Being Thankful

            It is November and fall has fallen all around us, well except for here in South Florida it’s still hurricane season for another 28 days and the weather is still in the 80s.  There is something else about November, it is Thanksgiving and it gives me time to sit down and think about what I am thankful for. This year the LGBT+ community has made many strides, the biggest being that same-sex marriage is now legal in all across America and that got me thinking that as a member of the LGBT+ community I have a lot to be thankful for so I decided to dedicate this month to what I am thankful for as a member of the LGBT+ community. Follow me on Instagram (@ravenillusion) for daily lead-in to these blogs.

Day One: Those who Fought Before Me.

               I stand up and fight for causes. I write my congressmen, I do whatever I can to help, but I have never been able to get down in the trenches and but my blood, sweat or tears into a cause. No, not like those who have fought before me. I look back at thinks that the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, or the more better known Stonewall Riots and I see people who were ready to lay it all down on the line for their belief in freedom to be who they were. I look upon those people with admiration and pride because of what they have done.

               I think what make me look at them with the most admiration is the fact that they did set about to become the champions of the rights that they are. They were just everyday people trying to live their lives as who they were who just happened to be in the right place at the right time when history took place. In the case of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot it was transvestites, drag queens and other gender non-conforming individuals were just enjoying themselves when the cops came to raid the place and they took to arms to protect themselves from discrimination. The same is true of Stonewall, the people of that night were just trying to have a good time when the cops came, but strangers rallied together to fight for freedom. For more information on either the Compton’s Cafeteria or Stonewall Riots see this. Without those fights we wouldn’t be where we are today, we must learn from our past or we are doomed to repeat it.