The first seven out of 569 miles

Soccer mom Jennifer Schumaker’s plan to walk the 569 miles from San Diego to San Francisco “evolved from a very simple thought,” she tells The Advocate. “Three years ago I let a man reenter a line for coffee, and I thought, He has no idea that a lesbian was nice to him today.” Thereafter, Jennifer began coming out to everyone she had even passing contact with in her life.

The Escondido, Calif., carpool mom is now raising her visibility campaign to another level: walking most of the way up the California coastline and coming out to everyone along the way. She left San Diego on April 8 and plans to reach San Francisco on June 3, where she’ll meet gay Assemblyman Mark Leno.

Along the way, each week she’ll be calling in to The Advocate to tell her story.

I left from San Diego’s Balboa Park a little after 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 8, to embark on my 500-plus mile walk to San Francisco--sent off by about 60 friends and well-wishers. I was a little disappointed that the turnout was so light and that some friends and most of the news media were no-shows, but I wouldn’t be doing this walk at all if I were one to dwell on the negative or be easily discouraged.

Supporters pose with Jennifer Schumaker and two of her children under her banner.

Several friends spoke words of encouragement. During much of the speeches, my sons were playing soccer nearby; that was appropriate since I conceived this walk as one soccer mom’s mission for togetherness. Balboa Park was a good site: Besides being one of the largest and most beautiful city parks in the country it’s also where LGBT events like pride and AIDS Walk occur each year.

The first speaker was M.E. Stephens, one of the attorneys who won our case against the Boy Scouts’ leasing a big chunk of Balboa Park for $1 a year. Appropriately, representatives from Scouting for All paraded the flags to begin our event. Stephens recalled Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I-- / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” He added, “I think Jennifer is going to make all the difference.”

Proving she is a true lesbian, Jennifer Schumaker uses duct tape to set up for her pre-walk kickoff event.

On behalf of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, a staffer for Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña read a proclamation in honor of my walk.

When my turn came to speak, I said, “We don’t need heroes; we need heroic acts, and I’m doing this because I may not have another heroic act in me. But I do have an excess of extroversion to hit the road and talk to a lot of people.”

I will carry an unlit torch in commemoration of the Trevor Project [the toll-free hot line for LGBT youth]. The torch symbolizes how many flames have been extinguished because of suicides of young LGBTQ people.

For this first week a friend, Jo Rock, is with me. The first day was more of a symbolic walk, and we stayed at a host home in San Diego.

Sunday we covered seven miles. When you walk you find all kinds of new things in your own city: San Diego’s own Sunset Boulevard is beautiful and has a lot of cute bungalows.

Minister Margo McKenna explains “transgendered” to a San Diego police officer.

We stopped in Old Town, which made me think that the first Europeans who settled California on that spot had arrived on foot and that my trek would take me past many historic sites commemorating the Spanish move northward over 200 years ago. We stopped at the Mormon Battalion Museum, which honors the longest march of any military unit in U.S. history. I explained what I was doing to the docent, whose name badge proclaimed her a Mormon, and gave her flyer. She smiled.

Passing Quivera Marina, a woman let us use the bathroom and said, “My dad was gay.” She was excited about what I was doing. I ended the day with my feet in the ocean. I picked up some seashells, the first of many souvenirs I will be saving for my children.

As told to Walter G. Meyer.