November 12th was my birthday. I am 47 years OLD and feel every damn year, month, day, hour, minute and second of it. I have been working in Politics and Equal Rights since I was 8 years old and sometimes I just want to turn it over to others and forget it. I was really feeling hopeless after the crushing defeat earlier this week in Texas.
Well, I have had my mini-breakdown and am back. Still not really happy, but I will be damned if I am giving up. I think back on how many things have changed in 39 years and I am so thankful. In my own small ways, I have helped change laws and attitudes. There are anti- discrimination clauses at many companies where I have worked, many have offered extended dependents benefits packages, and I am now working to get gender identity added to the non-discrimination clause where I currently work. I have helped elect many wonderful candidates who have stood firm in their beliefs of Equal Rights for all. I change people’s opinion about issues one at a time as I speak out. Bigotry is something that will never disappear completely but it can be narrowed down to the extreme bigots who will never accept anyone different. I can dream of perfection. I can ask for it, but in my heart I know the battle will always be there in one form or another.
This battle has been one I have fought for the majority of my life. I am not willing to walk away. I live in a metropolitan area where I am accepted and life is easier than for those in smaller communities. I can not move to BFE, Texas to make a point, but I can keep working to organize, educate, and elect good candidates to help those who can not be as vocal as I am. I can also nurture and guide in my own way the young activists who are appearing at each event. Just sharing the history of the struggle with the younger generation from a personal perspective, helps more than I think any book they will ever read. I also suggest books about the struggle, which give other views and fabulous stories from the great names through the years.
Yes, I am OLD, tired, and even disheartened but I am far from done. In this last campaign in Texas I have met some extraordinary people who have a passion in their hearts and souls which help keep the fire of freedom burning in mine. I look forward to continuing the struggle and working with my new allies for a long time.
Happy birthday!
Hang in there. We’re with you. Thank you for all your hard work. And it does make a difference. Slowly but surely, it does.
Thank you!!!
Thank you for posting this – it is good to see such a variety of diaries – and, too, people using this place as a community to share what matters to them.
I wish you a very Happy Birthday!
It is very good to pause and be grateful to be here – to reflect and to celebrate!
The average life span of a woman in Afghanistan is 41. (I read that a few years ago, have no source, and doubt if it has changed.) I imagine the 41 year old Afghani woman dies a really old woman.
Now, I am not sharing this info about the average age of Afghani women to have you feel guilty – far from it! I wanted to remind you that you are part of an unusual group in all the history of women – as woman of 47 you are coming into your own.
You have shared here what you value and the things you have done. Celebrate – please!
Our sense of history is often distorted by thirty or sixty minute programs or 90 minute films which show us problems resolved and happy endings. I am just beginning to realize that it doesn’t work that way.
What you have done and what you are doing is working toward changes that may or may NOT be evident in your life time. What is important is that you know where you want to go and what you want this world to be like.
And in this process – celebrate!
You make a difference.
PS
Take care of yourself – it is okay to rest and renew.
I might be gay but I am a man. LOL but thank you for the sentiments.
I’m so glad you accepted the intent of my message.
It is good to be here, yes?
Happy natal day, Refinish69. I appreciate your work very much. You are tired, understandably. Go nourish yourself for a while – very much deserved.
And please, you have inspired a lot of people, not the least of whom are some of the great people I’ve come to read and get to know here. How much more must you have done live and in person?
Have a little of my heart, and take a bit from others as well. Thank you. I ‘m glad you were born, and are still among us.
thank you
Happy Birthday from another old activist!
You have said some marvellous things and I so understand the tired and breakdown. When we started these fights so many years ago we didn’t know what a long haul it would be.
Keep fighting and working and know that their are lots of us in the same age group still with you. There are lots of young ones joining us.
Happy Birthday!
Thank you and the fight will continue
You know what comes to the table in the that huge fight…….equal rights. You are a baby agewise. Go easy and be gentle on yourself. Because these Jack asses are so hell bent on turning us into baby making machines again don’t be surprised if you finally do get to witness an equal rights amendment before you expire.
well baby making machine would be a stretch for me. LOL I know where you are coming form with that and we will stop them and keep fighting.
Happy Birthday! I can relate to the tired-I think we all run on fumes for too long and then have to crash for a while. So, remember to take breaks and remember you do make a big difference in many lives.
Thank you
Thank you for being a fighter. I know the feeling and sometimes it is rough carrying the world on one’s shoulders. I feel like it’s one of my missions-to look out for those who cannot or truly do not know that there are those who do not want the best for their fellow human beings.
At 53 I am just learning that it is okay to put the damn world down once in awhile. It can be a thankless job. But when my husband gets on my case for being so ’emotional’ about politics and all the injustices in the world, I tell him that if my passion dies so do I and that that goes for our love-life also. That shuts him up and I carry on.
thank you and amen!!! I could not have said it better. If I stop caring or fighting, I think I would die. I do have to work on taking a few more breaks. LOL
Happy birthday!
Love and support to you for continuing to fight the good fight. I’m 51, and I understand old, tired and disheartened, but please take heart from all the people here who support you.
So wonderful to hear you speak of nurturing the younger generation of activists. They need to hear from us, they need our history, they need to know that it’s possible to fight and keep fighting and still live a decent, fulfilling life.
Sometimes I think the most effective political work we can do as queers is to change people’s opinions, as you say, one at a time. To be who we are, to stand in front of them as a real person, with an ordinary real life, not a monster, not the devil, just a real person with ordinary needs and hopes and fears, just like themselves.
In the last 25 years I have seen so many people come to an acceptance of gays that no-one could have predicted, not because of political campaigns, but because they have gay people in their lives: co-workers, neighbours, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters.
Sometimes, sitting up here in Canada, I feel almost guilty about how positive things are for queers here, knowing how difficult it is for so many of you in the States. But I hope our successes here help to inspire y’all and keep you going.
I hope you treated yourself special for your birthday — you deserve it.
Thanks. I am glad things are better in other countries and it gives me hope that some day the Land of the Free will wake up.
A dear sweet friend cooked me a lamb dinner and we went to a book store for the release of a new cookbook.
A belated Happy Birthday!
You are not alone in feeling tired about all of what is going on. BUT we are all far from done… Some times it seems like a neverending job, eh?
Thank you and yes it seems never ending but I have to do something.