I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: LGBTQ+

  • Celebrating LGBTQ+ Advocacy: A Legacy Gala Reflection

    Celebrating LGBTQ+ Advocacy: A Legacy Gala Reflection


    Being celebrated for our work in the LGBTQ+ community in the midlands of South Carolina was a remarkable experience last week for Pretty and me. We wanted to share a few highlights with our friends in cyberspace, too.

    Are you a friend of Dorothy?

    a code phrase back in the day which was translated to mean

    “are you gay?”

    Teresa (a/k/a Pretty) and me outside the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina

    the First Lady of the event and a dear friend of ours for three decades

    Harriet Hancock, for whom our community center was named

    Pretty and another warrior friend, Nekki Shutt

    daughter-in-law Caroline with Dick Hubbard looking dapper

    Dick is an institution himself – has been in the trenches with us

    from the beginning 35 years ago

    The Legacy Award

    Pretty and I accepting award presented by last year’s winners

    Bert Easter and Ed Madden – and Emcee Patti O’Furniture

    (their words were awesome, moving, inspiring)

    Drew and Caroline made us proud for their love and support

    a bit of foolishness after the ceremony – I look like James Cagney

    A perfect evening of celebration for Pretty and me as we learned about the current projects spearheaded by the Harriet Hancock Center and met young leaders with their own moving stories like Elliot Naddell who was named the Youth Advocate of the Year, PJ Whitehurst, the Community Advocate of the Year, and Senator Tameika Isaac Devine, the Political Advocate of the Year whose support as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community is historic.

    Organizations like Can Community Health recognized as the Health & Wellness Organization of the Year, the Nickelodeon named the Arts & Culture Organization of the Year, and the Rainy Day Fund which was selected as the Community Partner of the Year.

    Teresa and I were honored to be included with these current champions of causes so dear to us. You all share our legacy of “speaking the truth boldly, loving fiercely, and ensuring that future generations inherit a state where equality is not questioned but celebrated.”

    Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who nominated us, to Harriet Hancock and the Center for selecting us, and to all our friends and family who showed up to celebrate on a magical night that stirred memories, inspired hope, and cast out fear.

    No longer a secret, never again silent. These words by the Hancock Center Executive Director Cristina Picozzi and Board President Matt Butler must be etched in our collective consciousness from this day forward. They are not just a theme for a gala but a mantra for everyday living. The struggle is real.

    Onward.

    *************************

    Guess what? We discovered over the weekend that we have lost our actual Award! There was a misunderstanding about who took the blue box containing the award home post Gala. Turns out none of us picked it up because we thought someone else had it. We have contacted the Columbia Museum of Art and the Harriet Hancock Center but, alas, no luck. If anyone has any information concerning its whereabouts, PLEASE contact us. We would love to solve the mystery!

    P.S. I would also love to credit all photos but I lifted the images from multiple places. Thank you to all who took pictures including Erin, who gets extra credit because she drove from Charleston to celebrate with us.

  • From Small Towns to Legacy Award: A Love Story of Advocacy

    From Small Towns to Legacy Award: A Love Story of Advocacy


    Teresa and I were totally caught off guard when Harriet Hancock called to tell us we had been nominated and chosen for The Legacy Award from the Harriet Hancock Center in 2025. Surprised, delighted, blown away by the recognition of the contributions two lesbians from the small towns of Richards, Texas, and New Prospect, South Carolina, who grew up in a time before Stonewall, could be celebrated today by one of the defining organizations of the LGBTQ+ movement in Columbia.

    No person has meant more to our community than Harriet Hancock, a friend Teresa and I have admired for more than three decades. The Center which bears her name continues to serve as a safety net for young and old alike in the march toward equal justice for all South Carolinians.

    The Legacy Award is an affirmation of our efforts to live authentic lives together in a time and place before Will and Grace.

    I met Teresa when I wandered into Bluestocking Books in the early 1990s. We were both in other relationships at the time, but we shared values that gave us common goals for our community and ultimately provided the foundation for a personal bond that led to sharing our lives to create a family we both cherish.

    We have no words to express our gratitude to the Harriet Hancock Center and our nominators for The Legacy Award in 2025. You are the future we worked for, and we promise to continue the struggle against the enemies of silence and apathy that have always tried to divide us.

    Please join us as we celebrate six other award recipients for 2025: PJ Whitehurst, Community Advocate of the Year; Elliott Naddell, Youth Advocate of the Year; Senator Tameika Isaac Devine, Political Advocate of the Year; Rainy Day Fund, Community Partner of the Year; CAN Community Health, Health and Wellness Organization of the Year; The Nickelodeon, Arts and Culture Organization of the Year.

    Onward. Together.

  • Tennis, Anyone? Major Fun + Kitten Update

    Tennis, Anyone? Major Fun + Kitten Update


    Time ticking away in 2025 with three out of four Grand Slam events completed for the Women’s WTA and Men’s ATP tennis tournaments this year. From the hard courts of the Australian Open in Melbourne to the red clay at Roland Garros in Paris to the finals of The Championships at Wimbledon played today on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in London following two weeks of fierce competition, the one remaining Major is the US Open in New York which begins on August 24th.

    Individuals and their families measure the passage of time through different customs, I’ve observed, but I have two constant measurements every year: (1)the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments and (2) the women’s college basketball season. For me, the year is 3/4 gone in July.

    The Ladies Singles Champion in 2025 was Iga Swiatek

    Swiatek routed my personal favorite Amanda Anisimova

    Jannik Sinner 1st Italian man ever to win

    Singles Championships at Wimbledon

    Sinner defeated my personal favorite Carlos Alcaraz who was trying for a three-peat in the championship this year

    Surprisingly, Sinner broke the jinx of the Pretty Preference by getting the best of Alcaraz in four sets to send Pretty to the winner’s circle.

    Meanwhile, in our backyard this morning while I was glued to the television set, Pretty practiced tennis with our five-year-old granddaughter Ella who has recently started lessons. One of the new baby kittens had fun trying to help Ella with her forehand.

    Ella wore one of Pretty’s dresses this morning after an impromptu sleepover last night following a pool party with her family and friends yesterday that was so much fun she decided to spend the night. Alas, Pretty’s dress didn’t help Ella’s tennis focus, but necessity is the mother of invention, right?

    There really is no smooth transition from tennis to kittens, so pardon the abrupt break from Wimbledon to two cats that still need forever homes.

    Having a snooze on Pretty’s lap this afternoon

    loving the open air on the screen porch

    The kittens will go for their first vet visit this week but no longer need to be bottle fed. Great progress, but my allergies persist.

    Congratulations again to Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek for Wimbledon championships – they provided Major fun for our family in the past two weeks!

  • Thanks to Harriet Hancock Community Center, the Nick, and the 19th* for Breaking the News Documentary

    Thanks to Harriet Hancock Community Center, the Nick, and the 19th* for Breaking the News Documentary


    what is the 19th*

    “We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.” The documentary Breaking the News was shown at The Nickelodeon theater in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 10th. Shout out to our friend Francie Kleckley for making sure Pretty and I were there to watch. She does her best to support both the Nick and women in politics!

    The Nick promo promised “A powerful documentary about the women and LGBTQ+ journalists behind The 19th*, a newsroom rewriting the rules of who holds the mic in media.” Sisters and brothers, I’m here to tell you this film didn’t disappoint. If you missed the screening of Breaking the News this week, search PBS Documentaries to watch at home.

    In a national atmosphere of authoritarian histrionics, blatant mendacity in the media, corruption ignored by blind eyes unwilling to see – I have embraced despair as a coping mechanism. Despair is not productive, and I have longed for hope that would inspire me to have faith in the future for my family, my community, my country.

    As we exited the Nick Tuesday night, I told Pretty these young people of the 19th* cracked my personal glass ceiling with their collective brain power dedicated to truth telling. Hallelujah! I have been redeemed and am a believer again.

    Onward.

  • it’s a simple matter of justice – Happy PRIDE!

    it’s a simple matter of justice – Happy PRIDE!


    The 1993 March on Washington gave me courage to change the things I could within a community of believers who had hope and faith in a future where everyone had equal rights. I was 47 years old; it had been a long, mostly solitary, journey from Richards, Texas, (pop.500) to marching with hundreds of thousands in the nation’s capitol. Free at last, thank God, free at last.

    June is Pride Month so celebrate!

    Onward.

    I