Today is GLAAD's Spirit Day, a day to fight the bullying our LGBT youth face everyday, a day to wear purple and support the idea that words and images matter. As a child, I was bullied at school without mercy, and it wasn't until I reached Vassar that I realized life didn't have to be like that. The damage was done though, and throughout my entire life I've fought the effects of that childhood bullying, or terrorizing as I thought of it as I was going through it, including substance abuse and mental health issues leading to attempts to take my own life. And I had very supportive parents and family when I got home from school. I can't imagine what these children go through when their parents are homophobic and abusive as well. We, as a nation, really need to reach down deep in our hearts and make this a fair and healthy environment for ALL of our young people, but especially those fighting homophobia in their homes, schools, towns/cities and of course, online. We have lost too many promising young people to suicides in recent years because of bullying at the hands of hateful and bigoted homophobes.
It doesn't take a special day for me to wear a purple T-shirt, though. I own two, and wear them a few times each week. They're both from my "Lenny & Joe's" collection, lol. I have at least fifty T-Shirts from this local seafood restaurant, going back to the early 1980s. They come out with new designs in the spring and in the fall. Above, my purple T-shirts posed in front of some of my new pieces of art, as well as my dahlias and zinnias, still flowering profusely in the garden.
Wear something purple today!
