HRC TESTIMONIAL/LETTER

I had always been a stay at home mother to my children and foster children for my entire life. My ex husband and I met when I was 16 and he was 26 and he pressured me to get married and start a family. Thinking that marriage would cure me from being gay, I took a chance. After years of trying to get God to fix me – even to the point of training for 3 years to be a certified Biblical counselor, I finally came to my breaking point. When I came out at 38, I came out to my extremely fundamental evangelical husband. He immediately involved his pastor. Our church, who practice “Biblical Discipline”, announced from the pulpit that I was a lesbian and they dis-fellowshipped me in a public worship service which included praying for my death.I lost almost every friend that I ever had and most of my family, who were also mostly fundamental evangelical Christians. Broken down and at rock bottom is a nice way to describe the near-suicidal point that I was in my life.My old church paid for my ex’s lawyer and my first lawyer took the only $2,000 that I could borrow and filed the case, went to the preliminary hearing unprepared and then I never could get him to call me back. For months, I was stuck in limbo without representation and no money. I had been ordered to leave my house and take nothing with me but my clothing. I literally had clothes and nothing else. No money, no home, no job and no education.I heard about Jeff and called him to see if he could help me. (This was about 2 years ago.) Not only did he take my case, he worked tirelessly to help undo some of the damage that was done by my former lawyer. He gave me his time and was always asking me how I was doing. He encouraged me to keep my chin up and helped me resolve the case. I owed him literally thousands of dollars. In the end, Jeff and his firm wrote off most of what I owed and helped to give me a fresh start.Jeff encouraged me to go to school. I enrolled in Chattahoochee Tech and am 1 quarter from graduating with a 4.0 GPA. I have received the Ken Burnhardt Outstanding Student Marketer of the Year award, the Chattahoochee Technical College Outstanding Marketing Management Student of the Year award, the Moultrie Scholarship and was a finalist for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership.Jeff also encouraged me to get involved in Atlanta’s gay community. I became an outreach speaker for PFLAG Marietta and a Forum Facilitator at YouthPride in Atlanta. I also took my love for writing and was able to get freelance work writing for The Georgia Voice – even landing a feature cover story about country singer Chely Wright. The print work that I got from GA Voice supplemented my income while I was in school and then led to a prestigious internship with WSB-TV as a segment producer of the show “People2People” with Jocelyn Dorsey.Without Jeff Cleghorn, I have no doubt that I would be working at a fast food restaurant and doomed to a life of poverty. Instead, my future is bright! I am close to graduation, have some much needed experience to put on a formerly barren resume and I am HAPPY for the first time in my life.I will never be able to do enough to repay Jeff for the life that he literally handed to me. NOBODY deserves this award more than Jeff. If I can ever speak on his behalf, I will! Thanks for your time.