Sad News

Yesterday I learned that the father of BlogActive.com and PageOneQ editor, Mike Rogers died over the holidays. I first got to know Mike in 2004 during the effort to out closeted GOP Congressman, Ed Schrock, who had the second most anti-gay voting record in Congress while he hypocritically advertised for gay trysts in the Hampton Roads area. I got to know Mike even better over the subsequent years and at the LGBT Blogger Summit he put together in December, 2008. I hope readers will keep Mike and his family in their thoughts and prayers as they go through this difficult time. Having lost my father in 2006, it is a rough experience regardless of one's relationship with the lost parent.

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In other sad news, yesterday I also learned from fellow LGBT bloggers that Stephen Heersink, who authored a blog called Gayspecies died on December 29, 2009. Stephen and I did not always agree on issues and our relationship could turn nasty at times (a month or so ago he let me have it on his blog, and I returned the favor). But in his final message to me shortly after that encounter, he was supportive and endorsed my efforts to talk about coming out later in life and perhas give hope to others. Moreover, during some of my darkest times a year or two back, he always offered a sympathetic ear. As Wayne Dynes notes on his blog, Stephen was an defender of gay rights. In his last posting, he looked at the first gay marriage to achieve legal status in Latin America--in southern Argentina. Stephen, may you rest in peace.