My Weekend Joy

Let’s end this week on the highest of notes. No fooling, depsite the date. I’ve said it before and it’ll never not be true. Our joy is an act of resistance. The joy of all underrepresented people is an act of resistance. Because so many people don’t want us to feel like we belong, like we have a rightful place in the world. So many people think the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should only be conferred on those just like them.

To them I say living our best lives openly as LGBTQ+ people is the best revenge. I mean, imagine the people out there absolutely stewing about Ariana DeBose winning an Oscar. Here is an out queer, Afro-Latino woman taking home acting’s highest honor for the first time in history. The trophy is richly deserved, as is every last iota of her happiness.

And it’s exactly that joy I want to embrace today. Take the sheer bliss of this moment and share it with the deepest parts of yourself. The parts you let an unkind world convince you you aren’t deserving. The parts of you that bigots have trampled and destroyed. The parts of you that think happiness is only for other people. Because you deserve this joy. Ariana deserves this joy.

I am so thankful her joy at having her Oscar engraved was captured on video for us all to soak in. I suggest doing so immediately and repeatedly. How can you deny this level of exuberant bliss? Why would you want to? What is wrong with all these people who would just rather we not? Who

May you find that joy in your heart and believe your worth in your soul. And dance like everybody is watching. Congratulations, Ariana. Happy weekend, all.

p.s. Also, she wore Sparkly Birkenstocks after the Oscars. That, THAT, is what I call representation.