The Reality Flag - Parker and Sara [Video]

Basic freedoms are missing for millions of LGBTQ+ people in 29 states. It’s time to pass the Equality Act.

#EqualityAct

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:11
i thought i was the only mother in
0:12
oklahoma really in the world with a gay
0:15
kid
0:16
i think my first inclination
0:20
i remember uh we had company at the
0:22
house and uh the adults were at the
0:25
kitchen table and their daughter and
0:27
parker were upstairs playing he was five
0:29
years old
0:30
and they came barreling down the stairs
0:32
and he had like one of the flowiest
0:34
dresses i own and a pair of my heels and
0:36
he danced in the kitchen and twirled
0:39
around until his hair was wet with sweat
0:43
walking around in oklahoma city as an
0:45
lgbt person especially as a you know
0:49
a plump gay man you know um
0:52
you
0:53
you are always watching your back um you
0:56
know sometimes people would yell things
0:58
from a car and it’s like how did you
0:59
know in the five seconds that you drove
1:00
by me that this is who i am or that you
1:03
could tell
1:05
i love
1:07
god i love
1:08
participating in the faith
1:10
scripture i’ve heard it said that when a
1:14
child comes out of their closet the
1:15
parent goes into theirs
1:18
and that’s exactly what i did
1:20
it was a journey
1:23
that i say took us from the church
1:26
to the pride parade
1:28
and
1:30
i began to find
1:32
faith-based resources
1:34
that shared with me and convinced me
1:37
that that scripture had been
1:39
misinterpreted
1:44
and then i started meeting moms like me
1:47
and
1:49
i could share my fears
1:51
and frustrations
1:53
with them rather than putting them on my
1:55
child
1:56
and
1:58
it took some time
2:00
i remember
2:02
going to the store the grocery store in
2:04
high school
2:05
and um
2:07
we were just walking around just you
2:08
know
2:10
getting produce getting just random
2:12
stuff and
2:13
um
2:14
someone yelled
2:16
a really awful word at me
2:18
um from across the grocery store
2:22
and it was the first time that that
2:24
happened
2:25
in front of my mom
2:28
and at the time
2:30
it was also people like my mom who i was
2:33
scared of saying things like that to me
2:36
and
2:38
i saw her react
2:39
i saw
2:42
her see how i reacted i saw her
2:46
see that i felt unsafe
2:48
instantly and not knowing what to do not
2:52
knowing if she should say should say
2:53
anything
2:55
um
2:57
but that was the first time that i knew
2:59
that she
3:01
cared and understood
3:04
what daily life was like for kids like
3:07
me
3:07
where we live
3:11
i think that was the first time that
3:14
my mom saw that we didn’t even have the
3:16
freedom
3:17
to just walk around the grocery store
3:19
and do day-to-day life
3:24
being who we are
3:26
if the equality act were passed i think
3:29
it would just give
3:30
myself and people like me the confidence
3:33
um to just live authentically and go
3:36
through their lives um
3:38
not in fear
3:39
the way that they should just like
3:40
anybody else

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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