Hunter Thomson

Thank you for letting us know. I'm glad he's starting to get better.

I like to think that in the future I'll simply go for whatever it is that I want for myself, but I'm not sure I'm there yet to be honest. I've only had the one session so far, and I only get five more sessions before I move away, so I doubt we'll fix everything or even anything. It will be nice to have a few things to work on and think about. Still, you're very kind to be so thoughtful and complimentary towards me. I appreciate it, and I do hope at some point I'll start taking that advice instead of finding reasons to not try for the things I want.

Let's play the what if game. I should point out, there's a reason behind this, for once. I've started going to life coaching, a program put on by a local gay men's health organization. Normally, life coaching is meant to help clarify your goals and give you a few tools to achieve measurable, concrete goals. By sheer happenstance, my life coach has some psychology training and we seem to have delved off into actual therapy instead of just life coaching. Which is fine by me, apparently I need it. Something we touched on last week was that I often don't feel comfortable advocating for myself and being assertive among groups. Those of you that see me interact on here are likely surprised by such an assessment, but it rings more true in my in person interactions. This has led me to miss out on a few things that I would have otherwise gone for, had I been more prepared to speak up in my own defense. So let's play, and have a relatively frustrating look at what might have been. In primary school, I joined the volleyball team and wandered my way up to playing on the school's top team. This was back when no one could be cut, so the school had multiple teams, even though everyone knew which team was considered the top team for the school. I liked playing with the guys, they were pretty cool and we all had a bit of status from being sports stars for our school. I'd grown up with all of them, and we all agreed that we were going to try out for the high school team together, since we'd played against most of them already and felt that we all had a chance of making the team. In eighth grade when I got to high school, I suddenly dropped out from the tryouts without giving a reason why to either the coach or my former teammates. As it turned out, one of my former teammates ended up playing for the school team for the next five years, so it was definitely attainable for me to make the team if I'd stuck with it. I can only imagine that I would have been better known had I stuck with it and maintained that jock persona all through high school. It would have made coming out easier, because at least then people would know me and not have a confused look on their face when I did eventually come out. Better to be the gay jock than the absolute nothing I was in high school xD. No regrets about coming out to my baseball and curling teams, and there's some delightful stories I can tell about that. I got into my first choice university, and I was surprised to see that UBC had a number of fraternities on campus. I thought it'd be a wonderful opportunity to join a fraternity. Meeting all those guys would have given me a social network right away that would have grounded me a bit more in my first year of university. I didn't join, because I was afraid of getting too busy and far away from home, but it's another instance of things that could have changed. First among the changes would have been a much better social life, since the frats are always busy with something or another, including a few charity activities a year. They wanted me, too! I got asked to join them for a sushi dinner and it was fun, and I should have stuck with them and gotten pledged. Joining the frat might also have given me the push I needed to go try out for the UBC baseball team. At that point I'd been playing competitively for thirteen years, and while I wasn't the biggest or strongest person, I knew what I was doing and had some professional coaching over the previous few years that made me competitive, even against top competition. I backed off from trying out for that sports team as well. This time I gave some crappy excuse about how the tryouts were in the Winter and I wouldn't be ready. I saw a UBC baseball game a couple of months ago. I could have easily made the team, even back eight years ago when I took the coward's way out. Again, it would have given me a social network to rely on and hang out with instead of the mind-numbing boredom of my first couple years of university. It would have given me some extra confidence that I so desperately need in my professional life. In each of these situations, I could have gotten what I wanted had I actually stood up for what I wanted instead of simply giving in to the expectations of the people around me. No one expected me to be good at volleyball, so I didn't try out even though I knew I could. My father didn't want me to join a fraternity because it would take me away from music, so I didn't join. I didn't try out because I didn't think I was good enough and again, my dad was annoyed by the winter tryout. So I didn't try out. Even if I hadn't made any of those teams or been accepted into the fraternity, at least then I'd know because it was entirely due to my own lack of ability or lack of what they wanted for their organization. I'll never know that for sure now, and that lack of knowing haunts me. Particularly because it was based on a lack of assertiveness on my own behalf. Go figure, therapy actually accomplished something. These were all things that we sort of talked about in my session, and now that I've had a few days to expand on them I realize there's a lot more there to work with. At least this will dispel the rumours that I have my **** together. Or who knows, no one believed the rumours that I was gay either, and I was the one who started them.

Happy birthday, Mann! Hope it was a most wonderful day for you.

One of these days I'll have to get off my duff and read Billy Chase and Brandon Smiling. You both have poured so much of yourselves into the pieces.

My thoughts and best wishes to Lacey. I shall keep him in my thoughts until he has finished recovering.

This is the only home I've ever known. I will never leave this glorious place of ours. Long live Cascadia!

A belated happy birthday to you, Renee!

Math is scary. I understand your inability to understand this, as I too have no idea what any of it means.

Welcome Bryant. Nice to have another person from the Pacific Northwest! I hope you enjoy your time here.

That video evidence changes everything. There is nothing that easily controverts video, and it's likely beyond the abilities of a couple of teenagers to convincingly explain away the evidence of everyone else's eyes. This will be short and not very sweet for Chris and Eric. Bailey is right, there will be a backlash and he'll be the initial target of it because everyone will naturally assume that he was the one who brought it to the administration's attention. This is going to have to be when Declan steps up and does what he knows is right. That's also going to have to include him apologizing and owning up to going behind Bailey's back. Bailey did ask him to keep it quiet, and that's entirely likely to be because of how Bailey knew everyone would react to the attack and the two attackers being expelled. Next few chapters are going to be interesting, to be sure.

It's funny you mention that since the Turks and Caicos apparently are interested in joining up with the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. What an unwieldy province name Newfoundland, Labrador and the Turks and Caicos is going to be. I don't think Cascadia is ready or able to join us yet.

Oh, that teddy bear is ADORABLE!

Now this person is doing Canada Day right...

Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Canada, otherwise known as America's frozen hat. It's been a beautiful 150 years, and we're looking forward to being bigger and better than before!

If you believe my old high school's gossip mill, I was quite the ladies man. The fact that I came out in 10th grade did zero to stop the rumours, perhaps because of things like this. 10th grade. 16 years old. I'm in the cafeteria with my best girl friend. As usual, we're fighting about something. Something to do with the rumours that I was her boyfriend (something her actual boyfriend found hilarious, though perhaps telling him while I was groping him on her couch was rude of me?). Right, first kiss. She was harassing me, and I couldn't get her to stop talking about it so I told her that if the whole school thought we were dating, I may as well be guilty of what they accused me of for once. So I lunged over the cafeteria table and sorta... smashed my face into hers? I held on real tight and basically ate her. It was sloppy and passionate and she wasn't totally against it and as soon as we broke apart we both burst out laughing. She also threw a banana at me. We never could dispel the rumours that we were dating. My coming out was met with a collective "you're a liar and we've seen proof", something I've yet to see happen to any other gay ever.

On may 9th, 2017 British Columbians voted for change. Today, they have finally gotten it. The Legislature voted 44-42 in favour of the NDP amendment to the Throne Speech expressing no-confidence in the Clark government. Because of that vote, Premier Clark and her cabinet have resigned. Later today, after meeting with both Premier Clark and Opposition Leader Horgan of the NDP, the Leftenant-Governor has invited John Horgan to form a government and Cabinet, accepting the resignation of the Clark government. Today is the end of a long, 16 year nightmare. Leftist, progressive citizens in British Columbia have been crying out for change from massive infrastructure projects that serve no purpose. We've cried out against the shortchanging of children in order to pursue a fossil fuel industry that won't be competitive. We've demanded an education system that's funded properly, a welfare system that provides a fair payment to our least fortunate, and a health care system that works for everyone. The NDP-Green coalition will not be perfect. They'll fight. It will be hell to get through a Legislature that is deadlocked 43-43 on all votes, with the Speaker needing to save every piece of legislation from the abyss. But we have a chance to make life better for millions of people right here, right now. Every single thing this government does will come under attack by the media, and it's unlikely that this government will serve a second 4 year term in 2021. But in the four (possibly less if the Greens abandon us or someone gets sick) years we have to us, we're going to change this small part of the world for the better. Universal child care, a basic income pilot project, billions of dollars in education funding and the expansion of the tar sands required by federal law. We're going to protect our environment and put thousands back to work on environmentally friendly infrastructure. Welcome back, New Democrats. You've been given a chance to govern. Follow our principles, and when you see yourself starting to waver, remember that over one million British Columbians put their hopes in you. Don't let us down. Now, it's time to go celebrate, every bar in town is hosting an NDP victory party tonight!

You're more than welcome Timothy. I try to stay in contact with the guys as much as possible, but most of them are American and I'm...not. So it's hard. Some of them didn't want to stay connected either, which I can also completely understand. Most of the people there came in with their own cliques and friend sets, and I'm notoriously bad at engaging in group settings. Still, I would not trade the experience for anything.

Thank you for doing the things you do in your classroom. People forget just how important teachers can be.

Thanks for posting about him. I read his story a few days ago and it's all so familiar. When I was at the Outsports conference last week, there were a lot of people who were there and they had no support at all, including one kid who got thrown out because he wasn't completely straight. Broke my heart, especially since he's so young. I'm glad things are working out better for Mr. O'Callaghan, and I'm so grateful that his professional support was able to help him. For those interested in more on the story, here's another link from Outsports. https://www.outsports.com/2017/6/21/15850718/ryan-ocallaghan-gay-david-price-chiefs https://www.outsports.com/2017/6/21/15851220/nfl-gay-athletes-accepted-ryan-ocallaghan

Now that, my friend, was sheer dumb luck.

Just gonna leave tissues on the side table for people who need it. This is why coming out is so important and that we live our authentic truths. https://www.outsports.com/2017/6/21/15851730/gay-pride-fathers-day-son-micah-porter

Thank you for your comment. I too am sorry I wasn't able to experience everything Pride had to offer, but it's compelled me to make sure that Vancouver Pride treats me right. I have no idea if I will go alone or with someone, but I will make sure that I enjoy it as much as possible! Besides, there's always next year, especially if they come up north or do a winter one.

This past weekend I had the singular privilege of being able to attend Denver Pride weekend. This was to be my first Pride Parade outside of Vancouver, and indeed my first Pride events outside of Canada at all. Naturally, this means it didn't happen because I got super sick and had to leave before the parade. Before I departed early and fled back to a climate that could support my biology, I was able to re-learn a number of things that we should never take for granted as LGBTQ people and allies. For those who need background information, I attended Denver Pride weekend as part of the Outsports reunion. Outsports is a website devoted to giving a voice and platform to LGBTQ athletes, no matter where they are and what level of competition they participate in. This is what I learned and remembered from being around my brothers and sisters-in-arms. 1. There are more of us than we will ever know, and we truly are everywhere. One of the first things we did on the weekend was hit up the bars and clubs as a group. We packed the house both times. More than half the people at the first club were Outsports people, and even though we didn't make up as big a share of the club later in the evening, there were more of us numerically than the start of the day. People kept coming all throughout the weekend, people who couldn't be there Thursday came Friday. People who couldn't make it Friday came Saturday. But they kept coming. Friday morning when I went to our big discussion event, there was a giant map of North America, and I was asked to put a sticker on where I lived. While the Canadian contingent was small (Go Team Canada!), it was amazing to see how many people from all over the continent were showing up just to celebrate Pride together. That was a powerful image, but of course no one has photographs of it because some of us are closeted and we used our real names on the map. I never thought I'd be going to Denver Pride and celebrating with LGBTQ athletes from Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii or Massachusetts. It was a perfect visualization for how many of us there were. 2. We are diverse, and our diversity makes us strong. Part of the Friday sessions was to learn about each other, so we all wore name tags with our names and what sports we were affiliated with on our clothes so we could make those instant connections. Like I said earlier, I met people from all around North America, and all of us played different sports. I was the only curler, but I met people who played sports I would never consider, and it got me to think that even though we're all different, we're all still athletes and we have a fraternity among ourselves relating to the dedication and the work we all did to succeed in our respective sports. 3. Most importantly; we are, both as individuals and as a whole, stronger than anything that life puts in our way. I got to hear so many people's personal stories, and it shocked me how strong my fellow LGBTQ athletes are, and how privileged and blessed I have been that my life has avoided many of these anxious, stressful moments. I heard from Olympic Athletes talking about their struggles to remain true to themselves in sports where they would be the only LGBTQ person they know, and how they feared losing the support of their teams and their sponsors for living their truth. I heard from closeted athletes, people who'd never considered going to Pride but knew they had to be in Denver to meet their fellows and realize how many of us there are. I heard from people whose families didn't accept them, who worked hard to change hearts and minds and turn people who didn't support them into their greatest champions. I heard all of this from people, and the underlying comment from everyone was that we all succeeded, but we have so much further to go and that together we can do it. We were empowered to change our communities and to change our schools and to change everything about where we are from, because the organizers knew we could all do it if we put our minds to it. The people I met at Denver Pride and the Outsports conference changed me. They reminded me of the good that we can do as individuals and as a group of like-minded people. We are bigger than mountains and stronger than those who hate us. I'll never forget this weekend, and I'm so ready for next year's reunion... assuming it's in a city that won't absolutely destroy me on contact the way the Denver heat and high altitude did.

At least I got the winning team right.