The past two weeks have been filled with opportunities to celebrate the strength, resilience, and beauty of the LGBTQI community: October 7th marked Solidarity Sunday, October 11th was National Coming Out Day, and yesterday--October 18th--was Spirit Day-- an occasion intended to bring awareness to the issue of LGBTQI bullying and harassment. In this issue of Dateline we're highlighting a few of the ways Dignity members have been standing in LGBTQI pride and solidarity: On October 7th, Members of Integrity/Dignity Madison attended liturgy at Holy Wisdom Monastery, where a Solidarity Sunday homily delivered by the mother of a gay son. The homily was met with a standing ovation and acknowledged long-time DignityUSA members and donors, Jim Green and Bill Diederich. The homily also captured the history and power of Solidarity Sunday, explaining "on the first Solidarity Sunday, on October 8, 1995, and every year since, when we, the people, pin on our rainbow ribbons and join together to worship, we affirm that our LGBTQI sisters and brothers, friends, neighbors and strangers can express their sexuality physically, in a unitive manner that is loving, life-giving, life-affirming and consistent with Christ’s teaching." Thank you for your witness, Holy Wisdom Monastery! Dignity/Honolulu's Solidarity Sunday celebration was featured in this blog post by Dawn Morais. Writing of LGBTQI Catholics Dawn shares, "you have been constant. You have been true. You have been faithful. So must we ALL be if we are to make this truly the kingdom of God." We couldn't agree more. Thank you Dawn and Dignity/Honolulu! In what has become a yearly tradition, DignityUSA's entire website was turned purple in recognition of Spirit Day.(Purple, on the rainbow pride flag, represents spirit.) DignityUSA is proud to stand with students, celebrities, and countless others who "go purple" each October as part of the largest, most visible anti-bullying campaign in the world. To learn more about Spirit Day, visit GLAAD's website by clicking here.
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