Being Thankful Day Three: Coming Out

              Coming to terms with who you are, that day when you figure out who, and how you love and now you want to tell the world, or at least someone close to you. Now you can come out and it is a beautiful thing, even if it was not well received it can still be the most freeing experience that a person can go through. I am thankful for the fact that in 2015 coming out is beautiful, not disgusting. One’s sexuality is something to take pride in, not be ashamed of.

               I am thankful that coming out can no longer get you thrown into an asylum, or jail. There are no more morals charges, and slowly, but surely the sodomy laws in this country are being repealed. I am thankful that being LGBT is becoming more and more accepted in this world. Yes, there are places where being LGBT will never be accepted, but there are more places where it is accepted.

               I also thankful that you can come out in any way that you choose, including not coming out at all, I’m looking at you K-Stew, or in my case, I chose to not make a big deal of it, and only answer the question when I am asked, but I am thankful that I don’t have to live in fear of someone outing me. I know that is not true in all part of the world, but I know that the world isn’t perfect yet, and there are still some bad things that can keep a person from coming out, but I am still thankful that coming out is a beautiful thing.  For the joys of coming out take a listen to this.

Being Thankful Day Two: Marriage Equality

               Friday June 26, 2015 will be a day that many in the LGBT+ community will always remember, it is the day that we got the right to marry. I will admit I was in shock. I really didn’t believe that I would see it in my lifetime and I am only 34. I expected that this would be the thing of future generations who were wiser and more learned than my own. So to see it happen was a total surprise to me. I look at Jim Obergefell who brought the case to the Supreme Court with admiration. His courage to take a stand and fight is awe inspiring.

              

I am thankful for this because as I have gotten older marriage is one of those things that I think I would consider. I spent my teens and 20s dismissing marriage as an archaic concept. Now I see it as something beautiful that exist as a symbol of love, not just a government contract. When the fight for marriage equality began it was before I came to terms with my sexuality and I remember looking at images of happy same-sex couples getting married and feeling a pang in my heart, and secretly wishing that was me one day.

I’m thankful for this because what it means beyond love. Yes love is important, and being in love is the reason you should get married, but there’s legal issues too, and marriage equality opened up a whole host of legal protections for same-sex couples. From things like being able to be by your dying partners side or being able to leave your pension to your partner in the event of your death. These are the things that we should have had a long time ago, but at least we have them now, and I’m grateful for that.

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.