Good afternoon, Pride Charlotte! What a crowd this year. I haven’t seen this many people in one place since my last Mary Kay party. But the heat’s a little rough. I stopped by Home Depot on the way over for a pail of foundation.

This year’s theme is Live, Love and Be, my three favorite subjects.

There was a time, not all that long ago when it would not have been safe for us to gather here and say we are proud to be LGBT. There certainly was a time when I could not stand here and say, ‘my name is Pamela Jones, I’m transgender and I’m proud!’

Another word for Pride is Dignity. This is a day to have fun and enjoy each others’ company, but everything we say and do today is a tribute to the human spirit and human dignity…….the spirit of those who have paved the way for us and had the courage recognize and be true to their own dignity.

They say each of us at one time has a face we hide from the world. There may be someone here today who is struggling to truly accept yourself as you are. There comes a moment in life when we ask ourselves, who is the person behind the mask I am wearing? There will be that defining moment when the time comes to take the mask off and be the person you were created. We need to grasp the reality that it is okay to be who you are, no matter who you are! Let us never forget that for both an individual and a community, it is never too late to be what we might become! It is never too late to become genuine!

The rate of hate crimes against the LGBT community has become horrific, even within the last six months. Let me tell you, when they bully one of us, they bully all of us. When they call one of us names, they call all of us names. And when they kill one of us, a little piece of each and every one of us dies inside.

The time has long since past when the cycle of ignorance breeding fear, which breeds hatred, which breeds violence must be broken. We are the ones to break it!

40 years ago, during the Vietnam war, there was a rock star named ‘Melanie’. She wrote a song, Candles In The Rain. The last verse, “we were so close, there was no room, we bled inside each others’ wounds. We bled inside each others’ wounds”.

What if, just what if we were so close as a truly united LGBT community that we feel each others’ pain? What if we were so close, we bled inside each others’ wounds?

Some people say the transgender community has nothing in common with the LGB community. I look around today and I see family. We feel the same pain when we are called names, our bodies are broken when we are beaten; our souls are shattered when our destiny goes unfulfilled.

We see signs saying ‘Change’. Yes, it is time for a change. But let’s never forget we cannot change that which we cannot confront. We cannot change that which we cannot confront!

If there is to be change, and there will be, the change must first begin within ourselves. We live in such a hurting world. We talk of coming out, but the first coming out must take place within our own heart. It is impossible to give love if we do not love ourselves for who we are.

We speak of standing upon the shoulders of those who have gone before us. So many brave people no longer with us have paid the ultimate price for our right to gather here in Pride.

Some day, in some other place, people will gather and speak of their progress, or the lack of it. They will speak of standing upon the shoulders of those who have gone before. Those will be our shoulders. We owe it to our brothers and sisters of the future to leave some broad shoulders.

Each person here today has something special to offer a hurting world. Each of us will leave a legacy of some kind. May our legacy be not one of self promotion, but of genuine LGBT unity.

We gather here today in Pride. Tomorrow, it will be left to us to make real change in a hurting world. We say “be the change”; well, we are the change!

Only the 20-20 hindsight of history will be the judge of our success. Let us work together as a united LGBT community to pass a test, which we must not fail!

Live, Love, Be…….but most of all, Be The Change!

Thank you listening. We would love it if you stopped by Charlotte Gender Alliance, booth #46 to say hi to everyone!!