By the time this month is over, this old man will have traveled through five countries and four states, giving 14 talks. There were even more invitations I had to turn down \u2014 or, more accurately, that my husband insisted I turn down. \u201cThat\u2019s enough, Mark,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve already taken on too much.\u201d And as usual, he was right.<\/p>\n
Some of those talks were for LGBTQ+ charities \u2014 to boost a fundraiser, open an exhibit, or give hope to communities overseas where being yourself can still be dangerous. Others were for allied audiences marking LGBTQ History Month. Many of those groups had never before thought about inviting an LGBTQ+ speaker \u2014 but when they began hearing about our history being erased, they wanted to understand why, and more importantly, how they could help.<\/p>\n
That was a surprise for me: they didn\u2019t just want to talk about the problem \u2014 they wanted to know how to fix it. Some were small community organizations; others were major corporations or national institutions. Thinking back to that first Pride march in 1970, when not one corporation or national organization stood with us, I couldn\u2019t help but smile at how far we\u2019ve come.<\/p>\n
To each audience, I said the same thing: Keep us visible. Don\u2019t be afraid to bring up LGBTQ+ issues, even when it\u2019s uncomfortable. Call or write your members of Congress and ask where they stand. Donate time or funds \u2014 or both.<\/p>\n
For many of these allies, seeing our stories erased was their first real understanding of just how deeply Donald Trump\u2019s agenda threatens what America stands for.<\/p>\n
As I write this, I still have two more stops \u2014 one in Palm Springs, California, and the other in Hyde Park, New York. And here\u2019s what keeps coming to mind: 57 years ago, we had no national organizations or corporations willing to stand beside us. Today, even though some are being pressured to pull back, I know their commitment runs deep. They\u2019ll find new ways to show up \u2014 because change is part of progress.<\/p>\n
My mantra has always been simple: our greatest tool is visibility. We cannot allow ourselves to be pushed back into the closet.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ll keep traveling, keep speaking up, and keep being visible. After all, it\u2019s a lot better than the old days \u2014 when the only attention I got was from the police.<\/p>\n
Then again, who knows? Maybe I\u2019ll have to get arrested again.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time this month is over, this old man will have traveled through five countries and four…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":322222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,69,161143,149526,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-322221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-lgbtq-history-month","11":"tag-mark-my-words","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115414452409303759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}