"I was an anti-gay bigot, wrote about the unnatural state of being gay to my college newspaper Editorial section, etc.

A couple years and various revelations about my (unknown to me at the time) social conservative views later, my band added a young fellow whom I truly enjoyed . . . and, he turned out to be co-President of the local gay/lesbian/friends social and support group (as it was described to me) on campus.

This fellow reminded me of an editorial I had once written to the school newspaper, without being mean about it. He brought it out after we were walking as a group - the four guys in the band - to dinner and experienced all the taunts, put-downs and fear-driven invectives thrown his way. Which was now our way.

My complacent and backwards head spun around rather quickly, and soon I realized that my heart had, too.

To my enduring shame. At least I have that period of time to look back on, realizing that I've hopefully come a long way since then."

--From my mailbag