Reflections

How can I even begin to describe how incredible this trip was? In just a week, I learned so much about the world around me and myself. Before I went on this trip, I had kind of lost sight of the path to LGBTIQ equality. I think in going to a school like Hamline, it can be easy to feel contained inside this little bubble where it is okay to be queer and be true to yourself. At Hamline, we focus so much on the importance of diversity and loving people for who they are, rather than judging them for the label society places on them. I was brought back to a harsh reality in San Francisco when I realized that this is not how the rest of the world is. We spoke with some of the most passionate and inspirational queer rights activists who fight everyday for the rights of their community. One of the people we spoke to was Jason, an incredibly strong man living with HIV who campaigns for HIV prevention and speaks to communities about his experiences. His story reminded me of the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980’s. I think our generation has forgotten how serious this epidemic was, and how devastating it was for the queer community. This disease nearly wiped out an entire generation of gay men. It got to a point where people were throwing out phone books full of people who died. It is difficult to imagine that if we had been born ten years sooner, we could have seen all of our friends and loved ones dying of this disease. Our generation has kind of forgotten about how hard that generation worked just to be recognized by the government and mainstream American society. The government was not doing anything because it was labeled as a “gay disease”. We, as the queer community, need to remember the struggles of the generation before us. That being said, we also need to keep in mind what they would want for us. They would not want us to sit around in our own tiny bubbles thinking, “this is as good as it’s going to get.” They would want us to continue to fight for our basic human rights as a queer community.

To whoever is reading this, whatever your sexual orientation, race, gender may be, please do not give up. Continue to fight for your rights because you are worth. You have a voice and you owe it to the world to use it.