Being A Better Activist For The LGBT Community

News is hard. Plain and simple.

The restrictions for me personally are tough to overcome. First, I have lots of things that I want to report on. I have witnessed tragedies that have been grossly underestimated in this system. I have seen and heard things that would make someones stomach turn both out of disgust and seriously misguided approaches to justice.

Additionally, I have to seriously censor what I say. For instance, I cannot mention other people at all. Any scenario I want to talk about has to be generalized and all details left out that could pinpoint anything specific.

Not to mention that anytime a staff member is mentioned in any sense my email is immediately rejected and I become closely scrutinized, if not worse.

Being a better activist for LGBT rights and advancement is difficult at best from inside this place. Then I have to work around censorship and the constant threat of getting this "privilege" of communicating with my family taken away. It just so happens that my family is all over the country and most are L+G+B+T.

I realize that this can be difficult to follow because I have to stay on the right side of the law. Right now there are very specific rules that must be followed. I am ok with following them, however, it does mean that there is an unconventional aura about these messages. Particularly in the messages that I want to convey.

So thank you for reading them, in all their amateur glory!

The idea is ultimately that an interest will be generated in the rehabilitation of the modern LGBT prisoner. Not to get special attention or special accommodations. Just a community involvement if by no other means than simply watching.

Here's the thing, we are not trash. We are not dead. We are not done. We have a future and a life ahead of us. This is amplified when we have community support. Often times, just by knowing that people are watching that is enough to know that people still care about us as human beings.

Love is the principle thing. Sometimes, even the broken dog needs to know that somebody loves it. That little love, is enough to keep the dog fighting for life in all the right ways.

So following the rules of what kind of things I can and cannot say is a small thing to do. So long as I know that there are at least a few people who actually care.

With Love
Jeff Utnage

It would be nice to hear a few people give some sort of support, a simple we hear you.