Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Notes: "Do not let your hopes for the future steal your present joy."
Writer Skylar Baker-Jordan shares an important piece of advice in this note of support for rural LGBTQ+ youth: Enjoy your youth. Do not let anyone tell you the rituals and traditions of your hometown do not belong to you.
Read more notes in the Love Notes to Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Project and learn how to send your own below.
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Dear LGBTQ youth,I don’t know how hard your lives are – I pray not too hard – but I want you to promise me that you will do your level-best to enjoy being young.
Go to those Friday night football games. Cruise the strip from the BP to the Dairy Queen (which was what we called a fun Friday night in high school). Dance with your friends at homecoming and prom. Be goofy. Be carefree. Be kids. Don’t let anyone tell you that you do not belong, or that these rituals, these traditions, or our culture is not yours. They are. You are as entitled to the innocence of youth and the rites of passage of young adulthood as any of your straight or cis peers – and do not for one minute forget that.
There is this temptation when you are young – especially when you are LGBTQ and don’t always feel like you fit in – to dream of life after high school, or of living somewhere other than your small town. That fantasy is nice, but it is also a thief. Do not let your hopes for the future steal your present joy. You walk through your small town with your head held high, safe in the knowledge that you belong here as much as anyone else. You make your community a better place to live just by being you. Don’t ever forget that.
Skylar Baker-Jordan
Contributing Editor for Community Engagement, 100 Days in Appalachia
Be sure to read Skylar’s story of returning home: https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-to-the-horror-of-his-urban-friends-a-child-of-the-rainbow-returns-home-to-the-hollows/2021/12/08/
This note was submitted as part of The Rural Youth Catalyst and Rural Assembly’s Love Notes to Rural LGBTQ+ Youth project. We invite you to write your own – a few sentences, a paragraph, or even a short video. Learn how and read more in this series below.
Other Love Notes
A Collection of Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Notes
A round up of love notes to rural LGBTQ+ youth from friends across the country. Love Notes to Rural LGBTQ+ Youth is a project of The Rural Youth Catalyst Project in collaboration with the Rural Assembly.
Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Note: May Love Find You Today
“May love find you today,” write Maureen Truax Holland, Esq (an Obergefell attorney) and Dr. S. Taylor Williams (physician) in their love note to rural LGBTQ+ youth.
Read more notes in the Love Notes to Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Project and learn how to send your own below.
Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Note: We Celebrate the Joy You Bring to the Rural Communities You Call Home
“We see you for who you are and celebrate all the joy and love you bring to the rural communities you call home,” says The NC Rural Center in its note of support and love for LGBTQ+ youth in rural North Carolina.
Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Note: These traditions belong to you
Writer Skylar Baker-Jordan shares an important piece of advice in this note of support for rural LGBTQ+ youth: Enjoy your youth. Do not let anyone tell you the rituals and traditions of your hometown do not belong to you.
Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Note: “We are Thankful You’re Here”
We’re thankful you’re here and unapologetically you, says Delaine Anderson in this note to rural LGBTQ+ youth as part of the Rural Youth Catalyst Project Love Notes for LGBTQ+ Youth project.
Rural LGBTQ+ Youth Love Note: From Tim and Liz
You’re exactly what we need, say Norris, Tennessee couple Tim Marema and Liz McGeachy in this love note to rural LGBTQ+ young people. This video was submitted as part of The Rural Youth Catalyst and Rural Assembly’s Love Notes to Rural LGBTQ+ Youth project. We invite you to write your own – a few sentences, a paragraph, or even a short video. Learn how and read more in this series below.
