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Connecting with all my roots . . .

It’s the 20th annual National Coming Out day. As a gay man I’ve “come out” many times, beginning with realizing who I was and accepting it. Which in my case wasn’t so difficult as it felt natural. Coming out to my family when I was 19 was an entirely different ordeal but was very much a positive influence in my life. But that’s not the full reason I’ve connected with this loving community of people at UUSS. Yes it was important, but like all of you, there are many other factors that led me to believe this is my community.

In a way, it has been just as difficult to come out as a “lefty” “liberal” “tree hugger” when I’m involved on a day-to-day basis with the medical community which is very much on the conservative side of social, political and religious beliefs.

UUSS is many things to many people but to me it has allowed me to simultaneously connect with my LGBTQ roots, my “lefty” roots, my social justice roots, my agnostic roots, my esthetic roots, my Buddhist roots, and too many other roots for me to bore you with.

It has allowed me to be a whole person, not because I feel guilty or because I have some “reward” in a far-away future, you know, that “pie in the sky” mentality but because it allows me to be a proud open person in this world, every day.

Francisco Gomez-Dossi