I'm a firm believer in using every available resource at one's disposal so I'd like to talk about a fundraiser I went to last night. The "I'm From Driftwood" Foundation is centered on letting those in the LGBTQ community know that they are not the only ones out there. The founder, Nathan Manske, took inspiration from watching the Harvey Milk biopic, Milk. In the scene where Milk is in a parade honoring his election win, he's holding a sign saying, "I'm from Woodmere, NY." Not only was he an openly gay politician, but he was also signifying where he was from given a voice to the silent community of gays and lesbians from small towns. When Nathan spoke at the fundraiser last night, he said the goal of his foundation was to reach out to people within our community before they reach for the suicide hotlines. By posting videos and testimonies of people from large and small cities, rural and urban, people can truly see that they really are not alone, but part of a much larger community. Hopefully some people here will be able to use this site to better understand their own situation and take inspiration from the coming out and acceptance stories that are posted. Much like EC's own 'Coming Out Stories," from which I've found a lot of hope in, "I'm From Driftwood" makes it a little less lonelier out there. It can be found on the web at: I’m From Driftwood - Daily gay, true stories. They're also on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The foundation has been posted about before on EC, but the last time was back in 2010. It's grown a lot since then. Last year they wrapped up a 50-state tour collecting personal stories to share and feature. What's nice is even within our own LGBTQ community, they're highlighting select demographics like elderly gay and lesbians, for February is was the Black community. Coming up will be gay athletes. We have a very diverse and growing community. It's nice to see that there's a growing visibility about who we are and what we represent. Hope you enjoy it.
After seeing this post, I probably spent 3 hours just reading through people's submissions. Some of the stories are really sad, but still inspirational nonetheless. Coming from a small town (and when I say small, I mean less than 1,000 people), it's easy to feel alone, and can be difficult to find someone to confide in without the whole community finding out. In a sense, a small town is like a big family. But just as some people have a tremendously difficult time coming out to their real family, you can imagine how hard it would be to be publicly out to a whole town you know. Thanks for posting this. It helped reassure me in some regards and actually made me feel a little more comfortable with myself.
Being from a small town myself, I am definitely going to check this out. I love reading other people's stories, and hearing about how they experienced things. Thanks for sharing.
