Category: Equality

Grateful for Life

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Today is the one year anniversary of the shooting that took place in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub.  Forty-nine of my LGBTQ community were just wiped away for nothing more than being in a nightclub and having a good time. The most horrific quote I read was from one of the survivors who said he had danced to the beat of someone’s death.

My heart breaks for all of us as a community but especially for those that were there that night and the family members of those that were hurt or killed.  I cried when I read about the one body not claimed by the family because he was gay.  I cannot even fucking imagine how you can leave your son there for someone else to deal with like a throwaway.  Who do you have to be to do that?  What do you have to believe in?  What do you have to worship?  I hope whatever God they believe in forgives them for that and also eases their pain as surely they can never forget what they had done.

Im one of the lucky ones  my parents love me and they tell me nearly every day they can.  I’m grateful for my mom and dad, but mostly I’m grateful for life, itself. I’m grateful for who I get to be every day and I’m grateful for the life I’ve been given. I don’t always take the best care of myself or my life but I sure am glad I got the chance.

To everyone out there who loves and celebrates life on their own terms, I wish you a Happy Pride Month!  May our lives continue to make a visible difference for those that can’t yet or who have yet to come to know who they are.  We are here for you and we’ll celebrate you and love you until you can love yourself.

🌈🦄💛💚💙❤️💜🖤👨🏻‍🎤👨‍👨‍👦👩‍👩‍👦👨‍👦🐻🐼🐷⬆️⬇️↔️🔀🔂♿️🚹🚺💟🖤💜❤️💙💚💛🦄🌈

“The first three shots: I thought it was music.

I felt the bass in my body on the floor against that wall. I felt it. I saw it.

I thought it was the music.

Then glass shattering, the air filling with smoke. The flashing of the gun looked like a strobe light.  I danced to the beat of someone’s death.

Everyone getting down.”

Chris Hansen, a survivor.

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It’s time for Pride 2017

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Hey everyone!  So I got to be a part of the fabulous P.R.I.D.E. Portraits photo lineup and I was so proud to be asked!  There are so many fabulous Houstonians in this lineup I can’t even tell you.

I’m not going to say a lot about it, because it just speaks for itself.  I was asked what I wanted the world to know about me and the statement included just sort of came up for me.  It wasn’t hard to think about who I am at this time in my life.   Here’s what I said I’d like people to know about me:

When I embrace all the parts of me that I denied or avoided for so long (my white beard, my being a bear, for instance) it gives everyone permission to completely be themselves around me and in their lives. I can’t think of a greater gift than that.” – Harold Hal Kelly #gay #lesbian#trans #queer #ally #intersex #bi#prideportraits #equality #instagay #bear#beard #lgbT #FABULOUS #love #lovewins #downtownhal

 

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Starbucks. Equality. Cool Pics…

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I found some of these cool pictures of Starbucks coffee cups and they inspired me to share!

I’m drinking my triple espresso with 3 sugars right now and wishing the whole world could just grab a cup of coffee together!

Enjoy the pics and get out there and get some coffee today from a company that supports marriage equality for all of us.  Great job!!

Go to Starbucks Today…Celebrate Equality

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After traditional marriage advocates came out en masse for Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day last week, gay marriage activists are planning to swarm Starbucks on Tuesday to show their support for companies that offer same-sex partner benefits.

Today’s National Marriage Equality Day is a “direct response” to conservative commentator Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, which the chicken company said led to “record-setting” sales last week.

“It felt like the right wing groups were showcasing Aug. 1 as ‘This is how America feels,'” said Kirsten Ott Palladino, the editor of an online same-sex wedding magazine, Equally Wed, who, along with her wife, started the equality day effort. “We are wanting to say, ‘This isn’t all of America and we can come out and support our businesses too.”

The controversy began after Chick-fil-A’s president, Dan Cathy, was widely quoted as opposing same-sex marriage. “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'” he said.

Palladino told ABC News the day was originally planned as Starbucks Appreciation Day, to show support for a company that, unlike Chick-fil-A, supports same-sex marriage and offers benefits to same-sex couples. But Starbucks managers asked Palladino to expand the effort to include other companies that are supporters of LGBT rights, a change Palladino said she happily made.

“In the end I think that I’m happier with it becoming this because it’s not just supporting businesses that support marriage equality, but also non-profits that are working tirelessly and sometimes thanklessly to support marriage equality in this country,” she said. “At the end of the day it’s not just about seeing how many lines we’re wrapping around Starbucks.”

To see a full list of businesses the equality day is celebratingclick here.

More than 28,500 people have said on Facebook they will join in Tuesday’s appreciation day, about twice as many attendees as there were for the Chick-fil-A kiss-in that other LGBT advocates held on Friday. About 12,000 people signed up on Facebook for the kiss-in, which urged same-sex couples to take a photo of themselves kissing outside a Chick-fil-A.

While much of the furor over Chick-fil-A died down following Wednesday’s appreciation day, advocates are continuing their call for companies associated with the chicken chain to break ties. On Tuesday activists will deliver 80,000 petition signatures to HarperCollins, which publishes the Berenstain Bears books being given out with Chick-fil-A kids’ meals.

(story courtesy of ABC News)