- I am wearing purple today because I have come to realize that failure to stand up and proclaim what I believe is shameful for me, and potentially fatal to others.
- I am wearing purple today because GLBT youth are far, far more likely to take their own life, inflicting great loss on a world that has seemingly rejected them.
- I am wearing purple today because I have presided at funerals of suicide victims, and have seen firsthand the chaos and ongoing pain generated and passed on.
- I am wearing purple today because I must not sit idly by as others fly the banner of Christianity over actions, outlooks and messages I find the antithesis of my Christ and his message.
- I am wearing purple today because I want to show those who feel isolated and cast out that they are not alone at all.
- I am wearing purple today because I want to show the vociferous, misguided few who spew anti-gay venom that they are very much alone, and to rebut their profoundly mistaken belief that bigotry, hate and ignorance are somehow Christian or Conservative or American values.
- I am wearing purple today to shake up the "silent majority" of kids and adults who, if they themselves don't call something "gay" in derision, sit silently complicit when others do.
I'm not big on contrived public displays, but I hope every young person struggling with issues of identity and orientation sees a veritable SEA of purple acceptance and understanding today. A public display is the only way to make that happen.
My wise friend Kristin shared the other day her distaste for the word "tolerance."I agree. I don't care to be "tolerated." I want to be appreciated. Don't we all?
AMEN.
Amen to that! Scott and I have our purple on today too for all the reasons you spoke of above. You always say things so well Corey.
ReplyDeleteI don't own any purple and didn't have the opportunity to purchase any but I fully support the idea and I wish I did have something to wear to work today.
ReplyDeleteI was unaware of this being a purple day, but I am passionate about these issues. I am purple at heart today.
ReplyDeleteTolerance is the first step. Acceptance the second. Embracing, perhaps, the fulfillment of one's own spiritual evolution from issue to issue.
Love, Peace and Contentment to you all.
Well said Corey! We have our purple on today for acceptance.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about "wise", I just know that I've been on the other side of people who can't seem to move past "tolerance" (sorry Kendall, while tolerance may be the first step, the lived experience for many, it remains the only step and for others feels just as bad as the discrimination itself).
ReplyDeleteI wear purple externally and internally, today and everyday, championing for what Emperor Haile Sailassie (and many other peacefull warriors) dream, "until the philosophy that holds one 'group*' superior and another inferior is finally, and permanently,discredited and abandoned."
*my edit
I agree, Kristin. In our society, tolerance is thought to be enough. It takes enlightenment, willful or otherwise, for someone who is merely tolerant to recognize tolerance is not enough.
ReplyDeleteWho wants to be tolerated? The very word confers inferiority, a less than satisfactory status. It is the human condition to want and need to be loved. As long as a person satisfies him/herself with mere tolerance, they are not open to the possibility of loving that other or being loved by that other.
But one rarely moves to acceptance without the step of tolerance, no matter how shortlived that first step might be.
I don't like the word "tolerate" either, when it is applied to human relations. Tolerating medication or medical treatment means one thing. It is quite another to "tolerate" another person.
I do agree.