I do not know what to call this, but it is something I must put into words for my heart tells me so. I have learned many things in 25 years of life on this earth and all 25 I have lived in the South. I found out one truth early on Life is not easy nor will it give you a inch you must step out and take it because no one is going to hand it to you on a silver platter.

    I knew at the age of 13 years I liked boys and not girls so yes I am Gay and I am proud of who I am. I am not a shamed of who God made me. I do not fall into no sterotype. For you see here is where I am divided.

    I know most of you have seen on the news where the NAACP is boycotting South Carolina over the Confederate Battle Flag flying above the statehouse. Now Mississippi has fallen under attack you see the South has been branded as close minded people who are racial bigots who live in the past. That is not so. The South looks forward to the future new advances and a new roles. I believe in my past I am not ashamed of my Great great great Grandfather for fighting for the South during the Civil War. He fought for what he believed in freedom of speech and states rights. Not so unlike what The Gay people of the world is fighting for now. We want to be respected as equals not as a sub human class of sick people. Just because I love another man does not mean that I am a bad person. I am the same as the next person. I just have a different lifestyle. I give my all to my State, my country, my friends.

    Every Morning I hoist 3 flags to fly in the Southern breeze. Old Glory, the state flag of Mississippi and the Starry Cross the Confederate battleflag. Most people see that last flag as a evil that must be purged from our myst not true my friend not true. I know that flag has a tarnished reputation now. but we did not do it. A true Evil that stalks among us in the shadows scared to show their faces are the ones who stole the honor and glory of that flag. I guess you know who I am talking about the Klue Klux Klan. Those people are the ones who need to be punished for their hatred towards People of the world. For you see they hate all who is not like them and that is wrong.

    So you see I am divided most gay people look at me with scorn and say how can you be one of Us when you fly that flag so proudly. Then others look at me and say how can you Be Gay when you fly that flag so proudly. I do not know how to answer those questions but I can say this. I fly that flag so proudly because that is what that flag deserves because it is a flag of a proud people a proud race. a People who wanted a change and a people who lost the victors of that war wrote history to cover up things that they knew were true facts. and over the Years that proud flag became tarnished in the South and scorned through out the world. but you see it is not the flag but the people it stands for a proud people a lost cause. As I GAY SOUTHERNER I am Proud of that Flag and I am Proud of who I am.

Stephen Warrington
July 31st 2000