San Francisco: Where a Gay Can Be a Gay
Writing this in April because I’m fun and quirky like that BUT ANYWAY HI! If you’re queer and you just… exist, you know that sometimes living in North America is like being locked in a porta potty, NOT FUN! Fortunately, there are some places in the states that stink a little less, like San Francisco, California! San Francisco is home to many different pieces of queer history, such as the National AIDS Memorial or Castro Street.
I’m really grateful that I get the opportunity to travel to San Francisco and learn about its incredibly [1] rich queer history. I think it’s so important for queer people to learn about our history and educate each other, because the government sure as hell isn’t going to teach us anytime soon! Now more than ever, it’s so important for queer people to organize our communities and support each other. To quote the organizers at Planned Parenthood, “Alone we know nothing, but together we know a lot.”
I’m also super excited to see all these gay films made by gay people! Queer characters in a movie ARE slay, don’t get me wrong, but I love seeing queer directors, producers, and writers telling their stories (or a completely different story that’s cool too). My only hope is that Q Fest doesn’t end up being a boy’s town, i.e. I don’t want 9/10 of the movies I see to be about two white cis-men.
Movies are the perfect opportunity to share stories from unique perspectives and cultures to hundreds of people all over the world. Movies can introduce people to stories that they NEVER would’ve had the opportunity to experience otherwise. Queer/trans people of color, ESPECIALLY queer/trans women of color, are regularly overlooked by not only the film industry, but other queer people as well! As queer people, we need to be there for ALL of us: every race, every gender identity, every ability/mental health status, EVERYONE! Stormé DeLarverie did NOT fight with police and roam the streets of New York with a gun to protect lesbians just so you could make 6 Hallmark movies with white men so identical that they could be brothers.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, San Francisco! I’ve never been to California, the farthest West I’ve ever been is Colorado. It’s crazy to me that California has several major cities, some states barely even have one. I’m hoping the weather will be nice, but everyone who went on the trip last year is saying it’s going to be like 40’s. Definitely not the beautiful sunny tropical wonderland I was imagining, but 40 degree weather to someone from the Midwest is basically summer anyway so…
Anyway, I think that’s going to be it for this first blog post! Super duper excited to go to California in like a month and a half! I love movies, I love the gays, it’s going to be so much fun! But also work, we have a lot of work to do; we have a whole film festival to plan AND we have presentations to work on AND we have to make blog posts AND vlog posts too AND I have to learn everyone’s darkest secrets AND I need to find the lost city of Atlantis AND I need to become america’s next drag super monster AND I have to think of more ridiculous tasks to put at the end of this blog so I can stretch it out AND I need to buy eggs.
Love and strength to all my gays, and don’t forget to take care of yourselves!
Love you lots,
