At this time of year, most of us pause and look back at how it was. For many of us (at least in 35 states now), it was a great year since we now have marriage equality.
Personally, that has made me a newlywed. Marriage should be considered one of the happiest days in anyone’s life, and I for one agree with that sentiment. I don’t know how marriage will affect me, but many of my friends say it already has. To me, marriage is the cherry on the sundae of 2014. It has been a year of incredible bright spots, and in some cases the personal connects with the community in some way.
Aside from marriage equality, we opened the historic John C. Anderson Apartments, an LGBT-friendly senior-housing building. JCAA is historic in that it is the first LGBT project to be fully funded with our community funds. As dmhFund promised our community’s nonprofits, we would not go to their supporters or anyone else’s for donations; we intended to build this building like agencies like Catholic Charities or Jewish Federation does, and we fulfilled that promise. It also was the first to be designated by HUD as an LGBT-friendly facility, and was a White House champion project. That project not only opened a building, but sparked discussions on the issue of ageism in our community. And, when I think of the building, it’s the residents who sparkle.
If all that was not enough, the publication you are now reading has garnered more journalism awards from various professional media organizations than ever and, to top that off, we won one of the highest awards possible: the investigative-reporting award from Society of Professional Journalists’ Delta Sigma Chi Foundation for our 12-year search for answers in the death of transwoman Nizah Morris. PGN was the only publication in Pennsylvania to be so honored, and we also shared this award with The Wall Street Journal.
For someone like me who has watched our community grow since 1969, this was a sweet year. I’ve also had the opportunity to share it with my Gay Liberation Front brothers and sisters who created the idea of community. Before GLF, there was an LGBT movement for our basic rights, but it was GLF that came up and built the foundations of community. Even in 1969, we started Gay Youth, trans organizations and began the conversation on sexism in our community. We built the nation’s first LGBT community center and issued health alerts. We created safe meeting places and events outside of those private parties and meetings in apartments. We did it all in public and challenged the police to stop us. We went as far as creating the first gay Pride event, where thousands marched for the very first time.
Recalling that makes 2014 quite a year to remember. So with that, I’ll make the same call I made in this column last year: This coming year is going to be another good year for the LGBT community. And if you’re not involved in our community in some way yet, there’s always room for another voice. Happy New Year to all of you who made this an incredible year.