Proud of my Zebra Stripes

Today was so awesome! It was Orlando's Come Out with PRIDE festival, and I, along with my friend Ana, and some of my classmates, volunteered with an agency called Zebra Coalition for the better part of the day. It was hot, miserable, sweaty, and I have probably the worst sunburn I've ever had, but it was SO worth it. 

Zebra Coalition is an umbrella agency that provides a full range of services to at risk LGBTQ youth, including a safe house, homeless shelter, crisis hotline, and connections with education resources, counseling and resources for domestic abuse, sexual abuse, drug abuse, etc. It's such an amazing agency and provides priceless services to one of the most vulnerable populations in our country. Today we had a raffle for an xBox, and a yamaha scooter, amazing shirts and other merchandise to raise money, information walls and tables, airbrush tattoos, and even live animals from the central florida zoo. 

It was an amazing experience for me. I know a lot of people I know might wonder why in the world I was at this event, and would even dare to question my faith or my beliefs, and that makes me really sad. Regardless of my personal beliefs on homosexuality in regards to one's spiritual life, I do know that God did not create a single being he does not love, and that Jesus' ministry on earth was with the "fringe" of society... that He spent his time on Earth loving on and spending time with and defending those that others would not. For that reason, I am supportive of the LGBTQ community, and believe that they deserve to be treated no differently than anyone else. Like Zebra Coalition's inspiration of how  no two zebras have the same stripes, we are ALL different, and we are ALL loved by God. 

I truly enjoyed being able to witness the diversity of His creation today, and the range of personalities, faces, and ideals that all came out to support PRIDE. I saw couples both gay and straight, people from ages 1-80, people in costume, people with dogs, Christians and athiests. And the amazing thing was that, for the most part, everyone was smiling, everyone was polite, and no one had to feel like they weren't supposed to be there. 

Ana and I with an awesome Drag Queen who was sweet enough to take a picture with us!

It was amazing to be there as a volunteer, and I sincerely hope that we were able to reach at least one person who might've been in need of our services, and at the very least, that we informed people who didn't know that a group like us was out there or even existed. This was much more than fulfilling service learning hours for me, it was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world. :) (although I might give up the awful sunburn...)