LOVE IS EVERYTHING! 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️🖤🤍🤎

On this Valentines Day, the anniversary of the shooting in Parkland, continuing to live under COVID, and the weekend the threat to our democracy has been laid bare, I'm working on finding a way to remain optimistic.  I regularly re-read the manifesto "Queers Read This" by Anonymous Queers from 1990, this excerpt is printed on tees and sweatshirts supporting The Leslie-Lohman Museum:

AN ARMY OF LOVERS CANNOT LOSE Being queer is not about a right to privacy; it is about the freedom to be public, to just be who we are. It means everyday fighting oppression; homophobia, racism, misogyny, the bigotry of religious hypocrites and our own self-hatred. (We have been carefully taught to hate ourselves.) And now of course it means fighting a virus as well, and all those homo-haters who are using AIDS to wipe us off the face of the earth. Being queer means leading a different sort of llife. It's not about the mainstream, profit-margins, patriotism, patriarchy or being assimilated. It's not about executive directors, privilege and elitism. It's about being on the margins, defining ourselves; it's about gender-fuck and secrets, what's beneath the belt and deep inside the heart; it's about the night. Being queer is "grass roots" because we know that everyone of us, every body, every cunt, every heart and ass and dick is a world of pleasure waiting to be explored. Everyone of us is a world of infinite possibility. We are an army because we have to be. We are an army because we are so powerful. (We have so much to fight for; we are the most precious of endangered species.) And we are an army of lovers because it is we who know what love is. Desire and lust, too. We invented them. We come out of the closet, face the rejection of society, face firing squads, just to love each other! Every time we fuck, we win. We must fight for ourselves (no one else is going to do it) and if in that process we bring greater freedom to the world at large then great. (We've given so much to that world: democracy, all the arts, the concepts of love, philosophy and the soul, to name just a few gifts from our ancient Greek Dykes, Fags.) Let's make every space a Lesbian and Gay space. Every street a part of our sexual geography. A city of yearning and then total satisfaction. A city and a country where we can be safe and free and more. We must look at our lives and see what's best in them, see what is queer and what is straight and let that straight chaff fall away! Remember there is so, so little time. And I want to be a lover of each and every one of you. Next year, we march naked.

If you're like us, watching the impeachment trial was disheartening and the lack of integrity and desire to uphold the oaths of office by elected officials is a stain on our democracy. There is no equivalency between BLM protests and the insurrection. The fight for our democracy helped achieve change in the oval office, but there is so much work still to do. “After historic turnout and increased mail voting in 2020, state lawmakers across the country are pulling in opposite directions by introducing restrictive and expansive voting legislation.” We are hopeful to live in a USA that truly lives up to its ideals, but the efforts of some of those in power appear to be in opposition. We stand in solidarity with our fellow Americans who have yet to experience a kinder, juster, more equal USA. 

Though it is Valentines Day, a reminder February is Black History Month.  We've participated in a number of zoom calls discussing racial justice of late and are regularly stunned by what we don't know.  A friend forwarded us a link to this video from Amber Ruffin that we felt worthy of sharing.

Wishing you peace, joy, love, pleasure, and looking forward to more normal better days ahead.  Remember democracy is not a spectator sport, it's up to us to make change happen. I leave you with a bit of perspective from Michael Moore.💜💙💚💛🧡❤️🖤🤎🤍

#love #loveislove #blacklivesmatter #blackhistorymonth #amberruffin