The Faces of Pride

Happy Pride month! A month dedicated to the LGBT community to celebrate love, seek understanding and solidarity, hoping to one day be able to live in a world where their lives are valued just as much as the heterosexual life. If you know anything at all about me, you know this sits near and dear to my heart. As I watch so many friends celebrating this month, I decided to take a walk back in that time in my life and share what “that side of the fence” as most call it, was like for me. I’m finally at a place where I can talk about my life with her, and semi-not-cry.  

I still get the question a thousand times...”how did it happen?”. How did I fall in love with a woman you mean? It’s hard for many people to even say that out loud, and that’s ok, because it was just as hard for me at the beginning too. It wasn’t something planned. It just happened over time. We had been friends for years; since high school. Years would go by, we would see one another and hang out like we had never missed a day. She was a real friend. Not the kind of friend like people are today; only there once in a while. You could call her out of the blue, and she would be there. We had gone down completely different roads in our lives, but our friendship always kept us crossing paths along the way. We eventually fell for one another, and even though it was something I tried to fight, I couldn’t. I battled internally. I was prepared for my family to basically disown me. Hers had, and she was a phenomenal woman. But no matter how hard I fought, my feelings for her grew stronger.  

When we were out together, people stared, gave us hateful looks, said awful things. Sometimes we just kept walking and ignored them, and sometimes I would fire back. It’s hard to keep taking in all that hate every single day of your life and just keep walking with your head up. Let me tell you...NO ONE would EVER CHOOSE to go through such a thing...EVER! So if you are one who believes it to be a choice...let me assure you that you are wrong. 

The love...it was the realest love I have ever felt. She was so good to me. And as time went on my love for her grew stronger than I ever could’ve imagined. I was the happiest I had ever been in my entire life. And it was because of her. Unfortunately, the heartbreak was even more real. Also the realest thing I’ve ever felt. The highest and lowest points of my life, all within a 7 year span. 

Would I do it all over again? I don’t know the answer to that to be honest with you. Right now the hurt is still very raw. But that’s not what this blog is about. It’s about Pride, and the fact that the LGBT community is full of loving, caring, real life people...just like me. People who fight every single day to just be respected for who they are, and who they love; and they deserve that. You don’t have to agree with their lifestyle, just as they don’t agree with yours...but they deserve respect, and to be allowed to live their lives in the same realm as everyone else. Hate is taught. Don’t be the one teaching it. Love is love. End of story. 🏳️‍🌈