Gautsch Vision

PSA: Live fearlessly. Live in your own truth. I always have and always will through my art and my blog. If I can educate individuals along the way, the better the cause for each mission I have chosen in my life. One being, the LGBT community. It is even more essential now than ever in America. Individualism is a dying breed in this country. Either people fear what they don’t understand or just allow hatred to guide their opinions.

I refuse to bring hatred into my beliefs, whether I am advocating for PTSD/MST in the military or equality rights in the minority of this country. You can support both idealism of patriotism and equality. Which both are endangered due to the extreme polarized environment that our country is currently enduring in America. I think it’s time to step back and reflect, before we let our emotions guide any more of our decisions in this country.

With that being said, June is Pride month. Regardless of the conspiracies of the “gay agenda” I will say this, the LGBT community has come a long way in the short amount of my adulthood time. I served during the “don’t ask, don’t tell” and was still enlisted when Obama denounced it. Coming from small town America, where LGBT members are discriminated in the small minded community, or even killed, it still astounds me of how the country has become more accepting over the years of the new millennium.

As we head into Pride to celebrate ourselves as individuals of the LGBT community, remember this: pride does not come from others’ acceptance, it comes from within. Be proud of yourself even in the ugliest times. Also remember, It wasn’t the white gay man who forged and solidify this movement like Hollywood wants to falsify with their shit version of Stonewall Inn. It was the P.O.C. transgendered women who are the structure of this movement, so think twice before you seclude anybody, not just this month, but any day of the year, in anything. Know where you come from and who initially built the path for you. Marsha P. Johnson. Say her name.

That is why the documentary that was made to speak out about her questionable suicide in the late 1980s is another film I recommend. Not only does it show the negligence of the police and case work for Marsha’s justice, it gives the whole backstory of how life was prior to the whole movement influenced by the entertainment industry (Will&Grace, Ellen DeGeneres, even Roseanne). It’s educational towards the Stonewall Inn and gives us a realization of who put their best feet forward to create this massive path of acceptance in front of us.

At the same time, we have a long way to go for acceptance within the the community, so take the time to reflect on this post. What can you do to open your mind beyond the gay and lesbian stereotypes? The start, educating yourself on the history of the LGBT community as a whole. Get to know Marsha P. Johnson through her friends and loved ones in this Netflix original documentary. But also, grab a box of tissues!