OUTfest!

For those of you who don't know what OUTfest is, it is a festival that celebrates gay pride. I , myself, am not gay. I do, however, have friends who are. I have always believed that if you love someone than it shouldn't matter who they are and what their sexual orientation is, their racial backgrounds, etc. I love learning about different cultures, meeting new people and learning about who they are as a human being. It doesn't matter who they are there are bad people and there are good people no matter what skin color, cultural background, sexual orientation. It is just like for cities for example New Jersey people here so many bad things about Jersey and so many things are shown on television that people automatically associate Jersey with gang wars, crime, etc. If you truly looked around you would see that this stuff happens everywhere even in the smallest of towns.

A friend of mine in High School told me he was gay. This is actually the first time I heard the word gay and I said, " And?," and he just smiled kissed me on the forehead and said, "that is why I love you." I knew he liked boys. Hell, we talked all the time about it. I think the first time he looked at a guy and said that he had a nice ass I knew he was a little bit different plus he dressed better than most guys I know. I lost touch with him after the first year of High School because I moved to another city. I moved to another city that was more open to things then I was aware of because these things didn't even phase me . It was until I saw the hate crimes for people that I started to notice.

Jack Gilman , May 9, 1993 , my sophmore year. This is a name that stuck with me. I woke up and got dressed like any normal day turned on the radio in my room and heard his name. He was shot in the head. I didn't even know Jack. I never met him, never once ran into him anywhere. He was from Kentucky. I just know I sat on my bed and cried. This world was looking more and more glum to me.

Just because someone is different.

I went to OUTfest in the hopes to show Josie , my daughter, that there are people that are different out there . That she don't have to be afraid of things because she don't understand them. I want her to understand. She is pretty cool with getting to know things like this. She is very inquisitive about everything in life and that is what makes her such a great kid. One of her friends in her old school had two moms. That is when she first asked me questions. I want her to be open to the world around her but still cautious because there are bad people out there no matter where you go.

She had a blast. Her favorite moment was at the Imagination Station booth where the guy there showed her prisms and how to make her own rainbow . She thought it was so cool that she made her own rainbow that she was trying it all the way to my mom's house with her glasses looking up in the sky and spitting her water to make sprinkles. I don't think she was knew that that really couldn't work but she was having fun. She got a rainbow lollipop, some bubbles and got to meet some friends of mine. She even got to see her belly dancer instructor from Girl Scouts.

I encourage everyone to go because it is a great way to learn about Gay Pride and what it really means. It is a great way to meet new people and learn different things. There are tons of pamphlets they pass out. There are tons of websites you can go to. I am going to list some here right now :

* Journal and Courier website on OUTfest

*Pride Lafayette's Website

* Pride Lafayette's website about the OUTfest

*WLFI's news cast about OUTfest!

*Pride Lafayette's Myspace page

* Baptist organization a list of people from Hate Crimes for being gay

*WikiPedia site on Matthew Shepard (if you don't know who he is click here)

*WikiPedia on Gay Pride

Here are some photos from yesterday :























It is time for us to stop hating and start understanding.