Happy Pride Month!

Well, it's that time of year again - LGBT Pride Month, that is, and I'd like to celebrate. So...

• Harvey Milk

"Hope will never be silent." Harvey Milk was the first gay man elected to public office in California and made great strides in the gay pride movement. That courage, in the face of the overwhelming conservatism of the time, is absolutely amazing to me. He also worked on the Briggs Initiative, and thanks to him, LGBT rights were vastly increased in public schools. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Milk was a pacifist and used the power of the pen to spread compassion and kindness, to let others like him know that there was hope.

• Eleanor Roosevelt

 “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”   Eleanor Roosevelt was an amazingly strong woman, standing up for equal rights and humanity. She, unlike other First Ladies, refused to be left behind and often traveled with her husband, helping others in any way she could and never with complaint. She had a beautiful heart and soul and is one of the great feminist icons of the 20th century.

• Leonardo da Vinci

"Life without love is no life at all." Da Vinci, you are the man! Leo (whose full name just means "Leonardo from Vinci," his hometown) was not just a good artist - this brilliant Renaissance man was an early engineer of aeronautics. I'm not even kidding. Aeronautics. During the Renaissance. My mind is blown. Besides that, of course there's the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, two of the most well-known paintings of the Western world. Not to mention, Leonardo also studied anatomy (no snickers, please) and created detailed drawings of the muscular, skeletal, circulatory, and reproductive systems, which revolutionized the medical knowledge of Europe.

• Alexis Arquette

"I want parents everywhere to know that it's totally natural for kids to make believe and play games. It does not mean your child is going to be transgendered. And even if it were true, why is it such a horrible thing?" Arquette is one of the most famous transgender activists in Hollywood and just such a dedicated and extroardinary actress. I really respect and admire how seriously she takes her work, how she chooses to separate herself from the trap of drugs and scandal that so many celebrities get caught in, and her humility. Okay, maybe she isn't the reason the Wright brothers were able to invent the airplane, but still - Alexis Arquette is a boss.

• Katie Hill and Arin Andrews

"We look so convincing as a boy and a girl, nobody even notices now. We secretly feel so good about it because it's the way we've always wanted to be seen." I just adore these two - the amazing story of how they met, how they fought for their love, how their story would make an absolutely incredible plot for a rom-com. It takes a lot of determination and courage to put oneself out that way, and I completely respect them for it. Even though they broke up, I still really admire Katie and Arin for taking such an amazing risk for love.



Sadly, I can't list any more people right now in the interest of not making the post boringly long. But I would like to say a bit more.

1. One out of every ten people is LGBTQIA. That's not me, that's statistics. This means that either you or someone you care about is a sexual or gender minority. If you're homophobic, that person is probably really scared to come out to you and may even push you away when they do come out, because they don't want to be hurt. It's not that they don't still love you, it's just that they're sick of living a lie and don't want your bullying and prejudice in their lives when they need unconditional support and acceptance more than ever. So if you're homophobic, at least try to keep an open mind - before you find out the hard way that someone important to you lied to protect themselves.
2. Being LGBTQIA is not a choice. Don't believe me? Just think about this: did you choose to be straight? Also, because it's not a choice, it's not a sin. Look in the Bible, those of you who are Christian and non-allied for religious reasons. There's all kinds of evidence proving my point here.
3. Next time you think about using words like f****t or d**e, think about all the people mentioned in this post and all the other sexual and gender minorities that have changed the world. Every single person mentioned in this post is LGBTQIA. Yes, really. The f-word and the d-word are profanity, just like b***h or s**t. They're not cute. They're not funny. They're cruel and mean, and shouldn't be used.

Now, to end the post...Happy Pride Month!

P.S. After publishing this, I discovered something was up with the formatting and it came out in all different colors. Sorry about that; I'm not sure why it's happening but I'll try to fix it.