Happy. Gay. Pride.

GLBT Pride festivals and parades are happening across the country this weekend. We will go to celebrate equality in Federal Marriage benefits. We will go to celebrate that the state of California has reinstated Marriage equality. We will go to celebrate ourselves and our loved ones who have experienced the pain of discrimination and lived to see this day. We will go in honor of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Harvey Milk and the transgender activists at Stonewall – all early pioneers of the LGBT movements. We will go in remembrance of all those who did not live to see equality unfolding. We will go for those who died of AIDS while their own families turned their backs on them, society blamed them and the US Health Department did nothing. We will go for the servicemembers who were discharged with no military pension or benefits before and during the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. We will go to heal the harms of the past. We will go for those who still can’t. We will go for the teenager unable to get there, who still feels alone and for the adults who will not come because they fear losing acceptance, their religious community, jobs or family support. We will go to nurture ourselves because as minorities in this culture it takes more energy to live each day. We will go to recharge, because we know we are not done with the work that justice requires. We will go to show our children that diversity exists, and that diversity is GOOD. Today I encourage you to give yourself a big hug, acknowledge how far we have come both personally and as a nation, and join us in celebrating GLBT pride 2013 !