Hello my little Punkin’ Doodles! 

It has finally arrived!  “What?” you ask.  Well, I’ll tell you!  After much debate over what my first blog would be I’m happy to say that the topic will be PRIDE!!! 

Pride Charlotte is upon us, and I inevitably become reflective and think of Pride’s gone by.  My first Pride that I ever attended was in Atlanta! Boy what an experience!  There were hundreds of thousands of gays and allies making a statement.  Not the typical, expected chant of “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!”, but more of a peaceful statement of “you’re not alone!” 

I think that most GLBTQ individuals when they first realize that there is something different about themselves feel like they are alone in the world.  For years I asked myself “what is wrong with me?”  I knew I wasn’t like the rest of the boys with which I attempted to play kickball.  Then I figured it out, I found the answer.  I liked boys! Not in the “boys are cool, he-man woman haters club” way, I mean in the “sure I want to play doctor, Susie, but with HIM!” way. 

It’s a moment of great clarity hidden by great uncertainty.  You finally know who you are, but you have no idea what that means.  Speaking as a gay man (yes, honeys, it’s true…I’m not a real woman…hard to believe, I know!  But I digress…), I found that once I discovered the truth of my sexuality I was bombarded by questions.  An answer that creates questions, this is both ironic and frustrating.  Interestingly enough the answer which was an inner truth, sprouts questions of an outwardly egocentric nature. 
Am I butch or femme?  Am I a top or a bottom?  Oh my god, I don’t have a six pack, should I go to the gym?  Lose weight?  Dye my hair?  Wax, well…everything?!  How do I change everything about myself to fit into the apparent cookie cutter mold which defines being gay.    

I really don’t think that I realized what it meant to be gay until that first Pride in Atlanta.  I walked around Piedmont Park in almost a daze.  There were gays of all shapes and sizes!  Men, women, old, young, hairy, smooth, tall, short, butch, femme, normal, and those not so normal, and they were all in one place!  It was like that mold of what it meant to be gay was broken, and yet somehow glued back together as some sort of modern art! 

In that moment I realized something very important: cookie cutters are meant for cookies – not homos.         

We all know that homosexuality by definition only deals with one fact, that you are attracted sexually to the same sex.  However, we also all know that there is something about us homosexuals that makes us unique and somehow…fabulous!  After walking through Pride I realized that we are fabulous because we are ourselves.  If you like to read, read.  If you like to wear wigs, wear them.  If you want to go out and rebuild an engine – lesbians go do it!  Since we are all different, and yet unified by our common bond of being homosexuals we are only a stronger people!       

Pride Charlotte’s motto this year is “Live, Love, Be” and for what its worth (I mean you’ve read this far) I’d like to put my two cents in on this motto.  I am looking forward to walking around Gateway Village and seeing homosexuals of every kind unified by a common bond.  I am encouraged by that, I find comfort in knowing that I am not alone and that I can be myself. 

I look forward to seeing you all at Pride Charlotte!  Look around while you’re there and admire this great piece of modern art, made up of fabulous unique people who believe, like I do, that cookie cutters are meant for cookies – not homos.  Live, Love, and most importantly, Be yourself.

Love and Laughs,

Roxy