Love is love is love

My heart is breaking.  So many steps forward towards equality, and then a tragedy like this happens. As an ally, I am heartbroken for the community, and heartbroken for the victims and their families- both their blood relatives and the families they created.  As an ally, I've double-dated with same sex couples, volunteered with homeless LGBT kids, marched with the Coalition of Welcoming Churches in the Chicago Pride Parade, danced in many gay clubs, banned the "f" word from my classrooms, and done everything else I can to embrace the community.  

We will keep welcoming those who need to be unconditionally accepted.  We will keep marching. We will continue petitioning the government to protect fundamental rights.  We will continue celebrating the big and the small.  We will keep dancing.

Coffee morning hosting duties at Lakeview Presbyterian Church

Laughing and dancing with the fabulous
Dixie Lynn Cartwright at Berlin

Lin-Manuel Miranda said it best:

My wife’s the reason anything gets done
She nudges me towards promise by degrees
She is a perfect symphony of one
Our son is her most beautiful reprise.
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day.
This show is proof that history remembers
We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story
Now fill the world with music, love and pride.