Second Chance

My best friend, Shane Liston, introduced me to the sober living environment. I saw a dichotomy in the market of home owners providing safe supportive housing and slum lords taking advantage of people recovering from addiction. Shane introduced me to the Uplift Housing Network (formally known as the San Diego County Sober Living Coalition). I took certification courses in owning and operating sober living homes and management leadership training focused on issues related to the recovery community. There was a tremendous need for supportive housing in the LGBT community, so I decided to dedicate my philanthropy to LGBT Recovery.

In October 2009, I purchase a fixer upper in Bankers Hill. Through the efforts of Shane and a business owner, Carmen Lucci, directing his crew consisting primarily of recovering addicts, this 1938 home was given a new lease on life. After six-months of blood, sweat and tears, Shane and I cofounded Amethyst LandingTM, opening our doors to the LGBT community, and dedicating The Landing at Bankers Hill to Michael on March 3, 2010, his one-year anniversary date.

Amethyst Landing was not just “gay friendly”, which in the traditional sense meant very little. We specifically marketed, advertised, and promoted to the LGBT community. We developed an ongoing relationship with Stepping Stone, an addiction treatment center serving the LGBT community.

Today, although we are still recognized as serving the LGBT community, we openly welcome “straight” men and the ratio, although fluctuating, is typically 50%-50%. The LGBT community has been undergoing an identity crisis adding every letter in the alphabet (Q – Queer, I – Intersex, A – Asexual, + Everything besides LGBT). In an effort to avoid a label of being “straight friendly”, our 2017 marketing campaign entitled “I AM HUMAN”, sets aside gender identity and sexuality and looks at everyone as an individual human being.

Tolerance and respect for your brother is important in the Amethyst Landing Family. Our success in teaching tolerance between the LGBTQ+ and Straight Communities is a simple formula = Have the opposing forces live together as a (LGBTQ+S) family. That’s not to say that daily challenges will not occur. However, the benefits of a group of men irrespective of label G, B, T, Q, +, or S, supporting one another like brothers in a family is a heartwarming experience. If only the problems between the KKK and Black Lives Matter could be resolved in this fashion. . .

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Second Chance

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Amethyst Landing was not just “gay friendly”, which in the traditional sense meant very little. We specifically marketed, advertised, and promoted to the LGBT community. We developed an ongoing relationship with Stepping Stone, an addiction treatment center serving the LGBT community.