Why Do We Need Pride?

@Straylight amen 🖤🙏

@Straylight 😢 That's really sad.
Just a day ago, here in Italy a T woman killed herself in a very brutal way because of this. She was a teacher and when she made coming out few years ago, shitty parents of kids, started complaining about this, causing many problems to her life. In the end she was fired from the school, and all of this lead to a very bad end of the story.

A couple of years ago we had a popular vote for DDL Zan a law proposal, to protect minorities like LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities etc from violence and discrimination. The vote had a big success but in the end the disgusting & criminal fascist political class we have here made it fail.
They did the same few months ago with assisted-suicide for people with cancers etc.

@Sharky86 So sad for her and her family. It’s so awful when people pretend they’re concerned about kids to hide their hateful thoughts.

@Straylight I had a trans friend 15 years ago take her own life. 🖤

@Straylight she was my best friend.

@JustGoneNow I’ve got to imagine it’s hardest for them than any of the rest of us in the community. They’re still easily the most marginalized.

@Straylight 💯. I still vividly remember gathering her stuff from her parents front yard, where they had thrown it when she came out. She was 18 and I was 20 and I moved her in with me, and she was like my little sister. I loved her so deeply. She was special in a way that I can’t even explain and Sam literally changed the way I saw the world. This little petite wall flower that was happiest in the back being ignored for the most part but she saw the world in the most unique and beautiful way. She was an artist and my butterfly tattoo was from her artwork. It’s why butterflies are so important to me. She was my butterfly and still 25 years later… I miss her everyday. She was everything and more. Just beautiful. I could talk about her and tell stories all day but I don’t talk about her a lot because it makes me cry too. 🖤

@JustGoneNow She’s at peace now. 🖤

@Straylight I’m done now because I’m crying. But her story is important. It needs told.

@Straylight No truer words 🏳️‍🌈

@JustGoneNow It's not fair what happened to her. I'm so sorry for your loss. She sounds like an amazing girl. ❤️

@ShadowSister Very much. I still kinda feel like I failed her as a friend. About a year before she took her own life, she had moved out… about six months before I had moved in together with my boyfriend at the time Jacob, and we had kinda of become distanced. She had gotten really dark and kinda pushed me away but I was really busy with the band, modeling (I was still doing a ton of it to pay the bills because we didn’t have enough gigs for me to quit), and my new relationship. Between all of that and trying to write new material… I just had very little time. I let her go. She pushed me away… and I let her. I should have held on tighter… and I didn’t. Another one of the things I can’t forgive myself for. I wasn’t there for the final restroom break.

@ShadowSister that took a lot out of me. Sometime, I need to make a post all about Sam. 🖤

@JustGoneNow It's good to remember her. She meant a lot to you. I wish I could have known her. It's hard to lose the people we love.

I'm sure it's almost impossible to wonder what else you could have done. "Maybe if I had just been a little more this, or a little less that..." You had a lot going on. You drifted away. Or she pushed you away. No matter what the cause, it hurts. She left a hole, and it was big enough that you still feel the emptiness 25 years later. That's a heavy load to carry.

On the other hand, think of what she felt in the moment. You've been there. I've been there. We know what it feels like. The last thing we would have wanted would be to heap guilt on our friends. We might want to heap guilt on those fuckers who made us feel like shit. "Let them live with what they pushed me to do to myself." That's certainly how I felt in the moment. But I never would have wanted my friends who were the most supportive to feel that way.

Anyway, words fail. She sounds like an amazing person. It's good to honor her memory.

@ShadowSister ty 🖤