I’m writing from the observation deck as our cruise ship sails towards Juneau Alaska. About 100 LGBTQ persons are turned into squealing children as we watch whales frolicking in the water around the ship. Everything outside in my view is breathtaking.  At moments, advocating for LGBTQ Rights seems so daunting and intense. Full equality is essential, and yet at a moment like this, as I look out on glacier, forest and ocean, everything falls into perspective. It isn’t all drama and hard  work and slow, hard-fought gains. This work is a part of a large complex of many things, including, beauty and awe. 

Yesterday, I felt gratitude to be part of a larger LGBTQ “tribe” joyously dancing during tea dance. There was a beauty and awe there too. The crowd on this LGBTQ cruise is as age diverse as it could be and no one is left out: a real model for inclusivity.  Last evening there was a hip hop party, a country dance party, and a big club dance party all happening at different places on the ship. People floated from one to the other, and it reminded me that inclusivity and celebrating difference doesn’t have to be such hard work.  Or said more clearly, doing the hard work is worth it for such a pay off. 

When I get home, I want to remember this perspective. I want to remember to balance the hard work with a gratitude of what can be real community. 

This is the 30th anniversary cruise for RSVP, and a number of moments remind me of 1988, when I was the official photographer for RSVP, and did two cruises. So much has changed since then, and some things are the same. As a community we are so strong and resiliant, and it is easy to lose sight of that strength sometimes when we are battling for gains towards real equality. 

Last evening at the country dance party, I watched a guy in a lovely pink frock and then later, dancing in a red dress. This wasn’t drag, but rather an individual dressing and expressing himself as he chose, fully accepted by everyone there. The main dance party theme was “long johns” and everywhere on the ship people interpreted that theme. On the country dance floor, moving in the line of dance are butch guys in red long johns and cowboy boots. Everyone present, two stepping, unaware of the beauty of the scene: our community can do acceptance far more that we often credit ourselves. 

There is crucial need to talk about what is missing for the LGBTQ community, and describe ways towards full equality, and there is also crucial need to value and embrace the things we get right, or can get right. This is a part of that perspective. There is also a need to be critical about the LGBTQ community at large, and decidedly break down ways we, inside the community, perpetuate racism, sexism, and ageism. But a path towards a more egalitarian community has to come from recognizing what we get right and valuing our differences because they are the source of change. 

And LGBTQ Rights are just one small part of a larger human rights agenda, and that agenda part of an even larger liberation agenda, which is part of a greater agenda of caring for the Earth and all that is around us. 

Perspective. A needed tool for activism.