Author Archives: Tom Payton

Previewing San Antonio Book Festival’s Gay Author Panels

Previewing San Antonio Book Festival’s Gay Author Panels

The San Antonio Book Festival was launched several years ago in the spirit of the Austin-based Texas Book Festival, a nationally recognized event which attracts hundreds of authors and hundreds of thousands of attendees annually. Sponsored by the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, our book festival, held in the spring on the eve of Fiesta,

Dad2: Retying the knot

This may be a shock to some of our friends, but we have decided to wait to get married! Well, okay, in our minds we have been married all this time: Ten years to be exact. I mean “exact,” as we recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of what has to be one of the most

Dad2: We’re in the Army Now

When my 11th-grader confessed one night at dinner that he was not ready for college and wanted to join the military instead, I was thrown.     We hear those stories about the day we have to send our grown kids off into the world.   With most of my friends, it is usually about

Where my pitches at …

… and other reasons you’ll love LGBTQ softball Like many kids growing up in the late 20th century, the television seemed like it was always on at my house. But, unlike most kids I imagine, it was not tuned to cartoons or sit-coms. When my dad was not obsessively watching the national news (he was

LGBT parents and the pressure to be perfect

If we fail, do we let the LGBT community down and prove our opponents’ beliefs true? It happened again. We were sitting at a restaurant–husband, two sons, and me. “Two checks?” asked the waitress. I’m always surprised. Our stock answer: “No, one family.” Then, an askance head cock, shoulder shrug, or a mildly perplexed look

Opening hearts and minds, one episode at a time

Round and round and round she goes. “Come on, dad. Just do it.” I’m no fun, I guess. At least if fun includes signing up for every get-rich-quick or everyone’s-a-winner contest. But there we were, licking our wounds after a dispiriting Rampage rout at the AT&T Center, looking for some fun. Our youngest son, D,

The not-so-mysterious rituals of gay parenthood

It’s 5:15 AM and I hear dance music. “All around the world, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dum. Around. Around. Around.” Stop! It’s Tuesday morning, and I’m listening to a dance-music compilation one room away. This is crazy: house dark, moon ​still ​out, husband asleep, dogs curled tight, and I’m listening to ​pulsing techno at

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