Happy Pride Month to all of my LGBTQAI+ readers!! You are loved and you have come a long way, baby. My kids are shocked when we tell them what it was like in the 80s/90s, where many of our gay friends, family, and colleagues felt the need to stay closeted for a myriad of reasons. (They also laugh at me when I say that my friends and I completely believed that George Michael was straight. We never even questioned it. My friend’s mom crushed on him hard.)
We all know the pain it feels when we are in a situation where we feel we can’t be our true, authentic selves. We all know that horrible, hollow feeling of betraying our own selves, at times. Our LGBTQAI+ friends have felt that situation in almost every single aspect of their lives. How painful! How wrong! And on top of that, the price of being true to themselves has included acts and threats of violence, family estrangement, being ostracized from their faith, and having to fight for every single right that we straights just take for granted. . . . . If you really believe that “gay is a choice”, why would anyone choose this road????
I support you all, my dear gay friends, family and readers and all who love you. I hope that you have a wonderful month of celebrating! Lately, I have been listening to the PRIDE radio station when I drive in my car and it’s made my errands a pure blast. It’s like having a dance club in my car. I don’t want to leave the car. The music played is so upbeat and fun. That’s something that I think the Pride movement has in spades – optimism, excitement, buoyancy, love, acceptance – despite all odds. Dancing through torrential storms will get you far, and it will take you closer to your destination, which is really the only destination any of us want to reach – pure and total Love.
“It’s always wrong to hate, but it’s never wrong to love.” — Lady Gaga
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
2095. What is your go-to comfort food?
I have four – four! – friends whose early-twenties children are transitioning gender. I know and love all these kids, and they will still be the same beautiful souls no matter what bodies they inhabit. But it does blow my mind (a little) that medical technology exists to make these transitions possible. Can you imagine how much less hate, prejudice, and angst would have come into the world if people had always had the gender choice? To my son and your children, I imagine, it’s no big deal. Just as they can’t imagine being tethered by a phone cord, they can’t imagine a time when gay was bad and trans wasn’t even an option. Honestly, we’ve all come a long way, baby!
The older I get, the more amazed I am at just how much things change in just one lifetime. It’s mind-boggling.