Bronx Parents of Pride

Where are our leaders ?? Someone who can unite instead of divide? Someone like MLK who understands we are "tied in a single garment of destiny ". ?

We just want to be.
That is all. 🏳️‍⚧️

We want to be.
We want to be happy.
We want to be sad.
We want to be loved.
We want to be excited.
We want to be wanted.
We want to be lazy.
We want to be known.
We want to be here.

But most of all.
We want to be alive.

Some helpful steps to be taking now.

Steps For Transgender People Preparing For Federal Crackdowns Under Trump Donald Trump has pledged severe federal crackdowns on transgender people. I outline steps for preparing for these challenges, sharing stories from trans individuals who are already taking action.

Age isn't an excuse for being bigoted. Great story here.

My dad and I were reminiscing this weekend when I asked him if he remembered the time around 25 years ago when I was living in Manhattan and he had come to visit.

I lived in Gramercy back then and we were walking west across town when we happened upon the Pride Parade. I had somehow completely forgotten that it was that weekend until we got to Fifth Avenue, which was awash with rainbows and music and bubbling over with joy.

Amid all of the fabulous chaos, my eye was drawn to an grey-haired man who looked to be marching alone, grinning. He was shirtless, unless you counted the silver-studded black leather harness that crisscrossed his bare chest. The rest of the details of his outfit escape me after all these years, but I’m reasonably certain that it also involved a lot of hot pink feathers.

What I do remember, just like it was yesterday, was how my dad reacted.

I have no idea what I expected when I turned to him, though I feared the worst. What I didn’t expect was that his eyes would be welling up with tears.

“That man looks to be my age,” he said, his voice cracking ever so slightly. “I imagine it must have taken him a very long time to be comfortable — and safe — to be who he is so publicly.”

Fast forwarding to the present tense, you might have heard that Richard Dreyfuss said some pretty awful things this weekend. That at an anniversary screening of Jaws he went on a totally random sexist, homophobic, and transantagonistic rant that prompted a lot of well-deserved backlash along with some cheers of vitriolic solidarity and, as always, a few apologists, reminding us that he’s 75, and “a product of a different time.”

My dad is now 84. He’s a product of a different time too. And this weekend, when we talked about that Pride Parade so many years ago, THIS was what he had to say …

[🔗 to video in the comments]

So, yeah, a friendly reminder that no matter where we come from, no matter what we’ve been taught to believe, how we choose to treat one another is up to us.

💕

{image is a screenshot from the video, in which my dad is sitting at his kitchen island, smiling.}

Happy International Women's Day