being a gl is definitely fraught with challenge. and i would certainly never wish to detract from any positive step that anyone had undertaken, wheter it's active participation on this forum, a conversation with a loved one, or a radio broadcast that only reaches the left corner of guatamala on thursday afternoons. every litle step is important, and every challenge attacked is a piece of the victory.
one of the most important challenges, in my estimation, is being taken seriously. the more people don't know, the more they fear. the more room we give people to doubt intentions, the more willing they are to fabricate them on our bahalf, and none too favorably.
this means, as i said earlier, perhaps emerging somewhat from the shadows, so that the appearance of lurker is diminished.
on a personal level, this can mean almost anything, from just being more open here about what is and isn't reality, or perhaps taking it to the community on some level, whether in a church or a support group or some other cross-section of the community likely to be somewhat more supportive.

on a grand scale, the things i wish could be done would take far more effort than just that of a single person. i would love to see a cl found in the community, one weilding a position of power and a voice that people already respect. i would equally love to find a child in a relationship who would be willing, with consent from her parents, to become a spokesperson for the other side of the equation, to speak to the good in her life that stems from her relationship with an adult. i would like to see grown adults who had positive, life-affirming sexual relationships as children with adults come forward and express something contrary to the stereotype of child-abuse. i'd like to see men of rank from the church take up the possible spiritual angle of gl relationships, lending the moral legitimacy of organized religion to our battle for acceptance. it would be amazing to have some of these people come together at the same time and place, like an afternoon talk show, where our views could enter the mainstream and actually make people think, draw some of those distinguishing lines between pedophile and child-molester, between gl and pervert.

these, of course, are all pretty huge things. i'm doing what i can. i'm in communication with a bible-school about possible acceptance into their institution. i would ultimately be thrilled to be able to preach both the love of God and acceptance of gl. and with all the negative publicity i've already received in my life, i'm probably just thick-skinned enough to manage.

a lot of the rest of what i want to see, of course, comes right back down to where i started, with the personal strength. because we're not going to find spokespeople that don't want to be found. we're not going to find voices that only whisper to themselves at night behind closed doors. we're not going to find legitimacy until we hold ourselves to be legitimate and act accordingly.

so it's up to everyone. single efforts can do a little, but until the majority of our ranks decide that they want to be seen for what they are, they will only continue to be seen for what the world thinks they are.