We asked community members and leaders to submit their New Year resolutions, hopes, dreams and wishes — for themselves, for the community, for their organizations. Here are some of the responses we received.
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Queer liberation! My resolution is to abolish capitalism, prisons, and police, with love and revolution.
— Loftin Wilson
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As a politically savvy gay man (former chairman of the Gaston County Democratic Party and current secretary of the LGBT Democrats of North Carolina, as well as a state executive committee member for the North Carolina Democratic Party) living and working in a very conservative county, I would like to see an increased involvement and awareness of the political process within our LGBT community. Gaston County and North Carolina in general needs for our LGBT brothers and sisters and their supporters to take the lead in advocating and educating on issues of equality and social justice. Many are doing this already, yet many more are needed at the table. It is my resolution to assist in this process and to be a part of making our collective voice stronger and louder in the political arena. More LGBT representatives in political party offices, appointees on local and state boards and committees as well as candidates for elected office are needed if we are going to cement our status as equals in every sense of the word. This is our state and these are our counties, communities and neighborhoods as well. Lets stand up together and make a difference.
— Robert Kellogg, Gaston County community organizer and political activist
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As a voting rights and LGBTQ equality activist, I am hoping to advocate for greater LGBTQ participation at the HKonJ march and rally in Raleigh on Feb. 14 and to be supportive of the transgender community ahead of the 2016 photo-ID-to-vote requirement which may present certain barriers to voting. (Get more information on HKonJ, or the “Historic Thousands on Jones Street,” march at hkonj.com/moral_march_on_raleigh.)
— Jake Gellar-Goad
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To not make any resolutions.
— Stephen Meltot
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Judy Garland: “Well, we have a whole new year ahead of us. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, a little more loving, and have a little more empathy, and maybe, next year at this time we’d like each other a little more.”
— Shared online by Jim Thompson