This week, I had the honor of having coffee with Bil Browning and Jerame Davis, co-owners of The Bilerico Project, “the web’s largest LGBTQ group blog” with over 50 contributors. Although Bil and Jerame reside in Indianapolis and also manage the Bilerico Indiana, The Bilerico Project is a national website, with contributors from all over the world. What we love most about the website is that it is all-inclusive reading for anything LGBTQ, with articles ranging from informative, political information, to music highlights to Prop 8 Updates, as well as “Big Brother 10 Jessie Godderz is naked(and gay?)”
But probably more important than our discussion about their going to Washington D.C. for National Coming Out Day, or about their political support in Indy, or their professional backgrounds. More important than any of that was their interaction as a couple. On October 6th, they will celebrate their 11th anniversary together. They laughed together as they explained to me the disaster which they describe as their “first date” and how it was a starting point for everything moving forward. They laughed as they stumbled over each other’s sentences while telling me about their new “front porch cat” or how they “adopted” their dogs. And what was truly refreshing, was how they work so closely together, with the same mission, but still interact with sincerity, humility and love towards one another. With both of their laptops constantly up during our meeting, I asked them if they ever argue over content for The Bilerico Project. They raised their eyebrows, looking at one another and laughed, explaining that it’s an almost weekly occurrence.
And as I walked away, I smiled to myself, because I had expected to meet a couple of gay men who were politically driven and had a mission to bring awareness and change to the world. And while that is exactly what I found, more importantly, I found a gay couple, normal in every way as any other couple in the world, who can still laugh and smile at each other after 11 years. And that…is more than most of us can ask for and where the true change begins! Congratulations to you both!
Oh…and by the way, our meeting, was to discuss the gossip column Alex and I will be writing for The Bilerico Project-Indiana. So get ready…
To find out more about The Bilerico Project click here
Eyes Open…We’re Watching! (And watch for us on The Bilerico Project!)