It’s Pride Month, and so it’s somewhat in vogue to make a statement about ones attitude toward the LGBTQ community.

I have held off, because my feelings are not isolated to a month, and these statements need to be made in every one of the other eleven months. But it doesn’t hurt to make them now either.

I believe every person goes through a period of sorting things out. A period of questioning. Whether you acknowledge it or not, it’s a necessary process toward becoming yourself.

A very dear friend once asked me, kindly and lovingly, if I would spend the night with him. In that moment, I answered that question. I knew I couldn’t. Because if there had ever been a man in my life that I would have slept with, it would have been him.

We remained very close friends, and having answered that question for myself, cognitively, I knew that answering that question for anyone else was absolutely absurd.

I have often thought about the incredible gift this man gave me in that moment.

Here is what my experience has been. Here is what I know of the LGBTQ community.

I have never received anything but warmth, kindness, love, acceptance, and support from this community. And they deserve nothing less from me.

During some very difficult periods in my life I have received help from members of that community. And they deserve nothing less from me.

To my LGBTQ friends:

I love you dearly. You make my world better, and I would not want to imagine it without you. Your joy is my joy. Your sorrow is my sorrow.

And your rights are my rights.

Not just for the month. Always.

I write this now, holding back tears. That man who asked me the question, the one that changed my life, opened my mind, and led me to myself passed away last September. I miss him horribly. And I feel him with me now.

I love you, Clive Elliott. Then, now, and always.