Rainbows in Our Small, Southern Town

Local elections took place this week in our small, Southern town. As expected, those with the most votes, were the very people who have been inciting hate toward our LGBTQ+ community over the last year. My little tribe messaged as the votes were counted. We were hopeful for a few moments….

I mentioned in an earlier post, about a local politician bashing our county library for having lgbtq+ books. He had gone to the library and checked out a bunch of them (puberty books), taken pictures, and put them on Facebook. Well, he won the election. Even more disappointing is that he represents my little part of our county. He has not returned those books to the library, so my tribe is putting together a list, and we will all pitch in to replace the books.

The next day, we all rose again. Some were devastated, angry, and sad. As the “older”, “mom” of the tribe, I relayed messages that have been handed down through the last couple of generations, and are still relevant today.

Two days after elections, our town had its monthly “First Fridays” on our town square. Businesses are open late, and people can set up tables and booths for vending, promoting, and such. We took our “Rainbow Table” for a nonprofit that my tribe started in our community, called “PFLAG”. We are a local chapter of PFLAG National. PFLAG stands for “parents and friends of lesbians and gays”, and over the years, has become a support group for anyone in the lgbtq+ community, Allie’s, and families. We have a support group that meets once a month. There is a confidentiality element to the support group, because everyone is at a different place. Here is Little AoA, in Cruella cosplay, setting at our rainbow table…

This was the second time we have set up at this event, and I feel like our town is seeing it, and noticing that we are just regular people. We did have one your man invite us to church to tell us about Jesus. There were also a couple of young boys who were taking the flags we were giving away, and breaking them once they were out of sight range. I got to meet our new county Mayor, who has written a homophobic book about how God feels about a kid having two dads, and posted hate about our pride event earlier. I shook her hand and looked her in the eye, wearing my “Free Mom Hugs” shirt. I introduced her to Little AoA. We will probably be trying to set up an advocacy team to meet with county leaders, to remind them of our diverse community.

I never saw this in my future….nine years ago, when I was barely surviving each day, dealing with the aftermath of hell from living and parenting with a sociopath. Now the kids are healing and free, and life is peaceful and beautiful. Never give up! Love does win!

~AoA