Hi! I'm back this week in a pretty scarf. Do you like it? Great.
This week, I walked into a lecture sponsored by an LGBT organization on campus. I saw quite the familiar crowd. There was a WHOLE ROW of miners!!! So funny.
11 of us. Anyway, the speaker of this event was Keith Boykin (In photograph Below). He came to talk in honor of "Black LGBT History Month".
Boykin was a troubled child, but was always into politics. When he was younger, he pretended to be the president all the time and rode his imaginary limo. Little did he know that he was going to grow up to become highest paid gay to work in the White House. However, it wasn't always success.
He first began by traveling across the country to help campaign their elections for presidency. His family and friends did not support this idea of his because they didn't think he would make money or be successful, but Boykin thought it was important to take the road less traveled. When he wasn't very successful, he went back home and taught history classes for money. Doing this made him realize that politics is what he loves, so he began to consult the city government. He started by helping campaigns of governors and senators in hopes to work with presidents again in the future. Finally, he decided to apply to law school. He applied to Washington where he had a full ride scholarship, and Harvard Law. He got into Harvard and went there with Barrack Obama. There, Obama was the first black student president of the school.
While at Harvard, Boykin created the Coalition for Civil Rights which was to help support diversity on campus for minorities such as the handicapped, latinos, LGBT's, etc. He believed that diversity helped everyone because everyone can learn from each other. The group boycotted a lot of events. One time, he asked the dean of students to politely come talk to the group. The dean turned toward the door, and Boykin grabbed his picket sign and made his way toward him. The dean started to run from him, and he chased him around the quad. The next day, there was a photo of the scenario on the cover of the newspaper. This was the first instance he knew he had power.
One day, he came to terms with the fact that he was contemplating his sexuality. He went to the Harvard library, checked out a book nervously from the LGBT section, and read it in one night. The next morning, he came out to himself and his mother. He wanted to be out, but not have to deal with coming out to everyone. He told friends and family, but his grandmother did not approve. On his graduation day, his grandmother decided to sit next to his boyfriend and tell him she didn't approve of their lifestyle. Boykin was upset, and decided to travel again. He quit his steady job after college that paid well, taking a rish to start campaigning again. He campaigned for dozens of politicians, but they all kept losing. Finally, he won with Bill Clinton, which is when he became the highest paid gay man to work in the White House. Years later, he left the White House to write books to help LGBT individuals and guest speak around America.
He ended the lecture by saying that the LGBT community should be proud of the power we have. Gay marriage has been an issue in politics for years, but has rapidly progressed. In the past, issues the segregation and slavery took hundreds of years to fix. We are in a good place with a hopeful future.
See you next week everyone!!!
MWUAH <3
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