Last weekend downtown Columbia hosted the 34th. annual South Carolina Pride March and Festival which is now known as the Famously Hot South Carolina Pride! Festival.
“To celebrate, to experience queer joy. That’s something that we talk about a lot, is queer joy and queer resilience,” said Dylan Gunnels, president of Famously Hot South Carolina Pride. “Oftentimes, when you hear stories, they might be in a negative light, or we might be focusing on negative legislation or negative experiences. This is our night.” (Corey Thompson, News 19, October 18, 2024)
Nine years ago as I walked away from the 2015 Pride March and Festival I stopped to take this iconic image of lesbians celebrating on Sumter Street. Clearly inspired, obviously empowered. This remains one of my favorite photos to this day.
Finally, another favorite from the 2014 Pride celebration:
The girls (and guys!) who march and/or ride for equal rights truly do rock.
Thanks to all who led and participated in Pride this year – the future is brighter because of you. Celebrate yourselves!
Happy Pride! Onward.
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“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion – but not to his own facts.” – Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Lest we forget the horrors of 2016-2020 when the devil operated from the White House? (From the archives on July 22, 2022.)
“The devil went down to Georgia, he was lookin’ fora soulto steal
he was in a bind ’cause he wasway behind
and he was willin’to make a deal”
No disrespect to the lyrics of this popular hit by Charlie Daniels, but the devil the American people experienced as their President for four years from 2016 – 2020 did indeed go down to make a deal in Georgia for the 11,780 votes he believed he needed to turn that state’s results away from Joe Biden – to allow Trump to overturn the will of the voters in Georgia and retain the oval office he couldn’t afford to lose. The devil couldn’t close that deal in Georgia or any other state because of duly elected officials who refused to tilt democracy over a cliff from which search and rescue would have been a monumental task, because 61 of 62 courts laughed his cases to delay the election results out of their courtrooms.
The devil grew desperate, and the results of his desperation were on full display to the world in the brutal attack on the US Capitol during the insurrection on January 06, 2021, the day the electoral ballots were brought to Congress for certification.
‘Cause Hell’s broke loose in Georgia,and the devil deals the cards
And if you win, you getthis shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose,the devil gets your soul
Much has been said about restoring the soul of America, but the devil continues to play his trump cards of disillusion, deception and division from his shiny Florida fiddle made of fool’s gold.
The 01/06 Committee has been a reminder for all people of good will that the devil is alive and if democracy loses, the devil will get our soul.
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“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion – but not to his own facts.” – Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
In 1968 at twenty-two years of age I voted in my first presidential election, the beginning of fifteen presidential elections over the next fifty-six years. I was living in Seattle, Washington, and had been diligent to change my voter registration from my previous address in Houston, Texas, to my new home in Seattle. Politics was always a prominent conversation in my family who preached to me about the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party from the time I was a young child. In an effort to impress upon me the importance of my vote, my paternal grandfather Pa whom I adored and thought he surely walked on water, had told me before the November election to remember the “Democrats are for the people, and the Republicans are for themselves.” Naturally I voted for the Republican candidates Richard Nixon for President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
I made the mistake of telling my dad about my vote, and he was horrified. My entire family considered me a political pariah when Daddy announced my defection at Christmas. As my second presidential election came around in 1972, I began to wish I could take that 1968 vote back, but there it would be forever in infamy – much like the forever infamy of the men I had supported (not counting Elvis).
Therefore, in 1972, I voted for Democratic candidates George McGovern for President and Sargent Shriver for VP. You may not recall these guys because they lost to the incumbents Nixon and Agnew in a red wave that swept the nation. Of course, my dad blamed me for the entire Agnew tax evasion scandal that led to his resignation as VP in 1973 and the Nixon Watergate debacle that led to his exit in 1974. My grandfather couldn’t bring himself to talk about his woe-is-me version of the political landscape at the time. I was off to a shaky start with my voting record.
Here’s the Pop Quiz FUN for Pre-Halloween, Pre-Election Teasers. I will give you the election year and tell you who I voted for. I want you to tell me whether my candidates won or lost? Name their opponents!
1976 I voted for Democratic candidates Jimmy Carter for President and Walter Mondale for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss? Who did they run against?
1980 I voted for Democratic incumbents Jimmy Carter for President and Walter Mondale for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss? Who did they run against?
1984 I voted for Democratic candidates Walter Mondale for President and Geraldine Ferraro for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss? Who did they run against?
1988 I voted for Democratic candidates Michael Dukakis for President and Lloyd Bentsen for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
1992 I voted for Democratic candidates William J. Clinton for President and Albert Gore, Jr. for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
1996 I voted for Democratic incumbents William J. Clinton for President and Albert Gore, Jr. for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
2000 I voted for Democratic candidates Albert Gore, Jr. for President and Joseph Lieberman for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
2004 I voted for Democratic candidate John Kerry for President and John Edwards for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
2008 I voted for Democratic candidate Barack Obama for President and Joe Biden for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
2012 I voted for Democratic incumbents Barack Obama for President and Joe Biden for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
2016 I voted for Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
2020 I voted for Democratic candidates Joe Biden for President and Kamala Harris for VP. Was that a Win or a Loss for me? Who did they run against?
Today I voted for Democratic candidates Kamala Harris for President and Tim Walz for VP. A former Republican President (spoiler alert) was running against them for President with Senator JD Vance the Veep on the Republican ticket. Stay tuned for the results which will be determined in the next few weeks.
My feelings about the 2024 election results are currently 50-50 and are not skewed by polls, pundits, predictors, or pandemonium. If you kept score of my record, you will see that I have seven wins and seven losses. When I tallied my historical voting record, I was struck by the irony of having a tie for wins and losses over 56 years. What are the odds? I’d guess 50-50.
Donald Trump is a 78-year-old man whose memory is much like mine because I’m also 78 years old and therein lies the first and only trait I share with the former president who is a convicted felon. I know for 100% certainty I shouldn’t be President of the United States. I can’t remember what I just had for breakfast this morning, and Donald Trump can’t remember slamming Detroit when he was in Detroit.
And yet, guys, you overwhelmingly support him. I think I know why, and it’s not what you usually say when asked about your potential vote.
“We need a strong leader” is code for women can’t be strong leaders.
“Trump will make our borders more secure” is code for “illegal aliens” are taking our jobs.
“Crime is out of control” is code for Harris is weak on criminals.
And on and on.
Psst. Here’s my theory for why men aren’t supporting Kamala Harris. Vice President Harris is a mixed-race woman, a female who doesn’t know her place.
Think about it. Why else would men want to vote for an old man who struggles to know what day it is – much less can tell you what NATO stands for.
That’s my secret, and I’m sticking with it. But I hope I’m wrong. Come on, man. Please. Think outside the Trump box.
We survive war and conquest; we survive colonization, acculturations, assimilation; we survive beating, rape, starvations, mutilation, sterilization, abandonment, neglect, death of our children, our loved ones, destruction of our land, our homes, our past, and our future. We survive, and we do more than just survive. We bond, we care, we fight, we teach, we nurse, we bear, we feed, we earn, we laugh, we love, we hang in there, no matter what.
—— Paula Gunn Allen,
The sacred hoop: recovering the feminine in American Indian traditions
“A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground.”
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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