Let Your Light Shine

Photo: Ingrid Taylar

It's the last Sunday in June, and the streets of NYC are going to be filled with people showing pride in being G, L, B or T. I love my fellow queer folks. Many of us have survived so much ugly in the world, and yet we move forward trying share something special with the world.

I remember going to my first pride parade in NYC when I was sixteen. I was in the closet and had just started hanging out on the piers on Christopher St. just a couple of months before the parade. When I saw this endless stream of marchers being out, loud and proud, I was stunned.

I was going through so much inner turmoil as I had just started the coming out process. To see this exhibit of pride gave me hope. I didn't feel alone and that I was the only of my kind. I was eager and opened to the experience and it gave me an awareness of my humanity and how I mattered in the world.

I spent the entire time watching the parade with tears in my eyes and a knot in my throat. The emotion I was feeling was huge yet intimate at the same time. I felt liberated yet knew I had a responsibility. I had to let my light shine and let love rule.

I pray that those along the parade route get the same message. It starts with love. I learned to love myself, love those around me, and build a life that focused on proving that love is stronger than hate.

Todd does a great blog on quotes and today he posted one from Quentin Crisp in honor of Gay Pride. I was inspired with this idea, and wanted to share a few.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss

In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis.
Quentin Crisp

It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.
Lucille Ball