I'm From Driftwood
The stories on I’m From Driftwood send a simple but powerful message to LGBTQIA+ people everywhere: You are not alone. I’m From Driftwood combats isolation and creates empathy to build a more understanding and accepting world. These are our stories, told in our own voices.
Latest Sexuality Stories
I’m From Brooklyn, NY.
Growing up in a religious Christian household hearing how “gays are going to hell in a hand basket” isn’t easy. Especially when you know in your heart of hearts that you are ...
I’m From Raymond, MN.
In light of the recent tragic suicides as a result of gay teens being bullied, it has brought back a lot of memories of the struggles and pain that I went through when people found...
“Dean…your boys want to know if Richard’s your lover.”
Dean Ostrum was married to a woman and had four kids when he met the man he would fall in love with and later marry. Dean explains: There was no secret about [Richard] being a ver...
I’m From Strasburg, ND.
I’m from Strasburg, North Dakota, hometown of Lawrence Welk. They played polka at my senior prom. A very homogenous, provincial, rural backwater of a place. I got picked on as a ...
I’m From Gorleston, Suffolk, UK.
1994. The beginning of this journey, one of which no one could have determined. One of which seems all so strange to one family. One of which one wished had happened earlier. 1998....
I’m From Provo, UT.
Summer vacation at seven years old, the best part of the day is as much ice cream as I want and a can of grandpa’s Fresca, which he always had in the fridge because he was a diab...
I’m From Kewanee, IL.
Like most people, coming out to myself, parents and friends was all at once painful, wonderful, and liberating. I’m lucky to look back on it now and be thankful that I have a g...
I’m From Clovis, CA.
The first time I wrote for I’m From Driftwood I wrote as an ally… it’s still very true; I still believe that everyone needs to be who they are and not hide it from the world...
I’m From Exeter, NH.
By my junior year at boarding school, I was co-head of my Gay Straight Alliance. I felt the pressure and anxiety of having to continue the charade of liking girls, while leading th...
I’m From Plymouth, MA.
I never believed in love. I never wanted to get married. I always told myself and came to accept that I was going to fall in love and marry my work and career; I was going to find ...
“AIDS Will Not Be The Boss of Me.”
Erik Walton has had HIV for over 20 years. He’s lost over 300 friends to AIDS. And he just lost his best friend to the disease 4 years ago. Despite all this, Erik will not allow ...
24-Year-Old Remembers His HIV Positive Diagnosis and the Hateful Words That Followed
Soon after 24-year-old Chris Richey found out he was HIV positive, he had an unfortunate incident in his own home with a friend of his roommate’s: This guy says something about s...
