I came across this on my computer and it brings back lots of memories. From: Gabi ClaytonDate: Sun, 8 Sep 1996To: pflag-talkSubject: Lurk No More Well, I joined the list at the end of August, and I guess it is about time to say hello and introduce myself and “lurk” no more. My name is …
“Monsters. Yes, I believe in monsters. Human ones.”I wrote that 28 years ago, and it [and the essay it is in] are still relevant today. Please read, “Too Many Kids Like My Bill” by Gabi Clayton; January 18, 1997; by Gabi Clayton. https://gabiclayton.com/BillsStory/TooManyKidsLikeMyBill.html Added note: I’ve tried to stay away from calling people evil and …
Today is the 30th anniversary of the day our younger son Bill committed suicide when he was 17 after he was the victim of a hate crime assault based on his sexual orientation. Thirty years! I wrote and published his story on my website a year later in hope that sharing it would help end …
Rising for me today: On January 18, 1997, one year, eight months, and ten days after our younger son Bill committed suicide after a bashing based on his sexual orientation, I published an essay “Too Many Kids Like My Bill” which is in part included here: There is so much grief with the death of …
A friend posted an image on social media with the words: Someone I don’t know commented with some awful homophobic/transphobic stuff (that I won’t share here) while claiming to be a very polite person with ‘them’ and not at all a hater. You’ll just have to take my word for what he wrote and use …
In October 2001 an article titled “Bill Clayton” by Olivier Björksäter-Bleylock was published in DNA, a national gay magazine in Australia. An interview with me was done through email, and was the best one I had ever experienced — and the most intense. Olivier asked about some things that were not in Bill’s story on …
I’m really looking at this right now as someone who is a Quaker and pacifist. On February 28, 2022 I shared a 2019 post on Facebook with photos of 19-year-old Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed and words, “It hurts… It’s not when your son doesn’t want to do his homework, but when he gives …
Prompt: If your brain were a physical place, what would it be like? My brain (or my mind) would be a sponge. Not square or rectangular. Not round or oval or spherelike. Amorphous – yeah, that’s the word (I just ‘googled’ it), without a clearly defined shape, etc., etc., and ever bending and twisting and …
Bill was born on January 23, 1978 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And he died by his own hand in Olympia, Washington at 17 years old on May 8, 1995. Not completely by his own hand. His story is far more complicated than that – wonderful and impish early on and then a nightmare storm at the …
I am so proud of the young people who marched yesterday. I had to work but listened on the radio there. And remembered Bill. This was written on 01/16/91 when he was just under 13 years old: “I have not yet written about what is happening in this world, in this country, and in my …