I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: LGBTQ+

  • 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

  • Nana, did you marry Naynay?

    Nana, did you marry Naynay?


    five-year-old Ella, three-year-old Molly, and Naynay at Krispy Kreme Store

    Nana and Ella love Krispy Kreme donuts

    Molly doesn’t like donuts (according to her)

    Hmm. Maybe Molly needs to reconsider her position on donuts.

    I’m trying to figure out how to eat the icing first

    is there anything more delicious than a donut?

    Yes! It’s a donut with M&M candy in the icing!

    Such an adventure with our two granddaughters who have grown up with Krispy Kreme donuts but always in a drive-thru setting – never actually going inside a store where the donuts are made. Heavenly aromas as we opened the door to the store and feasts for the eyes that opened wide to see the dozens of varieties in spotless display cases as hundreds of donuts moved through an assembly line in full view behind the cases. The girls were mesmerized and a bit overwhelmed by the choices when we limited them to two each but thrilled to sit at a little table with their milk to experiment with unusual tastes and colors. Finally, a race to the restroom to wash hands and faces when we had to take them to their parents.

    As Nana leaned into the middle row of the grannymobile to buckle Ella in her car seat when we were leaving the Krispy Kreme store, Ella asked out of the blue: Nana, did you marry Naynay? Nana said yes, I did. I was sitting next to Ella who then turned to me and asked the question Naynay, did you marry Nana? I answered yes, I married Nana.

    But you’re both girls, Ella continued, and I nodded yes to her. But that’s okay, I said. Without skipping a beat as the wheels turned in her five-year-old brain she said, Owen had two moms. Owen was a little boy in her first daycare for two years. He did, indeed, have two moms we met when we picked Ella up in the afternoons.

    Yes, I said. We are two of your grandmothers like Owen’s two mothers.

    And that was that. No more questions. No long discussions – they would come later, but for now everything was fine in her mind.

    When could we come back to Krispy Kreme??

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

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.