Happy Pride week Kiddies :-)

Pride week is almost here in London Ontario.. With that will come celebrations in the form of art, music and of course a big parade. Inevitably there will be grumblings about... "Why don't I get a week for "straight pride". To which I usually reply, "Oh because we have struggled so far to win "Straight Equality"?"..
Maybe if it was called something different, people might not question it as much... What if it were called; "Courage to Be LGBT" Week? Because that's really what we are talking about here... Just plain courage. 

I remember when I was a kid, hearing of a gay man, who was hung to death in Florida, for no other reason than his sexual orientation.
I decided to ask the keeper of the sum total of knowledge for the human race(AKA: Google)...  When the last time someone was killed just for being Gay.... I thought I would have to go back a bit to find someone... Turns out, I only had to search to April of 2015(That's right... THIS SPRING!!!) His name was Ron Lane, His big sin? He approached someone thinking they were gay as well... He was not and Mr. Lane paid for that error with his life.

In 2011, 20% of all violent crimes(U.S. Stat) were hate crimes against LGBT individuals. 

Until Yesterday, when I did my research, I really believed that for the most part, the violence was behind us... Not so, Not even a little bit.

Most of us, will never know the fear of having to get on with our day, going to work or play, leaving the safety of our homes, not knowing if today is a day when we will run across someone who is intolerant and violent.(And before I'm corrected, I am aware that people of different races can experience the same bigotry). 

That being said... It does take pride to celebrate who you are and courage? Courage like most of us will never need, to come out together in camaraderie and Brother/Sisterhood and CELEBRATE! To Stand together and say collectively.. We Are Not Going Away, and We Will NOT change... We Love who we are!!"

There is so much to celebrate this year, and let's do just that. Let's celebrate, let's sing and dance, let's hug.. and Let's rejoice that things are just a little less scary than they were last year.. Let's Hope that next year will be less scary still.

And to my LGBT Brother and Sisters...  Shine On!!!!  And have an Awesome(and so richly deserved) week!!!!


Peace Kiddies :-D