Soulforce at Focus On The Family

Apologies! I didn't have my blog password along during this past incredible week at Soulforce. If you haven't been following the Soulforce week, you can read all the daily reports on the website at LATEST NEWS

I'll figure out that password for next time I travel. We sold two cases of books while we were in Colorado. What a feeling to hold that book and now be able to share it with others.

Blessings,
Lars

Books are OFF THE PRESS!

Today, in Kansas, 1,000 copies of Straight Into Gay America are headed out from the printers to their distribution center. For all who have ordered books, shipping starts on Tuesday.
I hope you'll really love this book. It's been such an adventure to create it. So many people have rushed to help create it in time for this election season.

Turns out that my publication date is coinciding with the House of Representatives voting on the Federal Marriage Amendment to exclude gay and lesbian people from marriage. There's an excellent article on the national call in day on the PFLAG Website. If you want to sign a petition, The Task Force Petition is an easy way to do so online. Their goal is 100,000 signatures. If you can add yours, thank you.

I fly to Colorado Springs on Monday, and I'll be unicycling with Soulforce for my publication release on Tuesday. If you've ever done promotional work you know how endless and consuming it can become. I'm thankful for the daily emails that arrive with reminders of the purpose of this journey. Another gift was made to Soulforce for my riding in the march. The giver, who I don't know, wrote this remark.

"My Godson was expelled from The Episcopal School in Wichita Falls, TX because he has 2 loving mothers. He was only 3 years old! They fled to Canada because they did not feel it was safe to raise their children in Texas. It is amazing what some Christians will do! We have to make a difference. Thanks for helping make that difference."

Next week, I'll join hundreds of people in Colorado Springs to help end Focus On The Family's anti-gay focus. I'll do my best to offer daily updates next week, of the people I meet who are acting to make a difference.

The books are off the press! Now begins a new adventure. I hope it makes a difference. If you haven't ordered your copy yet, now would be a great time.

Blessings,
Lars

Gifts of Encouragement

6 days before my publication date ride in Colorado. I was looking through emails this morning, remembering the journey of these last months. The letters helped me remember the variety of reasons we need equal rights. I posted a few excerpts on the website. Maybe there will be connections for others. Here are the quotes. You can also see them on the homepage at www.straightintogayamerica.com

"Thanks for doing what you do.... I'm a PROUD MOM of a GAY son."

"I am a gay minister. Thank you SO MUCH for your courage. Your insights are keen. Your writing consistently brilliant, enlightening, questioning, supportive and ongoing."

"I am a gay woman in the deep south and my partner and I are lucky to work together. We endured several years of harassment at work and we've survived it with our heads held high. We have been together in a committed relationship for almost 9 years and we are raising two beautiful children together that had been given away and left to perish."

"I am overwhelmed at what you have accomplished. There is no other way to say it. I am 60yrs old, in a 30 yr relationship and before that was married for almost 10 yrs... I am not sure some folks will appreciate as much as they should what you have done."

"I am a mother of a 17 year old gay son.....just found out a few months ago. I am scared for my son with this world. I praise you and am proud of you! I told my son about your book. God bless you and be safe."

"Your writings and thoughts are straight to the point and cover it all."

Letting it Be

Just returned from a 3-day backpack trip in the Cascade Mountains of Washington.
Together with another family we hiked up over 9,000 feet, glissaded down a snowfield, and entered the natural world that keeps turning day by day regardless of what I do or don't accomplish.

On the first day I thought about all the things I should be doing for next week's book release. One week from today the book becomes public in Colorado Springs,

On the second day I thought about the book, and why I'd taken my journey, and all the hours this past winter that I wrote and wrote and wrote.

On the third day, hiking back to the car, I resolved to let it be, to take what comes. I realize how much I want to get past the uncertainty and reach the point of knowing more about my days. Even with the small one-bedroom house we're renting, our expenses are currently larger than our income.

The bank account on this adventure draws slowly down, even as the emails come come with thanks for riding the ride, writing the journey, and sharing my story. A week from publication, in this time of unknowing, I feel glad for the alpine meadow where we camped, and the snowfed brook where we got our water.

Let it be. A week from today is publication day, and then begins a new adventure. Thanks for sharing it. Thanks for encouragement,

Blessings for the day,
Lars

Why do this?

This morning I spent another two hours with my best friend Google, working through the lists of websites and blogs that deal with lgbt advocacy. If Google is any guide, LGBT equality is all over the net. LGBT equality is on the way

After the two hours and a couple of dozen new messages sent, I'll be lucky if I get one reply. That's the nature of publishing. Wake up every morning, remind yourself why you're doing your book, and start all over with letting people know.

Yesterday I got this reply... sustenance to keep on.

Yes, we will promote your book and your message as it is near and dear
to our own hearts. You see, we also rode bicycles for marriage equality
(the two-wheeled variety). In 2003 we rode from St Augustine Florida to
Dan Diego California and again in 2004 from San Francisco to NYC. There
is a film out about the 2004 ride called 'Lesbian Grandmothers from
MARS: One Couple's Journey for Marriage Equality."

This morning, I read this note in my mailbox:

I am a mother of a 17 year old gay son.....just found out a few months ago. I am scared for my son with this world. My son used to be such a religious boy....has a shelf full of saints etc. I told him that he is not going to hell....God loves him....God made him. I just am so worried for his future. My husband and I feel he cannot tell people at his young age..but we do not want him to feel ashamed either. He needs to talk so he is seeing a gay physcologist. This way he knows we do not want to "change" him, but he needs to talk. I praise you and am proud of you! I told my son about your book. God bless you and be safe.

Sometimes the whole book promotion process feels remote and nebulous. Then I remember that this book is a sign of friendship with the world. and then notes come back that carry friendship, hopes, and dreams, and the world draws closer.

Patience, I remind myself. It's not the end, but the journey itself.

Blessings for this day.

Independence Day and Publication Jitters

Jitters:
I'm jittery about the July 18th publication date, and Dad's advice is sounding pretty good right now. This winter he suggested I put my manuscript up on a shelf and wait five years to see if I still feel the same way about what I've written.

Shelving my book would have saved me from this current "what have I done?" stage I'm navigating through this week. Maybe you're wiser than me and never do this. For me, it goes this way.

1. Great Idea - Unicycle Straight Into Gay America and write a book.
2. Do the Project.
3. Make it public.

Part 2a, right before the Make It Public stage, is my Doubt the Project stage, this tangled emotional mess of perfectionist longings coupled with the realization that the only perfection comes with doing nothing. I've been stuck here before.

Closets:
Straight Into Gay America continues to reveal more to me. And much of the learning is about closets. Closets are so tempting. Even after all the riding. Even after all the writing. I'm still back here again. If it's like other times, this too shall pass, I'll regain my bearings, and pedal out again on the imperfect journey.

We are Human Beings and we are OK just the way we are.
Every time I sell a pre-ordered book online I get a notice from Blooming Twig Books and I write a brief thank you note to the reader. People are often kind enough to write back. This note arrived this morning, and today, on this Independence Day, I'm going to overcome my doubting self-absorption and focus on the story of this family. Maybe this is the letter to get me over the hump and into the next phase of putting this book out. Listen...

Hi Lars,
I just wanted to thank you for what you are doing. I am a gay woman in the deep south and my partner and I are lucky to work together. We endured several years of harassment at work and we've survived it with our heads held high. I think that once people saw that we were not going to run away and hide, they finally gave up and left us alone. We have been together in a committed relationship for almost 9 years and we are raising two beautiful children together that had been given away and left to perish. I've watched these two children grow and become wonderful people with a great life and an even better future. I know that many American's think that same sex parents aren't good parents and shouldn't have children, but we are living proof that we can be good parents and we can raise great children. We are so grateful to you and to all you have given up to get our message out there. We are human beings and we are ok just the way we are.

Thank you friend.
Thank you friends.
For the power of shared stories.

Blessings,

and on this Independence Day,
prayers for a world that turns toward compassion and care,

Lars

At the Movies. At a Wedding. Supreme Court

DOCUMENTARY:
Some of us know that Jenny Ting is making a documentary of Straight Into Gay America. She followed the ride last summer and collected 90 hours of tape. Over the winter she got it down to 90 minutes. Now it's down to 60. You need to hit 50 minutes for a documentary showing on television, 35 minutes is you're going to show it with commercials.

I showed up at the studio on Friday night to see progress and to record some more voice sections. Watching the video made me glad all over again, seeing the people I met last summer. No release date yet, but know that Jenny is working, and working, and working on putting this documentary together.

WEDDING:
Sunny, beautiful outdoor wedding for Gwen and Joshua yesterday. Holden Village friends from the last three years showed up and it felt like a big reunion. I reveled in the day and remembered my own wedding. The dozen or more queer people at the wedding, most of them with lifelong partners, they celebrated too, but there's no way for them to walk that aisle and receive the same blessing from the state.

Yesterday was a day for celebration, but someday I'll go back and ask my queer friends what emotions they feel when they watch a man and woman walk down the aisle. Is it all celebration. Is it mixed with pain, with anger, with hope??? Next time I see my friends, I'll ask.

SUPREME COURT:
What to say about the Supreme Court's decision that Guantanamo Bay is illegal? Finally, a decision for the value of human dignity. Here's thanks to Amnesty International and all those groups and individuals who remain tireless in advocating for a more humane world.

Blessings,
Lars