so i'm flipping through this week's edition of the advocate, which i sometimes flip through, and upon flipping one of the pages through i run into this bio of angel brown (that's a very small picture of her on the side of the page, but it's much bigger in the print edition). dear sweet angel brown. she was one of my youth!

if you remember my days as a volunteer at smyal, the sexual minority youth assistance league, in washington, dc, i served as a mentor, facilitator, counselor, program manager, etc. with lgbt youth in the dc area. angel was one of my favorites.

i've never really spoken about the youth i worked with at smyal. for a very important reason, it's private and what happens in smyal is private. and as a volunteer at smyal i took an oath to preserve that privacy as well. but since it seems she's in the advocate, with her picture and everything, and mentions smyal, i think it's ok to mention that i was one of the adults at smyal when she was there as well.

i specifically remember angel for another small reason too. at the time, monica's song 'angel of mine' was popular and i used to sing it to her all the time. i'm sure a lot of the youth did too. it was an obvious link to her name.

finally, one last angel story, as i've been thinking about her a lot this evening since i saw her picture and bio (and learned what's been happening with her over the last several years since i left dc. i so miss my youth! i don't have contact with them at all anymore, except once in a while i run into one or hear something....) anyway, again, i digress...

my favorite angel story involves michael jackson. i was getting ready to leave dc to move out to california. i was getting rid of a lot of my stuff so i wouldn't have so much stuff. over the time she and i hung out at smyal together she had mentioned how much she loved michael jackson's 'moonwalker' video, but hadn't seen it since she was really little. well, yes, i admit, i did have a copy of it on videotape. so before i left dc, i gave her my tape. she was really excited. such a random reference to michael jackson in the midst of the current news. i wonder if she still has the tape.

i so miss my friends at smyal...