POSTNOTE: Life on the airwaves – where most of us seem to get our news – goes on, and Joyce Vance and Heather Cox Richardson had a couple of pertinent posts overnight Wednesday.  They are linked under their names, above.  Also, from time to time I just do ‘quiet’ kind of posts, as I did on June 4, about a Quebec native important in early North Dakota.  All posts for a given month can be found in a group at the archive at right.  Simply pick the month and click.  Here’s June, 2023, which thus far includes two items.  Your choice.

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June is Gay Pride month.  Two of a great number of sources of information I share are from the Library of Congress; and a powerful column by George Takei.

There is an immense amount of available information, worth seeking out, and taking time to engage in learning and participation during the rest of this month.

LGBTQ+ has become a familiar acronym, and this is important.

Also, there has been a lot of negative reactive action recently, and this is also important.  As I’ve mentioned before at this space, pushback is often a sign that an initiative is succeeding, rather than failing.  Sometimes the temptation is to quit acting to move forward; I hope that the LGBTQ+ community does the opposite.

I have often said, publicly, that I am not conversant with LGBTQ+ identity, specifically because I’m not any of these.

I’ve also said that I’d add W to this – I’m not a woman, either.

This is not to dismiss me, or anyone else.  We are all unique individuals; and the best that we can do is to understand and appreciate uniqueness of each one of us.  Most especially, I suggest that this applies to those who identify in any way as LGBTQ+.  Individually and collectively they have been marginalized forever, and shamefully.

I didn’t grow up with this understanding.

In my youth, there were Boys and Girls, period.  This was a societal and theological given.  You were either one or the other, even if psychologically or otherwise you weren’t a fit with your designated gender.  Over recent years especially I’ve gotten to know, better, LGBTQ+ folks who’ve talked about what it was like to have their identity denied.

But, like sex, this isn’t something that was invented in 1960.

This has always been part of the reality, only it has been denied in all of the ways such denials manifest.

In my rural high school, there were eight of we seniors in 1958, a few boys and a few girls.  A tiny, very rural sample.

Back in the early 1990s, an Aunt of one my classmates revealed to my Dad and myself that Jerry had died of AIDs in 1993.  This was something of a shock, as AIDs was still a shock at the time – the Gay Disease.  Sure enough, Find-a-Grave verified the death.  Jerry was a college graduate, and a Navy veteran, and died at age 51 on the west coast.

Time has gone on, of course, and there have been more changes – positive in my view – but at this moment in time being challenged.

As I said earlier, get active, learn and affirm those who are personally recognizing Pride Month this month.

COMMENTS (more at end post as well)

from Lindsay: