Gratitude
All of a sudden, it’s that time of year again. Holidays. Incipient consumer insanity. Friends-and-family time.
And to lead it all off comes perhaps the best of all: that special moment that we give over to gratitude. It’s so easy to be filled with gratitude this year. I’m grateful for the spectacular progress our movement continues to make on marriage equality. I’m grateful for an Administration that’s making LGBT rights a foreign policy priority. Grateful for the millions of people opening their minds and hearts to the dignity of LGBT people.
I’m grateful for the scores of nonprofit groups that work day in and day out – and sometimes night in and night out – to serve and advocate for our community. Grateful for the hundreds of generally underpaid and often overworked people who staff them. Grateful for the thousands of volunteers – from board members to food servers to door knockers to envelope-stuffers – without whom most nonprofits would all but cease to function.
I’m grateful there’s rain in the forecast.
I’m grateful for the donors whose gifts power our movement. Grateful for the leaders – local, national, and international – who are strategizing and building for the future, for a world in which all LGBT people live lives graced by equality, dignity, and justice; and grateful for the countless heroes and heroines whose deeds and sacrifices and vision brought us to the yet-imperfect but so very much better moment we’re in today. Grateful, too, for all those who remind us that our work remains far from finished.
Personally, I’m especially grateful for Royce and that my parents have made it through a tough year. I’m grateful for Horizons’ selfless and committed board and for great and talented and driven colleagues. And I’m so profoundly grateful to everyone – everyone – who supports Horizons Foundation and our community.
I joke sometimes that my high school guidance counselor somehow neglected to mention the career option of becoming a professional homosexual. I’m so grateful to have found my way here anyway, and have the immense and humbling privilege of working with and for so many superb people, who do so much to make this world a better place.
