“I am gay.”

A reassuring letter of hope written by Robyn Harper to her 15-year-old self.

This November, four states (Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington) have marriage definition questions on their ballots.

Within the LGBT community and society at large, we often think of the effects of these elections in terms of whether or not marriage equality will expand to another state, or whether yet another state will ingrain discrimination into its constitution.

What we don’t consider — but we ought to — is the toll that these referendums can take on LGB people during the election season itself.

A new column by Josh Goodman.

GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, on Friday released its annual “Where We Are on TV” report, and found that the number of regular LGBT characters on broadcast networks has risen to the highest ever recorded, while the overall LGBT character count also increased on cable television.

Ryan Andresen, a 17-year-old high school senior from California has been told by the Boy Scouts that he is not eligible to be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout because he is gay.

He recently completed the final requirements to earn his Eagle Award, including his final project of building a “tolerance wall” for victims of bullying, much like himself.

Late Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America issued a statement saying that because of Ryan’s sexual orientation and that he did not agree to Scouting’s principle of “Duty to God,” “he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting.”

On October 7, 1998, Aaron Kreifels was riding his bike through a field in Wyoming.

He wasn’t expecting that day to be different from any other beautiful sunny afternoon in the vast plains surrounding Laramie, but that day would change many lives.

Aaron spotted what he initially thought was a scarecrow next to a fence. Then he noticed a glisten of blood. The sun sparkled on what he barely recognized as a face.

Aaron had discovered 22 year-old Matthew Shepard, clinging to life.

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If there is one thing that we learned by the Pacific Justice Institute’s lawsuit against California Gov. Jerry Brown, and anyone in his orbit remotely connected to a new law banning “ex-gay” therapy for minors, is that these lawyers are as logic challenged and convoluted as the industry they are poorly defending.

A new column by Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.

“The Amazing Race 21,” the 21st race-around-the-world for a million bucks, kicks off on CBS on Sunday, September 30. In a welcome change from last season’s gay-free Race, this installment sees mixed in among the usual dating couples, twins and… monster truck drivers? three known members of Team Gay.

Bringing the gay (with a side of beef) is Jaymes Vaughan who, with Race partner James Davis performs with the Chippendales dance revue in Las Vegas.

And fans of The Fabulous Beekman Boys that aired for two seasons on Planet Green and is now headed to The Cooking Channel, will recognize Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcel.

It takes courage to stand and say: “I’m gay,” knowing that your life from that moment on will never be the same. It doesn’t take courage to mock and discriminate and judge and hate – that’s foolish and stupid, and as we in the gay community know full well; you just can’t fight stupid.