Today, there are two things happening: National Coming Out Day and International Day of the Girl. Please read up on these two events, then go find out what you can do to support those you care about.
As someone with an oddly large number of out friends (for which I’m grateful; it’s changed my life), I just want to say: Thank you. Thank you for being brave, for being who you are, and for being patient with some of us who took longer to come around. I love you and care about you. Thank you for being the amazing people you are.
You don’t need my words to tell you that this is a time for us to come alongside our friends and family and affirm that we love them. Just read this beautiful post from Alise Wright. Today isn’t our day anyway; it belongs to the courageous people who are living authentic lives because they have chosen to do so.
Honestly, I can’t speak to the things in other countries. The only country other than my own that I’ve ever visited is Canada, and even then I only went to Toronto (about 3 hours from where I live). I think it would be better to let friends who have been missionaries or who have traveled abroad to tell you what they’ve seen. The web site for DotG has some helpful information as well.
As I was perusing the statistics, one thing stood out to me: More than half of all rapes in the U. S. are committed against girls under age 18. Where are the adults who should be looking out for our daughters? And why are some of them ignoring what’s right in front of them? I was never raped in high school, but I had a boy sexually assault me literally in the middle of study hall—while his buddies watched and egged him on. When I asked the teacher to move him away from me, I was told that we needed to sit alphabetically. It got bad enough that I finally demanded that I be allowed to move “because they were too noisy.” I guess wanting to be a perfect student was worth the attention that groping me wasn’t. Hm, maybe I’ve answered my own questions.
Let’s go out there and make our world better and safer for our daughters.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Now go out there and show some love in honor of these two events.
