Peter's Place

Today, October 21st, is my birthday. Perhaps the most common question I am asked, especially when meeting someone new, is, "how old will you be?" My typical response is, "I'll be celebrating my 29th birthday." And it's a factual statement. One can celebrate anything one chooses, and I happen to choose to celebrate my 29th birthday. But it's not for the reason most people would think. Many may deem such a response to be a sign of vanity. There is, after all, an increasing amount of anxiety surrounding the entrance to one's fourth decade of life (or in layman's terms, turning 30 ). There also is the common myth among many gay men—especially those young adults and 20-somethings—that crossing the boundary into one's thirties is the death knell of gay life. Worst of all, thirty becomes that age when one no longer can get laid and instantly transforms one into an old troll or, worse, a chicken hawk. There's even a zeitgeist surrou...

Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and LGBT/Q Youth My friend David Balog wrote an important book that describes the physical damage homophobia inflicts on our youth. While his book focuses on youth, it's not difficult to see how the same physical damages inflicted on youth can also be inflicted on adults who experience homophobia. David's book,  Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and LGBT/Q Youth , has been described as An invaluable resource for those working in the trenches with LGBTQ youth in foster/adoptive care but equally important serves as a primer for those in the community at large who are largely unaware of this subset in our population who are in such desperate need!  A review, in layman's terms, of the effects caused by both physical and emotional trauma to youth, in particular lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. To mitigate the social, emotional, and physical damage suffered by these youth, we must understand the effects of stress and tra...

The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die. ~Juliette Lewis #quote #qotd #mentalhealth

It should come as no surprise to those who know or follow me online that I suffer from dysthymia compounded with episodes of major depressive disorder as well as some anxiety disorders (general, social, performance). I can cope and carry myself in certain circumstances. For instance, I spent the last few months putting together a LGBTQ pride event in The Bronx. I thought this year would be different insofar as I wouldn't be doing the majority of the word, as certain people had volunteered to take on some pretty hefty tasks that are a large part of putting together any event, especially one outdoors in a NYC-owned park. But many of those people dragged their feet and misled me about what they had been doing (i.e., nothing) and wound up reneging on their promises, leaving me to pick up their tasks and start from scratch (as they'd literally not done a damned thing), forcing me to quintuple my expected workload. Thankfully, I was able to pull it off and we had a very successfu...