by Karine

My name is Karine. I’m from Brooklyn, New York.  I grew up in a very conservative… conservative environment in Haiti. We went to church every week, sometimes twice a weekAnd I had just this moment of understanding that I could actually be in love with a woman, and I could be with a woman. Even though I’d had those feelings before, when I was...

by Rick Anderson

Hi, I’m Rick Anderson. I’m from Pearland, Texas. I grew up in the Clear Lake, Friendswood area in my early childhood in the eighties and nineties. And it was a communiAnd as that was happening, I reached out to that wonderful Baylor lawyer and it was just called them out of the blue. I think I was kind of panicking at the time. I called him and...

by Natasha Sumner

I’m Natasha Sumner and I am from Santa Rosa, California.  Growing up, I was a rough and tumble kid. I loved to be out in the dirt, out in nature. It was the place where I fToday, as you can see, I kept my hair short and revel in it all the time and really enjoy it. You know, I can’t say that these fears of mine and these sort of belief systems...

by Angie Harden

My name is Angie Harden. I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  When I was 15, I got my first job. I was thrilled to have my first job. I was lucky enough to work at a recreationaSo I called HR and I said very confidently, “I am certain that this is what has happened to me. I have been fired for being gay. Take a look at my file, take a look at my re...

by Nicole Bashor

Hi, my name is Nicole Bashor and I’m originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  I ended up going to college at the University of Pittsburgh, and it was quite a transition bA few years after that, I got married to a woman and we, after living in the city of Chicago for 20 years, were looking to buy a house. We originally moved to Evanston, which is t...

by Will

My name is Will, I’m from Houston, Texas.  From an early age, I realized I was different and didn’t fit in with other children my age. I loved the color purple and fo...

by Patrick Opdyke

I’m Patrick Opdyke and I’m from New York, New York. I went to college at Georgetown in Washington, DC. So at the time that I joined the rugby team, I was out but I wasn’t ne...

by Frank H.

Frank’s previous IFD story can be read here. – Life is like a book. My experience seems pretty typical for a gay man. My young years through college were miserable at times....

by Burt Likko

This is the story of the only time I ever breached my ethical duties as a lawyer. I was not that long out of law school, and in the mid-1990’s in Southern California, it was a t...