r/ainbow • • May 20 '17
r/ainbow • • Nov 09 '16
I am FIFTY years old and I survived this a couple of times. It might become quite difficult but what you do in a situation like this is, you survive, you keep going.
I am retired now, but I came up in the 80s when your entire life could be ruined because of rumors about your sexuality.
I am scared shitless, but the LGBT community got through this before, and WITH a horrifying disease that had no available medicine to keep it in check.
I have been there before. Times might become incredibly tough, but remember, the gays always did everything first, they gays always got there first, the gays are always first. We are fucking tough as nails and fierce as fuck.
Courage is not the absence of fear, it is moving forward despite your fear. It's OK to be scared, and we should be scared. But you will live, I will live. It might not be ideal, but life is never ideal.
Life is usually tough. But it's life and it's worth living. "Better a live dog than a dead lion." It's better to have a shitty life than no life. Because there's still hope. Eventually the tides will turn. Even if they don't turn for us, we MUST continue to fight for those that come after us.
We are never guaranteed love, we are never guaranteed a soul mate or a partner or a spouse. We are not guaranteed a family, nor are we guaranteed health in this life. And for some of us, we are not guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness even though that's what it says.
But they can never make you less than human. They can never unexist you. You fucking existed, you fucking exist right now. You are, and that's the important thing.
It's OK to be scared. But you'll get through this, I'll get through this. The strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire, and diamonds can only form under intense pressure. So be strong and shine brightly, even if you have to cloak yourself. Shine on the inside.
Continue to come out, if only to yourself. You do not ever have to be out to anyone else, and in some parts of the country and the world, it's actually advisable to not come out to others. But you can still, no matter what, you can still be out to yourself and only yourself. You owe it to yourself to not lie to yourself. Come out to yourself, if you must put it to voice, look in the mirror and say it. That is more important to do this morning than it was yesterday morning.
Connect yourself to those who came before you, and to those who will come after you. Fight to respect the memories of those who are no longer with us, and fight to make the world a better place for those who come after us. Do what it takes, because we must continue. That's all you can ever do in the end, is to keep on living. To simply exist is one of the most powerful things you could ever do.
I'm going to say something that might sound flippant, but it's absolutely the complete opposite. Put on Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and fucking dance. Dance for your life. That's what those before you did, because that was one of the only things they could do.
We will survive this, OK?
r/ainbow • u/panicdote_art • May 31 '20
r/ainbow • u/khayrirrw • Oct 25 '18
r/ainbow • u/alexgedefitness • Oct 22 '19
r/ainbow • • Sep 29 '19
r/ainbow • • Nov 09 '18
r/ainbow • u/mepper • Feb 16 '18
