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Unconditional Love
It's that Mother's Day-Father's Day time of the year, so today we salute one of each who got it right.
PAM: We struggled with infertility. I was afraid to adopt because I was afraid the biological parent would take the baby away. There was a big …Read more.
Did You Hear the One About How to Get a Fat Woman Into an Elevator?
Grease her hips and throw in a Twinkie.
Fat women are about the last group that it's OK to make fun of.
As in: Q: What do Roseanne Barr and a battleship have in common?
A: They both need three tugs to get into their slips.
I searched the Internet to …Read more.
Big Can Be Beautiful
Last week we heard from Roberta. She's been fat all her life. At her heaviest, she was clinically obese at 465 pounds. Through a gastric bypass, she got down to 180 pounds. She's now about 250.
But no matter her weight, Roberta always had plenty of …Read more.
I'm Fat, but You're Ugly and I Can Diet
Fat is a four-letter word.
People who wouldn't dream of making fun of a homosexual, who would die before pointing out a person with a disability, people who consider themselves post-racist, tolerant, all-embracing, evolved and benevolent somehow …Read more.
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The Response We All Want but Don't Always GetJimmy heard the response every gay boy or girl, man or woman, hopes for. When he told his "peasant" mother, born in rural Italy in1933, "barely literate, with a fourth grade Catholic education" that he was gay, she said, "Good. Go do what you have to do. Live your life. Be happy! Be free!'" Here's what you had to say ... HARPER: This brought tears to my eyes. Wish that all kids had parents who offer this kind of love and acceptance and have this kind of faith in them. SHIRLEY: The column about Jimmy and his mother made me cry! I have two grown sons, and I can only hope that I would have reacted to that information from one of them with the same response. I've never been tested in that way, but it seems to me it's the only response. How some parents can disown their gay children is beyond my comprehension. I think a story like this might make some people think. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you changed even one mind? MARIE: What wonderful and wise words: "Go think of yourself; be happy. I have the feeling that many readers of your readers will clip the column about Jimmy and carry it with them for a long time because not everyone has a mother like his, bless her. I worked in an emergency room for four years and saw a lot of teenagers come in who have tried to commit suicide because they were not accepted.
MARK: I was a lot like Jimmy. I didn't want to live a double life anymore — "out" to other gays, "in" to my straight friends and my family. The tension between who I was and who I pretended to be was taking a toll on my health. I had migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and eczema. So again like Jimmy, I steeled myself up and told my mother. I had to have several shots of vodka before I could do it. But here's where our stories are different. My mother told me I would bring shame on our family if anyone knew, and if my father found out, with his bad heart, he would die. I would kill him as surely as if I took a gun and shot him! I asked her what I should do. She told me she didn't care as long as I remained (I'm going to quote her now) her "son" and not her "daughter." She actually said priests are celibate, why couldn't I just be celibate like them? And we're not even Catholic! This happened 11 years ago when I was 27. I spent too many of those years engaged in dangerous behavior because I simply hated myself too much to care if I lived or died. Thank God I made a wonderful friend who taught me to love myself and convinced me to get into therapy. If only I had had a mother like Jimmy's I can't imagine how different my life would have been. I knew it was love ... I knew it was over ... Fill in the blanks and send them, along with your questions, problems and rants to cheryllavinrapp@gmail.com. And check out my new website askcheryl.net. COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM 
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