Welcome To Our LGBTQ+ Blog!

Welcome to ASCEND’S LGBTQ+ blog page. Hello, I am Michelle Beyer, the Executive Director of ASCEND. Here at ASCEND, we are committed to supporting and serving our friends in this community with the utmost respect you deserve.

I have a direct interest in this community and have been doing everything I can to learn more since my brother Matthew transitioned to Madison several years ago. This has been a shock to our family, but we support Madison. From a personal perspective, it has been an interesting journey, especially since my family lives in NJ, so I don’t get to see them all that often, and when I do, Madison’s changes are very significant. However, my mom was not very accepting of this change. This was the boy she always wanted. Watching her son transition sent her mental health off the deep end. She turned into someone we didn’t know anymore. What we did was find out that she had frontal lobe dementia. Somehow it was brought to the surface fast when my sister told her.

I wondered why my “brother” wanted to become a female. Madison said that she had known since the age of ten that she wanted to be a girl. The person that I am, I try and learn everything I can when I don’t understand something. So, I am working on trying to understand transgender. My family does have gay men. As a matter of fact, my uncle was gay and died of AIDs back in 1986 when the epidemic was just coming to light. I remember all the protests and the horrible treatment the gay community received. I was 19 at the time. My stepfather, who was a horrible and abusive man, did not go to his brother’s funeral, yes, his own brother’s funeral, because he was gay and died of AIDs. My mom would not let me go either. I was very hurt since I truly loved him. I am not sure if she thought I would catch AIDs from someone who would attend. People are so naive. I came from a very judgmental family, and my sister and I disliked it very much. We made sure we brought our children up to love and respect everyone.

My uncle was a “HOT,” and he had lots of girlfriends all through high school. Then he moved to NY and into an apartment with several men. I remember when my family found out, my mother said, “he was straight until he moved into that house with all those men.” I just started laughing, and my stepfather never talked to his brother again. My stepfather was like Archie Bunker for those of you who are not in your 20s and have heard of the TV sitcom All in the Family. Except my stepfather was abusive.

So, I trust that Sammy Ertle, who will be running this page, will help us all to understand and keep us informed of all things related to this community. Sammy is one of our facilitators and runs our LGBTQ peer support group on Tuesdays.

Please join us for a safe place to talk about whatever you want or need.

This group is for you.

Michelle Beyer
Ascend Executive Director