Me: The Missing Link...

So, I was just checking out the National Black Justice Coalition and immediately started fantasizing about how wonderful it would be to go to national conference with a slew of folks with whom I have an intimate common factor.

But if I know conferences (and I do cuz I've been to dozens) they will be the staid, stand-off'ish egotistical pissing matches that they always are. And with this particular organization, they are very friendly with the Black Church and I'm not quite sure I'm ready to fall back or even interact with those folks just yet.

Anywhoo, looking at the pictures on the website, I grew a little nostalgic for a community like this...but I know I'll get there with my small town country ways and want to meet everyone and for everyone to sing kumbayah. So, that begs the question: is there a place for me there?

I've been giving this lots of thought, but there must be some way I can tap into my past and find those times or instances where I reached out as a closeted gay youth and came up empty. If we could pinpoint those kinds of things, we could initiate those on a larger scale, to grow our ranks from the bottom up.

Off the top of my head, there're churches, bibles, school guidance counselors, the internet: manhunt, gay.com, blackplanet, match, chemistry, yahoopersonals, college campuses (jackpot!), television, fictional novels, speech circuit.

And what I really hate is that most of these events are "high falutin'" and would intimidate most folks who'd like to come for the camaraderie. Don't get me wrong; I think it's important to "raise the standard" to the professional expectations of any national group, but I would hate to have the events so sterile and cold that it turns people off (like oh so many conferences did to me.)

I'll keep it in mind...