Rainbows and Pink Spray Paint
Monday, March 20, 2006
Some days, as a GLBT activist, life gives you pink spray paint that says FAG. Other days it gives you happy rainbows and hope for the future. Today is a rainbow day.
Wyoming AIDS Walk is in its 5th year, and this year is going to be bigger and better than ever. Every year we host the walk we get another chance to improve the things we have done in the past and make a better future for people living in Wyoming with HIV/AIDS. Today at a sub committee meeting, we discussed a serious plan to get corporate sponsorship rolling, and some of the other people working on the committee with me are taking on some awesome projects. Now, I would love to tell everyone how KILLER AWESOME this year's walk is going to be, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. Lets just say I think we have finally solved the problem of how to get people to stay around after the walk for more than just the BBQ.
Spectrum is working on hosting GLSEN's Day of Silence for the first time, I think, ever. The group of talented people working on it makes me smile and almost cry most of the time. There are handouts for educators, an ad campaign, plans to help encourage campus wide participation, and we are working on a 'night of' destresser. Part of Spectrum's Executive Board met today with the Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs and received the news that our program will not only be fully supported, but may even be funded by their offices. Almost makes me shake just thinking about it. Not that I am surprised that these two individuals were supportive, but sometimes living in a hetero-normative world makes all support seem amazing.
Finally, one of Spectrum's members is traversing the country right now in an effort to combat heterosexism and homophobia. I heard that their bus was spray painted with anti-gay epithets last week, and yet the press on. The group is a really great bunch of trooper and I wish them all the best. Maybe they'll even learn to take the hatred in stride as our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, ally..etc.. forefathers have. If the pink triangle (the symbol of Nazi persecution of homosexual men) can become a symbol of pride for this community, with enough pride and welcoming hearts so can a bus with pink graffiti.
I can't say that I have been any more proud to be alive and a part of any movement, as I am that which I am a part of today. But then again, that is what gay pride has always meant to me. Being able to be proud of who you are, despite the fact that some people may stand in your way. Indeed, today.. today is a RAINBOW DAY!
posted by ZEUS @ 8:35 PM,
