogi. I am also a lesbian. If someone told me three...