
"It was only supposed to be a night out with work colleagues to celebrate a birthday at Anchorage’s hottest l***q+ night club, The Gilded Butterfly. But then I met the most beautiful person and, yes, fell in love at first sight. Fell in love with someone awesome and unapproachable, someone who would never even notice me.
Yet life can be unexpected, and wonderful moments can be wrapped up in terrible encounters. My beautiful Crimson Lady was harassed for being who she is, and unlikely me found the courage inside myself to stand tall in the face of Hate. Love is Love is Love. And bodies are only bodies.
Note: This short story was originally published in the charity collection, Love Is Proud."

Crimson By Leska Beikircher The Gilded Butterfly is a sparkling rainbow in the rather dull nightlife of Anchorage. This sentiment may sound crueler than it is actually meant, and, coming from Seward, it may even sound belittling. But I did go to college in California, I have experienced the hustle and bustle of a busy city at night—the crowded bars, the laughter of parties on their way from one club to the next, the never-ceasing hum of a busy street even at two A. M.—it is without judgment that I look on the Alaskan club scene. Among the bars, clubs, and theaters the Gilded Butterfly stands out like a nudist in a library (it evokes the same reaction from some people, too). It’s loud, garish, colorful in every sense of the word, and above all gay (in every sense of the word). It’s the qu
