Archive restoration note: in this post I referred to God as “Infinite One,” but I no longer believe in a higher power or intelligent design. -Cynthia, July 2018 Today when I stepped outside, I felt the words, “Take off your shoes and make this ground holy.” I grinned and thought,…Continue Reading
Category: Justice and Advocacy
Purity Culture and My Sexuality
Re-upload note July 2018: I originally pissed my family off by coming out as a Christian ally to gays and lesbians, notwithstanding the education I had yet to receive on the fully inclusive LGBTAIQP community. Within a year, I realized that I was bisexual, and had suppressed and minimized any…Continue Reading
How I Got Burned Out On Current Events and Politics by Age 19
Trigger warnings: current events and politics “By voting, you are complying. You are complying to a preexisting system. I think we need real significant change, and that real change won’t come if enough people are complying. While you see voting as expressing yourself, I see it as compliance with the…Continue Reading
February 21 – A Letter to Anastasia Steele
“Emotions aren’t that hard to borrow When love’s a word you never learned…” –Avril Lavigne, Give You What You Like, 50 Shades of Grey Soundtrack Dear Ana, I won’t say that I know how you feel. I won’t say that I’ve been where you’ve been. I haven’t. I just want someone to…Continue Reading
Alecia Pennington, Identity Abuse, and Me
When I first saw Alecia Pennington’s video about how she can’t prove her American citizenship, nothing about it took me by surprise. I have friends who, like her, don’t exist according to the government. They have no birth certificates, no social security number, no passport. If their parents also distrusted…Continue Reading
Being a Perfect Victim
This is a repost from the archives. For an update, see my post “The Pity Accusation.” Yesterday, my brother Micah posted on my Facebook timeline. He didn’t address me directly – he was telling people not to believe the stories I was “making up” about my family. It took me…Continue Reading
‘I’m Sorry You Lost Your Kids.’
“On prie pour sauver les apparences (To save someone from losing his appearance) Par moment oublier toutes les distances (In this moment you have to let go of all the distances) Sans répit je pense et les silences (Without a break I think, and all the silence) Dissimulent la souffrance…Continue Reading
Blessing the Child
This article was the penultimate post before I officially broke the news about my parents’ abuse. It is an emotional introduction to my goal in writing the series. -Repost note 3/20/18 The story goes like this. A man once grew old, and in his age, he also became ill. One…Continue Reading
Huck’s Lesson: Twisted Perception
The following was originally posted May 2, 2012. It was part of a two-part series, the second of which was lost. While I am no longer a Christian and I don’t use the N-word anymore even in quotations, I like this post because it shows how I was beginning to…Continue Reading