Stuff We Like #97 - Our Community

Today, Scott finds a silver lining on a day of dark clouds.

Yesterday was a rough day.

In the blink of an eye, everything has changed in a way that none of us saw coming, and we're now locked in for a bumpy ride as a community.

At a time like this, honestly, it's hard to like anything. It all seems so trivial at the moment, and it would have been easy to just skip this column this week and crawl back into bed. The last time I felt like this was 9/11, and at least then we had been attacked from the outside, and for a few brief and shining months, there was a sense of national unity.

So I am not generally in a liking mood.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized there is one thing I like enough to blog about this week. Our community - the people around us who love us.

Part of our community is local - our friends who are just as shocked and devastated as we are, but who took time to reach out to us to see if we were ok, and who are standing beside us, whatever may come.

Part of it is family, who are every bit as saddened by this turn of events as we are.

And part of it is online. For me, it's the folks in the LGBTIQA writing and reading community. The ones who gathered around the campfire together the morning after, on The Novel Approach and on Queer Sci Fi to commiserate, cry, share love and try to rekindle some little spark of hope.

Mark and I have been fighting for our cause for sixteen years, and we've seen ups and downs. We've also learned that we are strong. We are battle tested. And we fight out of love, not hate.

I love every one of you - local friends, family, and the online friends I have made these last few years. You are my people, and we will stand together against whatever may come.