When I woke up this morning (well, yesterday morning now, I suppose), I immediately felt choked up. Like most of us, I was instantly remembering what it felt like, a year ago, when I heard the news.
Pulse. Tragedy. Gay. Hate.
Gone.
Wracked with the memories and pain, I was doing my best to get ready to go about my day, and NPR started to play part of the memorial services and remembrances for Pulse. And they started to play “Fight Song,” sung by the Orlando Gay Chorus live at the memorial remembrance.
I stood in our dressing room as I listened, tears rolling down my cheeks, wracked with emotion like it was a day ago, this tragedy, not a year. I heard the song, this morning, but watching the video now, it’s easy to see the same emotion reflected in every one of those beautiful, singing faces. The pain and deep, wounding sorrow. The remembering and honoring.
And the rising, too.
Jenn and I didn’t get to go to Pride this year, and we’re devastated about that fact. But Pride, as you and I know, isn’t just one particular day or month. It’s every damn day of our lives. It takes Pride to stay strong in the face of virulent hate, Pride to fight back, to seek and claim a life that’s full of dignity and love. It takes Pride to live in this world.
In the month of Pride, we celebrate every courageous pioneer who fought valiantly for the rights we’ve attained. And we look to the future. We do our best, each day, to be a courageous pioneer for future generations in the face of hate, injustice, violence and ignorant bigotry.
It is my honor to live with love and to love my wife. It is my honor to do my best, each day, to live with Pride.
We’ve got a lot of fight left in us. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
