Weekend self-care open thread: Ladies and gentlemen, Queen!

Before I get to the subject of this weekend's self-care, I want to give my rationale for these self-care threads.

Back on the old blog which Trevor and I didn't own, but yet ran, I would post these threads. And many times, the owner of the blog would post over them with whatever thoughts had invaded his brain that weekend.

I posted those threads because I knew that we needed a break. That we needed to have fun, and joy, and merriment. Because if we looked too much into the Abyss, it would know us by name.

The idea that we must be monomaniacal leads,well, to mania. They want us to be despondent. They want us to be morose. They want us to despair.

I write these posts for the weekend because we are more than that. We have joy. We have life. We have visions for a future which damns those who want to kill us. We will survive them. We will outfight them. We will win.

But to do so, we must seize our joy. We must not give in to the despair in which they want us to live. Once we give up hope, they win. Once we give in to death, they win. As long as I have breath in me, I will not give them the satisfaction.

We are in Pride Month. A month they want to erase. But I will not abandon our brothers and sisters. I will not neglect them to post about the latest horror. I will honor them and uplift them. They are my brothers and sisters, for they are human as I am. 

Our own Greenlady suggested that for the first full weekend of Pride Month, I feature Queen. And I couldn't have agreed more.

Freddie Mercury, sadly, was in that middle period between where homosexuality was accepted as nothing to be ashamed of, and as a moral failing. And he suffered in that liminal space. Everyone knew he was gay, but he could never come out and say it, until his death was near. And that is the tragedy of his life, that he could not be open and free about who he was. The first video I will post was the video which killed Queen in the United States. 

But Freddie and Queen have had the last laugh. The band is now an icon, fronted currently by Adam Lambert, who makes no bones about who he is. I hope Freddie looks down approvingly, his life's work going from strength to strength. 

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first weekend of Pride: Queen!

My dear friends. Be kind. Be gentle. Be joyful. Be brave. Be resilient. One day we'll dance on their graves. One day we'll sing our freedom.