Kevin,

I've recently joined a law firm withing the section that primarily litigates civil rights cases, so I've been following your case with some interest. I have some experience in areas to practice involving Title VII, ADEA, Title IX and the ADA, and was lead counsel on a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 action, but I've yet to work on a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 case. I've been practicing criminal defense (appeals and post-conviction only - no trial work), for a while now, so I've got a bit of a learning curve. I'm interested to see how your civil rights case is going. Discrimination/retaliation based on the content of one's speech is, of course, prohibited by the Constitution, even if there is some other "pretext" for the state action, e.g. "faulty wiring," if you can prove it. Your "orientation," however is not a "suspect class" and is not protected by the Constitution.

IMHO, you really haven't lost anything if your family was predisposed to drop you like a bad habit based upon a little "heat" from the press. My husband is taking "heat" in the press (t.v. news, all the local newspapers) where I live right now, a midwestern city with a population nearing 900,000. We've had national press coverage as well. I've become numb now; humans can adapt to almost anything. This will only strengthen your character. In fact, given that you are a christian, you know that "all things work together for good for those who love the Lord."

Furthermore, I look at it as a gift, because I used to merely sceptically view things reported in the media about people, whereas now, I have grave, deep-seated mistrust in it. The lies and material omissions regularly reported by the mainstream press is astounding.