I love you so, so much. Happy World Pride. Happy 50th Anniversary of Stonewall. This is a historic day. You should be so, so proud of yourself. I have thought a lot about what I wanted to say to all of you today. It’s been running through my head like a freight train. What is my intention? How can I inspire you? How can I inspire you the way that you’ve inspired me? How could I possibly portray my love for you? And the truth is, after a lot of thought, I came to this. Wow. Look around you. Look at what you have done. You deserve a round of applause. It makes me cry. I’m so emotional today. This community has fought and continued to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance, and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage. Do you know that? I feel so honored and privileged to even be asked to be here.
I feel that privilege and that honor because today what it truly is, is this is a celebration of all of you in every single way. Four million people in New York City to celebrate their pride. I may not to some people, some people, I may not even be considered a part of this community even though I like girls sometimes. I would never degrade the fight you have all endured, the adversity that you have all been through to truly be seen, to be heard, or the struggles that you’ve been through to love yourselves and to seek that love from other people. But, honestly, I really, really love you. You are strong. You are so strong. You welcomed me into your community in the most beautiful of ways that I will never forget. My whole life changed because of you. I’m trembling speaking to you. You’re making me nervous.
The universe brought us together in the spirit of kindness. And we together, we’re a powerhouse. And I hope, I really, really hope you celebrate every inch of who you are today. You were born this way and you’re super strong.
My mom’s here today. [‘Cynthia!] My Dad [Joe!]
I’m a New Yorker. The Germanottas are out in full force. We’re all here for you. And I thank you, mom, for running the Born This Way Foundation. I look at the older generation and how you have fought to create a safe, more tolerant space for our youth. It used to be unheard of to even come out of the closet or be expected in any way to declare who you are. But now, children at very young ages are saying, “Mommy or daddy, I’m gay. I’m a lesbian. Mommy or daddy, I’m Bi.” They’re saying, “Mommy or daddy. I’m not a girl. I’m a boy.” They’re saying, “I’m not a boy. I’m a girl.” They are telling their friends how to identify and speak to them. Many but not all, of course, are aware of their ability to discover and name their own sexual identities, their own gender identity, gender identities. They are finding themselves and they’re not as afraid, and you did that. You created that space.
So I have one question for you, are you ready? What is your pronoun? How do you prefer that I address you? You deserve to be addressed as you feel comfortable, respected, and loved. I could refer to you as the LGBTQ Plus Community, but then I would be missing so many people in between. I will continue to fight every day during shows, even when I’m not on stage, to spread a message that’s actually quite simple, be kind. And guess what? That kindness, it belongs to you and it always has belonged to you. Even when the world was not kind, it belonged to you. All the galaxies, stars, and even God, for me, I know, I know it all had your back. So today, and I hope every day, dance. Sing. Rejoice. Worship yourself, worship each other. Thank you, [inaudible 00:09:00] and Stonewall for producing this amazing tribute. Isn’t this amazing?
To the brave souls who came before us, Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Harvey Milk, Audre Lord, and igniting the fight for all of us. It is said those who threw the first brick on that historic night were members of the trans community, and while we have made tremendous progress, we find ourselves also at a time where attacks on the trans community are on an increasing rise each day. I will not tolerate this. And guess what? I know neither will you. That distance, that distance between us and them, those who are not listening and who do not understand, that is the space for an important dialogue as a community and how we’ve all move forward together to change the system of an extremely oppressive administration.
And I know that you will not stop. You will never give up. And I know that because I’ve watched you closely for over a decade and I know that. You don’t back down. You don’t shrink into shame, although there are days sometimes that we all feel that way. Be bold and embrace the Stonewall legacy. Love each other, raise your voice and, my gosh, vote. Don’t forget to vote. If we keep injecting the world with this message of unity and passion, imagine where we’ll be in another 50 years from today. I will still be alive and I will still be here, if you’ll have me. I will always be there for you. We are real, real friends now. And I love you. I really love you. This is your freedom. This is your joy that you have deserved always. I will not stop in pursuit of this liberation. I wish to see no more homeless youth from this community.
I denounce ostracizing people for who they are. I wish for there to be mental health provided around the country to teach people the importance of kindness and passion. Every race, every religion, every color, every age, there must be five generations here today, every kind, you are it. You have the power and you are so, so powerful. And I hope you feel that power today. You are the ultimate power and you have never been so visible in the world and that beautiful light and that rainbow is shining all around you. Stand in it, basket, allow yourself to glow on it as we grow up. Just take that spotlight that belongs to you. This, this is my mothership. And you are my leaders and I will follow you. And I surrender, I surrender to all hatred, because you know what? I will kill it with kindness. True love, true, true love is when you would take a bullet for someone and you know that I would take a bullet for you any day of the week. Thank you again. I truly, truly love you and thank you for inviting me. I feel so blessed. Go celebrate yourselves.
Happy Pride.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: Congress of German Jurists, first gay rights protest - 1867
29 August 1867, Odeon Theatre, Munich, Germany
This speech by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs is regarded as the first ever gay rights protest speech. It did not achieve any change but as Ulrichs later said:“Until my dying day I will look back with pride when on August 29, 1867, I found the courage to come face to face in battle against the specter of an age-old, wrathful hydra which for time immemorial has been injecting poison into me and into men of my nature.” For his courage and activism, Ulrichs has been called ‘The first gay man in world history’.
Here is the speech:
Gentlemen:
Two years ago Dr. Tewes, professor of law, who resides in Graz, and I, according to regular procedure, proposed a motion as members of the Association; and I wish to make a protest because it has been denied by our committee, namely because it was classified as 'unsuitable for deliberation' by the Association of Jurists and has been excluded from the agenda. I shall establish my protest materially and formally.
I. Material
This proposal addresses the revision of the existing material penal law, especially and finally to repeal a specific unlawful paragraph in the penal code handed down to us from past centuries. It is directed to abolish this paragraph of the penal code which discriminates against an innocent class of people.
It is also a question of preparing to unify the laws of Germany which in these points unity does not exist. Bavaria and Austria both presently condemn prosecution, and their legislation stands diametrically opposed to the remainder of Germany.
Finally, and secondarily, it is also a matter of concern finally to choke the source of abundant suicides, especially those of the most shocking sort.
I believe that these are far more worthy, serious and important questions concerning the penal code and ones that the Association of German Jurists was rightfully and truly called upon to rule on.
Gentlemen, the matter also concerns a group of persons whose size numbers in the thousands in Germany alone. Many of the most eminent and noble persons in our nation and in foreign nations have belonged to this group...
(Apparent amazement and scorn; isolated shouting, "Adjourn!")
...this group of men which is discriminated against for no reason other than the process of an undeserved criminal prosecution...
(Tempestuous outcry, "Adjourn, adjourn!" The presiding privy councillor, von Wächter, wished to call for a vote to close the matter which was being loudly demanded. What do I say? "Under the circumstances I give up the floor and lay my call for justice down on the table of the House." But now outbursts as loud as the previous ones fence forth from the opposite side of the hall, "No, no, continue, continue!" After I began to continue, the words which follow were spoken with heightened emphasis,)
...a group of men which is discriminated against for no reason other than the process of an unjust criminal prosecution because creative nature has implanted in this group a sexual nature which is inconsistent with the common, vulgar one...
(Chaotic uproar and violent interruption. Uncommon excitement in the audience on the side that prevailingly calls for adjournment. The president says, "I request that the speaker continue reading his proposal in Latin!" But I lay my manuscript down on the desk of the president, and I left the speaker's box. To continue, the manuscript went as follows:)
...a puzzling nature which, in fact, an edifying text by Numa Numantius has recently attempted to clarify, and because you yourselves are involved in an error which can be excused, you look at the matter only superficially: what you consider real, that this true and puzzling nature is not considered natural at all, you resolved to consider it as against natureiii and that the only action you initiate is to draw the sword of justice against this puzzling nature, and driven to utter abuse, you slash the Gordian knot.
This abuse has similarities in yet other puzzling phenomena that have also been misunderstood, namely the witch hunts of earlier centuries.
The abuse under question has been plainly abolished from the present penal code book of Bavaria, just as the Code Napoléon earlier did, while Austria, even now in its outlined penal code placed before parliament, prefers similar abolition 'to provide a practical accountability of the results of scientific research,' as the Austrian minister of justice expressly stated on June 26 of this year.
Would it not truly be the most serious and commendable duty of the Association, gentlemen, if the witch hunts were as yet not abolished, to enter the lists against them?
Indeed, even if Bavaria and Austria had not already taken action?
And what is the function of the Association, I ask, if it be deprived of discussing the most serious matters?
II. Formulation.
Formally it appears to me that this committee is so constituted, that, without a resolution from the Association, by its own authority, is out of order when it attempts to restrain a proposal that rightly falls under the jurisdiction of the Association of Jurists.
Whereby, in my own name and in the name of my cosponsor, I hereby make a protest against the restraint of the proposal.
I would now like publicly to repeat this protest that was made, and, as I portrayed, was suppressed.
Likewise, I enter a protest against the Association and its suppression of this protest.
During my entire speech I distinguished between two groups in my audience:
(1) There were the unbiased who were not prepared for my speech (they were to my right), and who challenged me to continue;
(2) Those who called for adjournment were already familiar with the Tewes-Ulrichs Proposal. (They were in front of me and to my left.) Among those were Appellate Court Justice von Groß from Jena and Attorney General Schwarze from Dresden, who both had sat on the committee.
I was already harassed by isolated calls for adjournment on the 27th and 28th when I delivered technical speeches that apparently had nothing to do with the matter concerned.
I want to deal now with the meaning of this behavior toward me and of the calls for adjournment that put a close to my speech on the 29th.
These shouts were not calls for adjournment in the literal sense. It was, rather, as if the sounds were just a disguise of a call to: "Crucify, crucify!"
During and before the beginning of my speech on the 29th, those who called for adjournment were apparently only in the minority. I requested permission in writing from the president to speak before the full assembly and to enter a protest against the omission of a proposal from the agenda and to place it before the president. The president immediately gave expression to one of his wishes, "May the King of Bavaria soon enjoy marital bliss, because it is the ultimate happiness of men," then put it to a vote "whether
Mr. Ulrichs should be allowed to speak to these aims?" To this a few isolated voices called out, "No, no!" Meanwhile, a strong majority called, "Yes!"
At least the large assembly listened to me with an extraordinary attentiveness. Of all the speakers in both full assemblies on the 27th and on the 29th, none enjoyed a similar experience.
When I stepped from the speaker's stand, an indescribable excitement prevailed.
Moreover, there was evident confusion of what the circumstances involved and of what needed to be said, who was to speak, and what was to be decided. After a long pause, the president reached for a manuscript and said, "I will try to continue reading to verify the matter." Another pause. Then the president began to speak, his voice quaking, "The proposal refers to crimes of the flesh." (Did the manuscript say one word about that?) He then turned to me and said, "I would like the speaker to read the proposal according to the letter." I began, "The proposal is lawfully submitted to the committee. It has to be in the hands of the president. It is not in my possession. My personal copy was confiscated in April of this year when I was taken to Minden Castle. I insert it here as follows:
The Association of Jurists may wish to declare a pressing demand for legislative justice by submitting the existing German penal code concerning so-called sins of the flesh to an immediate revision in the following two matters:
(I) That innate love toward a person of the male sex be punishable only under the same provisions that concern love to persons of the female sex; that they remain guiltless as long as:
"no rights have been abused (by force or threat of force, by abuse of minors, unconscious persons, etc.)
"or there was no disturbance of the peace;"
(ii) That the present vague penal regulation concerning 'disturbing the peace because of sexual behavior' be replaced by one that would guarantee protection under the law."]
Now Schwarze from Dresden requested to speak and declared, ”I represent the decision of the committee. The proposal is, if you will, not acceptable; indeed! We decided to restrain it because as it stands it is inconsistent with the present laws.Secondly, because it offends our sense of morality. It would have excited the indignation of the Association even if it were read. Our faces would turn red with shame! Indeed, if we are supposed to be speaking in Latin, then I can be sure to say it is of a sexual nature."
When these gruff words were heard by the groups to my left they shouted bravo, and I expected nothing less than to be personally insulted. I was troubled with fears every second. I could no longer consider answering Schwarze when such a mood was shared by a large part of the Association. I just remained passive. I was certain that I would loudly protest, declare my withdrawal, and exit the hall at the slightest insult.
Following Schwarze, an elderly gentleman with whom I was not acquainted spoke to thank the committee "in the name of the Association," for restraining the proposal in the interest of morality.
(Very loud shouting, although not all had joined in. See below.)
Ulrichs published his account of the event in a small book he entitled “Gladius Furens” (Raging Sword), which he published in 1868. The attached English translation of Ulrichs’ speech was translated and published by Michael Lombardi-Nash in: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, The Riddle of “Man-Manly” Love: The Pioneering Work on Male Homosexuality Volume I, trans. into English by Michael A. Lombardi-Nash (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1994) pp. 263-265.
Shonda Rhimes: 'Your tribe is waiting. You are not alone', Human Rights Campaign - 2015
15 March 2015, JW Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles, USA
I have been a writer since before I could spell.
I used to dictate stories into a tape recorder with my sister Sandie. Then I tried to get my mother to type them up. I was maybe 3. And when I learned to spell…writing opened worlds.
Nothing else provides that singular hum in my brain, that special trip to the imagination. Writing was…well, for me it was like sitting down at a piano for the first time and realizing that I always knew how to play. Writing was my melody. Writing was who I was. Writing was ME.
I spent my school days writing in journals. I still have them. Little fabric covered books, frayed and fading. They’re boxed up in my attic — about 20 of them, I think.
Little books filled with hopes and dreams and stories and pain.
Let me describe myself as a kid: highly intelligent, way too chubby, incredibly sensitive, nerdy and painfully shy. I wore coke bottle thick glasses. Two corn row braids traveled down the sides of my skull in a way that was just not pretty on me. And here’s the kicker — I was often the only black girl in my class.
I did not have friends.
No one is meaner than a pack of human beings faced with someone who is different.
I was very much alone.
So…
I wrote.
I created friends. I named them and wrote every detail about them. I gave them stories and homes and families. I wrote about their parties and their dates and their friendships and their lives and they were so very real to me that —
You see, Shondaland, the imaginary land of Shonda, has existed since I was 11 years old.
I built it in my mind as a place to hold my stories. A safe place. A space for my characters to exist. A space for ME to exist. Until I could get the hell out of being a teenager and could run out into the world and be myself.
Less isolated, less marginalized, less invisible in the eyes of my peers.
Until I could find my people in the real world.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed but I only ever write about one thing: being alone. The fear of being alone, the desire to not be alone, the attempts we make to find our person, to keep our person, to convince our person to not leave us alone, the joy of being with our person and thus no longer alone, the devastation of being left alone.
The need to hear the words: You are not alone.
The fundamental human need for one human being to hear another human being say to them: “You are not alone. You are seen. I am with you. You are not alone.”
I get asked a lot by reporters and tweeters why I am so invested in “diversity” on television. “Why is it so important to have diversity on TV?” they say. “Why is it so challenging to have diversity?” “Why does Cyrus need to be gay?”
I really hate the word “diversity”. It suggests something…other. As if it is something…special. Or rare.
Diversity!
As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV.
I have a different word: NORMALIZING.
I’m normalizing TV.
I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal WAY more than 50% of the population. Which means it ain’t out of the ordinary. I am making the world of television look NORMAL.
I am NORMALIZING television.
You should get to turn on the TV and see your tribe. And your tribe can be any kind of person, any one you identify with, anyone who feels like you, who feels like home, who feels like truth. You should get to turn on the TV and see your tribe, see your people, someone like you out there, existing. So that you know on your darkest day that when you run (metaphorically or physically RUN), there is somewhere, someone, to run TO. Your tribe is waiting for you.
You are not alone.
The goal is that everyone should get to turn on the TV and see someone who looks like them and loves like them. And just as important, everyone should turn on the TV and see someone who doesn’t look like them and love like them. Because, perhaps then, they will learn from them.
Perhaps then, they will not isolate them.
Marginalize them.
Erase them.
Perhaps they will even come to recognize themselves in them.
Perhaps they will even learn to love them.
I think that when you turn on the television and you see love, from anyone, with anyone, to anyone — real love — a service has been done for you. Your heart has somehow been expanded, your mind has somehow grown. Your soul has been opened a little more. You’ve experienced something.
The very idea that love exists, that it is possible, that one can have a “person”…
You are not alone.
Hate diminishes, love expands.
I do a lot of talking in my Writers Rooms about how images matter. The images you see on television matter. They tell you about the world. They tell you who you are. What the world is like. They shape you. We all know this. There have been studies.
So if you never see a Cyrus Beene on TV, ever? An older, bad ass, take no prisoners, Republican, conservative, Rumsfeld-ian gay man who loved his husband James so deeply and tried desperately not to kill him…
If you never see James dragging Cyrus into the 21st century…
If you never see young Connor Walsh on How To Get Away Murder getting to have the same kind of slutty dating life we’ve seen straight characters have on TV season after season after season…
If you never see Erica Hahn exuberantly give what’s become known as the Leaves on Trees monologue telling Callie that she’s realized she is a lesbian…
If you never see openly bisexual Callie Torres stare her father down and holler (my favorite line ever) “You can’t pray away the gay!!!” at him…
If you never see a transgender character on TV have family, understanding, a Dr. Bailey to love and support her…
If you never see any of those people on TV…What do you learn about your importance in the fabric of society? What do straight people learn? What does that tell young people? Where does that leave them? Where does that leave any of us?
I get letters and tweets and people coming up to me on the street. Telling me so many incredible stories. The dad telling me about how something he saw on one of my shows gave him a way to understand his son when he came out. Or the teenagers, all the teenagers man, who tell me they learned the language to talk to their parents about being gay or lesbian. The teenage girls who have found a community of peers and support on line because of the Callie Arizona relationship — Calzona. I get story after story.
There were times in my youth when writing those stories in Shondaland quite literally saved my life. And now I get kids telling me it quite literally saves theirs. That is beyond humbling.
And every single time it comes down to one thing.
You are not alone.
Nobody should be alone.
So. I write.
We are only on the edge of change. There is still so much more work to be done. I’m going to accept this award as encouragement and not as accomplishment. I don’t think the job is finished yet.
I have a lot of lesbian and gay friends whose marriages I would like to see recognized in every single state in this country. And there are so many minds and laws that still need to be changed. I want to applaud the HRC for their work in fighting so hard for equality and the end of discrimination of all kinds for the LGBT community. The work you are doing is tremendous.
Writing is no different for me now than it was when I was talking into that tape recorder with my sister Sandie. Yes, it’s on a larger landscape. Yes, it’s all of Thursday night. Yes, I am less shy, arguably less nerdy, clearly better styled. The glasses have been replaced by contacts.
I am still often the only black girl in my class. (Look around you.)
But here’s the thing: I am no longer alone.
The characters that lived inside my head are on the television screen. They are not just my friends now — they are also everyone else’s. Shondaland is open and, if I am doing my job right, there will be a person here for everyone.
I want to say how much I appreciate all of the support and kindness I have received. A lot of people out there have been quick to come to my defense in wonderful ways. Especially after I tweet angry. I’m very proud of what I said to the person who tweeted me the nasty comment about “gay scenes”. I would say Bye Felicia again and again. But sometimes I wish I thought first and tweeted later — because think of what an even more awesome thing I COULD have said with a rewrite and some notes?! But seriously, still, I am eternally grateful.
Finally I want to say this: if you are a kid and you are out there and you are chubby and not so cute and nerdy and shy and invisible and in pain, whatever your race, whatever your gender, whatever your sexual orientation, I’m standing here to tell you: you are not alone.
Your tribe of people, they are out there in the world. Waiting for you.
How do I know this for sure? Because mine? Are sitting at that table right over there.
Thank you.
Magda Szubanski: 'None of us can live in a bubble where we pretend that other people don't exist' Results Day Marriage Equality - 2017
speech can also be viewed here. This video courtesy of Kathryn Bird facebook
15 November 2017, Canberra, Australia
One of my great hopes is that this does not become a case where there are the acceptable gays, who are the married ones, and the other ones, who are the non acceptable gays.
This is for all of us, no matter what way we want to live our lives.
It is that we must live as equal people within this country,
And the great thing is ... I’m always very moved ... thank you for the welcome to country, every time I’m at an event, I’m always struck by the warmth and generosity that our indigenous brothers and sisters give us, to this land.
Because apart from them, all of us have come from somewhere else seeking a safe, civilised society.
White Australia began, literally, as a prison. A place for the dregs of society to be dumped and to rot in isolation. A mere 239 years later, it has become one of the most stable, peaceful democracies in the world.
Now we have voted through one of the last remaining pieces of inequality that exists in the legislation.
That shows that a belief in this country for a second chance for people, to not judge people, by their looks, by whatever sexual identity or cultural or ethnic or religious identity, is core to our beliefs, this is not something that’s added on it comes from our history. That welcome extended to us by indigenous people, the reciprocity of that is so important to the way this society is formed, and the way we see ourselves as Australians.
And I hope that we are all mindful in this moment, of other people who don’t have the advantages that we have, and are still struggling with lack of opportunity and inequality, and that we reach out our hands to all of them, but also, as we said, to people who voted ‘no’.
Now in the legislation that is coming ahead, we’ve all heard the rumours ... we’ve all seen the legislation actually that they’re proposing.
And it would actually create a form of segregation, for LGBTQI people who wish to marry. Well I’m saying, as an LGBTQI person, no matter what the result would have been, I would never have treated anyone who voted no with anything less than respect. I would never not serve them. I would never not ‘be funny’ for them.
None of us can live in a bubble where we try to pretend that other people don't exist. We must find ways to reach out our hands across the divide that's been created by this unfortunate survey, and go forward with a deep and good faith understanding of one another, as a nation.
I also think it's a moment for pure humble gratitude.
WE are so lucky to live in this country. When we think about the other countries, where just for being who we are, we could be killed, bashed pushed off a tower.
And this sends a message that this country does not stand for that sort of behaviour, that this is civilised country, that this is a secular country, that this is a country that allows religious freedom. And this is a country that believes in equality and justice, and we've had virtually no leadership in this, we have led ourselves.
And so we can rely on the Australian people to do the bloody right thing.
Go us!
Oh, I did promise I'd do an Irish dance if we won.
Troye Sivan: 'The difference was that these people were attending a friend’s funeral on a weekly basis', 28th Annual GLAAD Media Awards -2017
1 April 2017, Los Angeles, California, USA
This award is so much larger than me. This moment is about visibility and about representation. What and who we see in the media defines our perception of the world around us. And so, to see ourselves in this picture of what is normal and what is acceptable and what is beautiful is absolutely vital. In saying that, so much of the work that has contributed to our progress as a community is far less glamorous than the work that I’m being honoured for tonight.
About a year or two ago, I watched a documentary called "How to survive a plague." I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. The doc is about the early years of the AIDS epidemic and the efforts of organisations like ACT UP and the Treatment Action Group. Within the characters in the doc, I saw myself, and I saw my friends, and I saw my colleagues, and I saw my boyfriend. These kids were young, smart, active fighters. I saw that wit, and that humour, and that resilience that I’ve grown to love so much about my community.
They were just like my friends and I. I know I'm being super humble. Like this smart and everything, just like me. But I saw myself in these characters, and the difference was that these people were attending a friend’s funeral on a weekly basis. This was in New York City, not ever 40 years ago. They were fighting for medical treatment, they were fighting for visibility and they were fighting for their lives. It was a life or death situation.
It was this kind of sacrifice and activism that paved the way for all of us to be here tonight. While I'm so thankful and fortunate to have this award, I would like to share it with the warriors who made it possible but maybe didn't get one for themselves. This award is for Peter Staley. One of the featured activist in "How to survive a plague." Peter was one of the driving forces behind ACT UP, the founder of the Treatment Action Group, and a personal hero of mine. This is for Marsha P Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera. The Godmothers of the Stonewall Riots, who also founded a transgender rights group, in the 1970s.
This is for ... You can keep going on the teleprompter. This is for Bayard Rustin. Bayard was an openly gay civil rights leader, who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr, and was largely written out of history as a result of homophobia. This is for Gilbert Baker, the creator of the Rainbow Flag. A symbol of pride. Who we sadly lost yesterday. This is for the Edie Windsors and the James Baldwins and the Frank Kamenys of the world. And the list goes on.
Though times and our needs may have changed, this ethos and spirit still persist in our community today.