Life really sucks sometimes, so ask me anything.

[foreigncorrespondent]

For the last two years of my life I haven't had a secure roof over my head. What is sad is that I would have a secure roof if I was able to live in the U.S. with Sapphocrat.

I am 36 years old and living with mother again. My mother is the source of a lot of depression and I anger I have in my life, but unfortunately I had no choice but to agree to live with her. And I feel fucking trapped.

So, I am feeling really sad and sorry for myself tonight, so go ahead and ask me anything to help take my mind off shit for a bit. :)

[southerngirlwriter]

1. OK.

I always enjoy hearing my GLBT friends tell their coming-out stories. I find them remarkable examples of courage. If you want to tell yours, I'd like to hear it.

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. Ok. LOL

Not that my story is based on courage. LOL

My family had kind of guessed that I was lesbian anyway, so when I did come out it wasn't a big surprise.

I basically told my sister, and she told everyone else, except my grandmother.

I did come out to my grandmother, when I was living with her, but she kicked me out.

My sister has been pretty good support wise. But my father, stepmother, and grandmother (on my mums side) have absolutely nothing to do with me. But that is their loss not mine. :)

The hardest one I came out to was to a long time friend. We are still friends now, but have become distant in the last few months, due to some personal problems I was having, and her trying to interfere with the wrong advice. But nevertheless coming out to her was pretty damn hard.

[southerngirlwriter]

7. Good story!

My friend Charlie's story is very funny.

His dad is a hardcore redneck. I mean the kind who throws the n word around, dropped out of school in the eighth grade, REDNECK.

Charlie basically raised his three younger siblings while their dad served time in prison for attempted murder -- he knifed someone in a barfight.

His dad got out of prison when Charlie was 16, and he was TERRIFIED that his dad was going to kick him out. I had a place of my own, and I offered him my futon for as long as he needed it.

So the big day arrives -- the day Charlie has decided he's not putting it off any longer. His dad got home from work and collapsed onto the couch, exhausted after a 10-hour day roofing. Turned on the TV. Charlie had twenty minutes before his siblings would get home, and he didn't want them to witness the carnage. He stood in front of the TV. "Dad, I need to talk to you."

Dad looks up. "What the fuck is wrong with you, boy? You're blockin' the TV. Move!"

Charlie's determined. "I need to talk to you before the kids get home. It's very important."

Dad sighs. "What is it?"

Charlie says, "Dad, I know this will be hard for you to hear, but I want to be honest with you. Dad, I'm gay."

Dad rolls his eyes. "Big fucking deal. Now move. Friends is on."


He ended up at my apartment in a daze. We laughed for HOURS. He had been seriously planning to escape for his life. I had been prepared to help him. LOL.

[foreigncorrespondent]

8. OMG! ROFLMAO!

That is a GREAT story. Thank you so much for sharing it hon. I really appreciate that. :)

[southerngirlwriter]

12. LOL....yeah, most of my town has heard that story at least once.

It was maybe a year later that Charlie introduced a boyfriend to his dad for the first time. His dad shook hands with the guy and said, "I don't care nothin' 'bout you buggerin' my boy. He's old enough to be buggered if he wants to. Just don't be givin' him the AIDS, hear?"

The boyfriend had been thoroughly warned that Charlie's dad was a redneck's redneck. He just smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir." Later that year, he came to Thanksgiving dinner and everything!

It's funny how life works. I think it goes to how much people really love their kids -- I know gay people whose parents have doctoral degrees and disowned them for being gay. Here's a redneck, functional illiterate, and it was just never an issue. Whatever made Charlie happy was fine.

Life sucks sometimes; you're right about that.

Life is damn funny sometimes, too. :D

[foreigncorrespondent]

15. You are so right...

...it does depend on how much parents love their kids.

My mum and dad divorced about 2 weeks after I was born. My dad didn't believe I was his (even though I look like the old bastard so much.) And I grew up with my mum and sister. And it is my dad that has disowned me.

He didn't care that both my half brothers are crooks. The youngest was in jail for doing armed robbery, but he cares that one of his kids is queer. It is unbelievable.

As for Sappho, she had a completely different experience, and if she stumbles across this thread when she wakes tomorrow, she will probably share. :)

[southerngirlwriter]

20. I understand, at least a little.

My mother hates me. She told me when I was very young (pre-teen) that she had never loved me. Even when I was first born, she sat in the hospital holding me and asking herself, "What's wrong with this ugly little thing?"

See, it was never that there was something wrong with HER. It was always that there was something wrong with ME.

Then, she was quick to tell me on that fateful day that changed my life, when my sister was born, she understood what it meant to love a child. Instantly, my sister was "so lovable" and "so perfect."

Now that we're adults, my sister could be caught on videotape beheading kittens, and my mother would say that it must be the evil influence of having had me for a sister that drove her to it. LOL.

Parents playing favorites like that is soooooooo damaging. Your dad is an asshole. Mine is, too, but that's another post.

Do you have any positive parental figures in your life? I have a surrogate father who really loves me and is a very special part of my life. It's awesome.

[foreigncorrespondent]

21. Gosh...

((((((((((southerngirlwriter))))))))))) I am so sorry, hon. I know what it is like to receive mental abuse like that from a parent.

No I don't have any positive parental figures in my life currently. The only person who has ever been a real mum to me, is actually Sapphocrats mum, but like Sapph she is 8,000 miles away.

I am affraid in my own country I am pretty much alone.

[lcordero]

9. LMAO

That is hilarious

[graywarrior]

2. I've lived in temporary existance since 5/02

Had a car accident, lost everything coz I couldn't work. Life is tough, but I'm tougher.

[foreigncorrespondent]

5. I used to think I was too...

...but I am running pretty think lately.

[lcordero]

3. at what age did you realize that you were different?

[foreigncorrespondent]

6. I reckon I always knew.

I was just in denial about it for most of my life. I have only really just begun living life the way I was born to in the last 6 years, and only just fully came out during the last four years.

[ComerPerro]

10. What is life like in the future?

Here I am, trapped in the past.

According to another thread, it is going on 7pm Tuesday evening where you are.

And, here, due to a paranormal event involving solar flares (don't try to tell me about the "time zones", I have heard that theory, and I can spot a government coverup when I see one) it is still 2 am on Tuesday morning.

Am I, along with everyone around me, trapped in the past? Or are you posting from the future.

If so, what's it like? Are there flying cars?

[foreigncorrespondent]

13. No flying cars...

...but I can tell you, the weather was absolutely beautiful today, considering it is the second day of fall here. It was a lovely and warm 32 (89.6) today. :)

[ComerPerro]

16. Hmm

So much for the "World of Tomorrow"...

Oh well.

[foreigncorrespondent]

17. LOL

Sorry to disappoint you. The moment they build flying cars, I will let you know. ;)

[lcordero]

11. Hell, I live with my mom too

If I move out she is moving out with me.

[foreigncorrespondent]

14. Oh God!

I don't want my mum to move out with me. LOL

[MurikanDemocrat]

18. What do the Democratic Primaries look like from Aus?

Who are they rooting for in Australia, if anyone? I assume they don't like Bush.

[foreigncorrespondent]

19. ROFL...

...well the primaries look very much like they look like there. Meaning, know one is reporting on results yet. ;)

No, Bush* isn't a very popular boy down under. And because of Howard's (our idiot prime minister), involvement with Bush* in what a lot of Aussies view as Howard selling Australia out to Bush*, Howard most likely won't make it through the next election.

I haven't really spoken to any Aussie mates about who they are following in the primaries, so I can't answer. But I personally am a Kucinich (sp?) supporter. :)

[MurikanDemocrat]

22. Then you'll be interested in this breaking news on Kucinich tonight.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x417859

[foreigncorrespondent]

23. ROFLMAO!

I love it.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

24. I wouldn't count Howard out just yet

With all his incentives to veterans, sugar farmers and whoever else, Howard is aiming to do exactly what he did in 2001 –compromise as much as it takes and without regard to however many of his principles it violates in order to gain votes. Expect the next budget to have a whole range of “sweeteners” designed to reach out to all his constituencies that have kept him in power and expect him to crank up all the rhetoric about boat people and “anti-American Labor” and all the usual crap he comes up with.

I think Howard is becoming increasingly out of touch with the electorate and I think that the one big advantage that the ALP has going for them is that the Liberals have yet to employ an appropriate strategy that will destroy Latham in the same way that it destroyed Beazley. They can't figure out Latham -he's doesn't fold when the going gets tough (which sets him apart from his last two predecessors)

I’m also concerned about the impact that Carr will have on the Labor vote in NSW. Don’t get me wrong –I like Carr and have campaigned for him in two elections straight-but his performance of late has been disastrous. He cost Labor votes during the 1996 Federal Election and I now fear that he will do the same in this election. One of the main disadvantages of having Labor Premiers in every state –and believe me, I don’t regret this Labor’s statewide stronghold for a second-is that some voters will see the Federal Election as an opportunity to register a protest vote against the State Government. I’m worried that this could hurt Latham.

Believe me, as someone who cried and had nightmares (no exaggeration) when Howard came to power in 1996, I would love nothing more than to see his arrogant and self serving government kicked to the curb at the next election. But I’ve learned not to get my hopes up –I spent most of 2001 doing this and was crushed when Howard won the election.

Mind you, it will be absolutely wonderful to see Peter Costello’s face if the Liberals lose the next Federal Election. I’m confident he’ll have lost the smirk

[foreigncorrespondent]

25. Oh I know...

...Howard will pull all the same shit again. But I heard his polls numbers are pretty much in the dog house, and Lathem is way ahead of him.

The last time Howard bullshitted his way into his job he hadn't sold us out. This time things are different, and the papers are actually beginning to report on the fact that he only referred to what he wanted to in order to lead us into an illegal war.

I think Howard's number is up, and the majority of people I talk to, on both sides of the political fence here in Oz are saying the same thing.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

26. I hope so

I have also been hearing similar sentiments from people on both sides of the political equation with whom I have brought up Howard as a topic of conversation. I find that there is an increasing perception that Howard should have quit when he promised to in July 2003 and that he is now beginning to lose the plot.

I also think that the Australian public, like the American public, is becoming increasingly “de-sensitized” to Howard’s propaganda when it comes to border protection and national security. I have received a distinct impression among my pro-Howard friends and colleagues that his behaviour over the last three years is making them increasingly cynical about his rhetoric when it comes to such issues. And I think his handling of the war has cost him some support among swing voters and that can only be good

I think what may benefit Latham in NSW is that he may have the same kind of appeal to the so-called “aspirational” voters in the various Sydney suburbs that has made Carr so successful over the previous three state elections. He projects the image of being in touch with the issues and being “one of them” in the way that both Beazley and Crean were consistently unable to do. I know one of my friends from high school once informed me that, while he loved Howard, he would never consider voting for anyone except Carr at the state level because he liked his style and personality. I see a lot of the characteristics that he liked about Carr in Latham and I’m hoping that Latham can win over voters like my friend.

At a New Year’s gathering in Sydney this year, I told my brother-in-law’s father that I was hoping for two things for the forthcoming year –the defeat of Howard and the defeat of Bush. If even one of these defeats eventuates it will be wonderful. If both of them come to pass, it will truly be the icing on the cake

[foreigncorrespondent]

27. So you from Sydney?

I'm trying to work out the demographics of everything here.

I'm from Melbourne and hearing it a lot. And if you are from Sydney and hearing, well they are the two biggest cities.

The thing with Latham is , I really appreciate what he is trying to do. He announced about a month ago his dental plan, and there is other stuff happening. If he keeps on this track, then he will be a sure fire winner come next election. :)

[snobird]

28. Socks with sandals..

.. gator was standing at our front window watching young students walk to school this AM . We are nearing our end of Canadian winter soon,and being March we will prolly have a couple more whopper snow storms. One young girl was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, a jacket, shorts, & SOCKS WITH SANDALS!! Yikes.. what do you think of that!! :bounce:

[foreigncorrespondent]

29. ROFLMAO!!!!!

Socks with sandles has to be one of the most uncomfortable things ever. The sandles pull the socks up around your toes. Ewwwwwwwww! I hate that!

I am Aussie, so I have to wear sandles without socks. Hell most of the time us Aussies are barefoot anyway. LOL