Not Like Other Boys
Welcome to the latest ONLINE Knowledge and Power.
Knowledge and Power is an essential communication distributed exclusively to our ONLINE community. It is designed to empower you with important information and Allyship action.
Last Knowledge and Power I shared my intent and mission to get Bursting Through’s (and my) first book Allyship Awakenings published. Since then I have been hyper-focused on getting this book of powerful and personal Allyship stories into the world.
Like most industries, the publishing industry is governed by social media metrics. To secure a deal with a publisher where I believe Allyship Awakenings belongs, I need a minimum of 10,000 social media followers.
It’s just an industry standard and not personal. It’s irrelevant how good my book may be, that it is ready to go, or how necessary and needed the subject matter is to our current social climate.
I radically accepted my situation and began strategizing to reach my goal of at least 10,000 LinkedIn followers. My first stop was creating graphics and I needed a powerful statistic.
I decided to research current book bans and quickly learned that 45% of all books on book ban lists are written by or about LGBTQ+ people. At first, I couldn’t wrap my head around that huge percentage or the feelings it stirred up but eventually, I did.
Learning that 45% of all books on book ban lists were written by or about someone like me hurt my heart.
I wasn’t heart hurt as an emerging author but as a human being. My sadness was deep and surfacing because I turned to books when I was searching to understand what it meant to be gay, how I could fit into a world where different isn’t desired, and how I could normalize my struggles.
In my late 20s, I read a book called Not Like Other Boys that continues to shape who I am today. I was no longer a kid struggling to come out but a young, out, successful corporate executive searching to find my place in the world.
Not Like Other Boys. Growing Up Gay: A Mother and Son Look Back published in 1996 was written by Marlene Fanta Shyer and Christoper Shyer. It tells the real, very raw story of a gay man's search for acceptance and his mother's struggles to accept him for how he is.
Every sentence and every page of this book connected with me in a way I had never connected with anything before. I felt seen. I felt less alone. For the first time, I didn’t feel ashamed of being gay.
Not Like Other Boys imprinted on me so deeply that when I created Bursting Through, 20 years later, it was a primary source of inspiration. I pulled it off my bookshelf and it is always close by like an old friend encouraging me to tell other stories like Marlene and Christopher Shyer told.
You will hear a lot from me about the quest to get Allyship Awakenings published. I deeply believe our stories of empathy, compassion, and expanded love need a bigger audience and will be as important to others as they are to us.
I know that Allyship Awakenings can and will be as essential to someone searching for self-acceptance, understanding, and a place to feel seen as Not Like Other Boys was and is to me.
Because I believe deeply and am so strongly motivated, I will continue to ask for your help to get Allyship Awakenings into the world where the people who need our stories can find them.
Please:
Follow me on Linkedin and encourage your network to as well.
Make a one time financial contribution to help me produce paid advertising.
Buy me a caffeinated beverage, in the form of a monthly membership, to keep me energized while I write.
Share this Substack post and ask your network to subscribe.
Thank you for your membership and being part of the journey. Your support is not only appreciated but is also helping us drive the change we want to see in the world.
