This is perseverance. Not my story.

A PERSONAL STORY.

Though I’ve been living in my new apartment for a month, I own my house until the closing date of Friday, March 19.

I have been going through all my boxes in the garage. Yesterday when I saw this box from 1993, I sobbed as I did back then.

Some background: From 1991 to 1993, I was a television news producer in Washington, DC. I won 10 Emmys. Though my parents never equated love with unconditional love for me, I still gave them all the Emmys. That’s what a good child should do, I thought. My decision was easy.

I was elated when I saw my parents so proud to display the Emmys. It represented only one of three times in my life I felt they were proud of me.

By 1993, I had come out as gay. Afterwards, this box, with the 10 Emmys broken into pieces and wrapped in ratty newspapers, arrived at my apartment. Accompanying the 10 shattered statuettes was a note from my parents. What they wrote was short: Xxxxxx, this is because you’re gay.

Over the years, many of my friends and relatives have offered to take this box and mail it to the Television Academy for replacement Emmys. I always said no. Whenever I looked at this box, it motivated me to do more so that other LGBTQ people would not suffer what I did.

One time I gazed at the box and thought: “You need to start a full-time statewide organization in New Jersey for LGBTQ equality.”

That, my dear friends, is how I turned this box of personal pain into the joy of founding Garden State Equality. Without this box, I never would have met thousands of you and my life would not be as wonderful. I am blessed.