01/12/2026
"During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for."– Dan Savage, an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBTQ+ community activist. In 2010, Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, began the project to help prevent su***de among LGBTQ+ youth.
With the recent news cycle, this quote from Dan Savage has been on my mind. I feel like it articulates the grief & heartache, the protest & outrage of this moment, while keeping the joy and hope of being human at the center of it all. There’s enough going on in the world that might make us want to just curl up in bed and retreat, but it’s important that we remember that our joy, our dance is part of the resistance. It's about being held by your community and free to be your authentic self. It’s about alchemizing the grief and outrage on the dance floor so that we have the courage and strength to keep going. I hope to dance with you all at our upcoming Love Above All Ball on Saturday, February 28th. A moment to come together in joy and hope and love as a community. Let's leave it all on the dance floor.
xo
Lauren, President of SYV Pride (excerpt from message sent via email)
