(Andrew Sullivan, photo courtesy of moreintelligentlife.com)
I must confess, it was a little difficult for me to say goodbye to 2011 when the clock struck midnight on Saturday evening, signaling the end of what was a truly momentous and wonderful year for me, and the beginning of a new and uncertain one. In many ways, 2011 was the most important year of my life thus far, as it was the year in which I at last came out as gay to my friends and family. Now comfortably out and enjoying life far more than I used to ever think was possible for me, I sometimes get asked by friends- "Was it hard for you to come out? Did you always know you were gay?" Even though I am now only five and a half months removed from my coming out experience, I've found that my unthinking reflex already is to downplay its difficulty, grown accustomed as I am already in that short span of time to the unadulterated peace that comes with a life of being honest and true to oneself. The truth, of course, is that coming out was without a doubt the most difficult thing I've done yet in my life. Every single time I had to admit to someone new- someone close to me- that I had been dishonest with them over the span of our entire friendship about such a critical aspect of myself, it was reliving the single most difficult and self-revealing moment of my life all over again. It was this hesitance on my part to go through such an emotionally draining experience any more than I felt I absolutely had to, that motivated me to take a most unusual and, until recently, impossible course in how I decided to come out to the bulk of my friends- I posted a note explaining myself on Facebook. I have nothing but the deepest heartfelt sympathy for my gay brothers and sisters in generations past who not only existed in a far less tolerant culture than the one I was blessed to be born into, but who also unfortunately lacked the new social tools made available by 21st Century technology to liberate oneself from a life of painful and dishonest isolation with a single stroke of the keyboard, as I did.
The abundance of ways in which social media can influence and improve our lives are still being expanded and explored every day, and as someone whose life has already been impacted in a profoundly positive way by it, this is a process that I take great joy in observing and being a small part of through my involvement with this blog and with the various social networks I belong to. A pioneer both in the social media revolution, and its forever-connected counterpart in my experience- the revolution towards acceptance and equality for LGBT people such as myself- is Anglo-American writer, blogger, and public intellectual Andrew Sullivan. Andrew's blog, The Dish (which can be found at http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/), launched in 2000, was one of the first of its kind to be authored by such a respected journalist and public figure, and one who happens to be the openly gay intellectual godfather of the concept of marriage equality, the legality of which is now considered the holy grail in the struggle for gay rights. The rapidly increasing openness of 21st Century society, made possible by the technology at our disposal and by pioneers like Andrew who find ways to make the world a better place through the use of it, has created an atmosphere in which subjects previously considered taboo- subjects like homosexuality- can no longer be ignored and run away from. It's created a world in which myself and millions more like me can live happy and truthful lives shared with the ones we love in the sunshine and not in the shadows. Both for his contribution to this process, and for his bravery to come out as an openly gay role model for people like me, back in a time that was much more hostile than our current much happier and more open era, I must personally thank Andrew Sullivan from the bottom of my heart. Mr. Sullivan, you are a true hero who has effected my life and that of countless others in a profoundly positive way through your tireless work as a new media pioneer and spokesman for marriage equality. Your efforts have helped to create for me and my generation a much happier and more tolerant world than the one you bravely came out to in the early 80's, and for this you will always be a role model and personal hero of mine.
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