Someone coming out as gay shouldn't be newsworthy; it shouldn't be warranting a magazine cover or anything like that, which I had as my story for coming out.

Growing up, I always wanted kids, and that was one of the things that made it hard for me to accept being gay, but now I know it's totally an option to have kids.

Competitors, even friends that would say things that were so homophobic, and - I don't think that they realized necessarily the impact that it was having on me, because I was in the closet, and I think that that's what made me really scared to come out.

I chose a public platform to come out. I wanted to have an impact with it.

It's no coincidence that I began writing the day my daughter started school. I knew everything I knew before I began to write, but I was raising two children and didn't have the time to get to the typewriter.

My dad was a mechanical engineer and a drummer. We had no money, but I never felt we had no money, and that's what I remember now, having my own child. I think, 'Oh so what?' Kids don't go around the house seeing what's wrong with it.

I could enjoy the life that I had by virtue of the educational attainment that my grandparents and parents had pursued. Education was always incredibly valued in our family.

In our family, the men have always stood at the head, true patriarchs that take the lead, teach, and live their lives as examples... Women have a significant role as helpers to our husbands and co-counsels in the parental equation.