In My Lifetime . . .

I was born in California two years after sex acts between consenting adults became legal there.

I've lived to see U.S. sodomy laws sent to the dustbin of history and now, I have hope that LGBT youth will be embraced and loved, rather than scorned and reviled, driven to suicide or murdered.

I have hope that LGBT Americans will be allowed to serve in our military, as we join 25 other countries that allow them to do so.

I have hope that same-sex couples will be granted the special privileges heterosexual unions are given.

I have hope that people of all faiths will speak out against hatred, that we will live to realize that all are created equal, and that none will be free until all are free.

I can honestly say, today, that I believe all these things might be achieved in my lifetime. I've lived through the turn of a century and the dawn of a millennium. The first decade of the 21st Century is here.

I know I won't see in another century, but I rejoice at what lies ahead in this new one.