Part of my history, and hopefully not part of my kids'

Twelve years ago this past evening, a young man named Matthew Shepherd was kidnapped from a bar in Laramie, Wyoming by two men. He was savagely beaten, tied to a fence far from town, and left. Some time later, a passing biker spotted him (at first thinking him to be a scarecrow), and he was taken to a hospital in Colorado, where he died five days later.

This year, for the first time, that brutal attack could have been prosecuted as a federal hate crime, because Matthew was killed because he was gay. It took twelve years for the government to accomplish this. Twelve years.

If my math is correct, Matthew would be in his mid-thirties had he lived. What would he think about the pace of progress on LGBT issues in this country?

In recent months, at least five gay youths have committed suicide, a desperate solution that they reached as a direct result of homophobic bullying in school. Will we have to wait a further twelve years to see anti-bullying efforts? As a former recipient of some fairly significant homophobic bullying, I hope that it doesn't take that long, and that it doesn't take the deaths of hundreds of other youths to achieve progress.


I was lucky. They may not be.


For more information on the epidemic of gay youth suicide, and what you can do to help, visit www.thetrevorproject.org.

Unemployment; or, What Recovery?

As of today, I have been unemployed for 74 days. I have applied to, on average, 5 jobs per day for the past 74 days. That is, ladies and gentlemen, an estimated total of 370 job applications. From these 370 applications, I have had two phone interviews and one in-person interview. This means that I have a less-than-1% success rate of getting to the interview stage.

What is the problem? I promise, I'm not applying to jobs out of my skill set or experience level, and in many cases, I'm applying under my ability.

Anyone know any magical job tricks? Special employment potions? Hiring chants? 'Cause I could definitely use some increased mojo on the job front.