PRIDE MONTH

🌈 HayHouse is taking over Facebook this week:

As Pride Month 2023 comes to an end, we leave you with this affirmation from Louise Hay:  

"Life created and approves of my sexuality."

Let us recognize that our authentic sexuality is a gift bestowed upon us by life, a testament to the boundless beauty of creation. May we honor ourselves and each other, forging a path of acceptance, empowerment, and love for all! 🎉🌈

The fun continues this week with our Author Facebook Live takeovers!

#HayHousePride2023

For those who have facebook, this is the Pride Month interview with Heather Rone Robbins, astrologer and creator of StarCode Astro Oracle deck, one of my favorite decks.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live?ref=watch_permalink&v=931947267876478

She also delineates a chart for the Stonewall Riots!

This is the final week of Pride Month, and we're closing it out with PRIDE: A Time For Hope, written and submitted by Robert John Kellogg, Diverse Advisory Council Member

Can we lament for just a minute about young people who choose suicide over coming out to their parents?  Can we discuss adults who live in isolation because they find safety in the closet instead of acceptance in this country?  Can we for just a quick moment pay homage to those who were led to the slaughter of the concentration camps while wearing a pink triangle on their arm or beaten at Stonewall or San Francisco and places in between….Can I just for a brief second remind us of a poor lonely college boy named Matthew Shepherd who hung from a fence and then laid in a coma for days while scared and terrified young LGBT people like myself just cried.  

And may we whisper a prayer for the 32 people who were killed by arson in an upstairs LGBT bar in New Orleans in 1973.  And let's not forget dozens of young people slaughtered in a nightclub or our transgender friends who find themselves being murdered at alarming rates for just being who they feel comfortable being.

My name is Robert Kellogg, and I am here to recruit you. I want to recruit an army.  An army of soldiers who march not with guns but with love.  An army that does not destroy those who despise us, but an army that will pledge to educate and advocate until every last person has been told the truth about who we are.  I am here to recruit you, because in this day and time the floodgates of hate and oppression have been opened and in the prophetic words of Dr. Martin Luther King...Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

So at the end of gay pride month, I ask you to join me in solidarity to pledge to shine the light a little brighter and to love a little deeper.  What we all need right now is a little more hope.  I cannot think of anyone better suited to remind us of that message than Harvey Milk.  Milk was the first openly gay elected official in the country.  In one of his most renowned speeches, Harvey expressed his thoughts on hope.  Here is the last part of that speech.  As you read it, may it inspire you to do more to spread love and acceptance and to give hope to those who need it.

“The first gay people we elect must be strong. They must not be content to sit in the back of the bus. They must not be content to accept pablum. They must be above wheeling and dealing. They must be – for the good of all of us – independent, unbought. The anger and the frustrations that some of us feel is because we are misunderstood, and friends can't feel the anger and frustration. They can sense it in us, but they can't feel it. Because a friend has never gone through what is known as coming out.

I will never forget what it was like coming out and having nobody to look up toward. I remember the lack of hope – and our friends can't fulfill it. I can't forget the looks on faces of people who've lost hope. Be they gay, be they seniors, be they blacks looking for an almost-impossible job, be they Latins trying to explain their problems and aspirations in a tongue that's foreign to them. I personally will never forget that people are more important than buildings.

I use the word "I" because I'm proud. I stand here tonight in front of my gay sisters, brothers and friends because I'm proud of you.

I think it's time that we have many legislators who are gay and proud of that fact and do not have to remain in the closet. I think that a gay person, up-front, will not walk away from a responsibility and be afraid of being tossed out of office. After Dade County, I walked among the angry and the frustrated night after night and I looked at their faces.

And in San Francisco, three days before Gay Pride Day, a person was killed just because he was gay. And that night, I walked among the sad and the frustrated at City Hall in San Francisco and later that night as they lit candles on Castro Street and stood in silence, reaching out for some symbolic thing that would give them hope.

These were strong people, whose faces I knew from the shop, the streets, meetings and people who I never saw before but I knew. They were strong, but even they needed hope. And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, and the Richmond, Minnesotas, who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be alright.

Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us'es, the us'es will give up. And if you help elect to the central committee and other offices, more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone. So if there is a message I have to give, it is that I've found one overriding thing about my personal election, it's the fact that if a gay person can be elected, it's a green light.

And you and you and you, you have to give people hope. Thank you very much.

That is an awesome perspective, Kinkpoet. Thank you for your entry.

There is
Only one Pride
Pride
In Being
Human Minded
With a Touch
Of Commonsense Reasoning
That's Sadly Lacking
In Our
Planed
Broken
Society
Today

I see your Commonsense Reasoning and raise you Compassion! Thanks for your entry, Drone.

This is an interesting read: Divine Homosexuality: Divine homosexuality: Ganymede and Antinous as queer icons in art

Image: Antinous has one of the most famous faces to survive from antiquity. Dozens of images of Antinous have turned up in sculptures, carved in gemstones, and other archaeological contexts. Yet Antinous was not a famous conqueror, emperor or politician. Antinous was the lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. ( source below )

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/divine-homosexuality-ganymede-and-antinous-as-queer-icons-in-art

Kinkpoet said:

You have four more days to enter!

What I was looking for in this competition was the entry that emotionally moved me the most, or that I felt was the sincerest in regard to the importance of inclusion and equality, whether from personal experience or witnessing a loved one experience it.

A few notes about certain entries.

Midnight Sonneteer: Obstetricy

This was a beautifully composed piece; had I been looking for form or rhyme, you would've taken first place. It had everything: biology, philosophy, and an astute connection between the physical form and ethereal desire. The only thing I felt it lacked was a hard punch of emotion. It's an excellent observatory piece.

Wally: Happy Pride Month

Wally, this was a strong rally filled with truth; had I been looking for a call to action, this piece would've taken first place. I personally think you need to connect with a lyricist and work on this as a single release that can be played during next year's Pride Month!  

Craic: His name is Dillon, my son

This is exactly the personal and emotional impact I was looking for. The first two stanzas were particularly moving, especially the second—that our own child was afraid to be truthful with us. Congratulations on your first-place win.

Midnight Sonneteer: Solidarity!

This is another rally and a call to action! I think you need to create a meme with the Pride Flag on one side and the poem on the other so it can go viral during next year's Pride Month! You killed it with form and rhyme during this comp. The emotional impact I was looking for wasn't there, but that doesn't mean they're not excellent poems! They are.

Wally: Rainbows

You would've taken first place if this competition was based on visual properties. I loved it, but most of all, I loved the resolute hope that it generated with its message. I felt empowered to believe that change was possible, and hope would be the end result. And that hopeful emotion is what carried this piece.

Congratulations on your third-place win.  

Kinkpoet: Rainbow Six

You presented in words a visual portrait of a scene that happens every day, somewhere across the world. It's emotional impact is palpable because I am sure we've all witnessed that scene somewhere, whether in person or on the news. Clashes with fear-based beliefs are strong and unsettling. But the strength of Love is resolute and you captured that perfectly in this poem.

Congratulations on your second-place win.  

To all others: I truly enjoyed each your entries and thank you for participating.

Thanks very much for the place.


He told me in a grocery store. I already knew because his sister had rang me and told me Dillon wanted to talk to me, that it was important. then told me why

so, I took him shopping because there would be plenty of people around, figured he'd feel safer. so, we're walking around with the troliy, picking up this and that. I'm throwing out the small talk to get him comfortable and then lead with

"so, Dillon you wanted to talk bout something, what's up ? "

"nothing"

"oh.. no, there's definitely something alright. that's why we came over here remember. I hate shopping "

"nothing. really."

"ok I hear what your voice is saying but your face is saying there's something big. what's wrong....? it's not drugs is it? jaysus Dillon I told you, and so has your mother countless.."

"It's not drugs"


"well you have me worried now, son. what else cou...  you've not got a girl into trouble have you, your mother will have a fit."

"it's not...    I'm gay, Da   .  I think I'm gay"

"Is that all ??? fuck sake, Dillon you had mw worried there. gay is it ? sure everyone and their mother is gay these days."

went on to ask him how he knew and such.


anyhow, thanks again *hat tip*



congrats wallyroo and Kinkpoet

I'd like to dedicate this accolade to Dillon's mother.

You're very welcome, Craic. Thanks for sharing the history of the poem. I am sure Dillon's mother will be touched by the dedication.

Congrats to Kinkpoet on runner-up and to Craic on the win. Thank you Ahavati for the honorable mention.