It is that time of year again, namely the beginning, where we consider where we’ve been and where we are going and make resolutions for personal growth.
Here are some members of the LGBTQ community’s resolutions for 2018.
Janice Covington Allison
My New Year’s resolution is to become more polite: Good manners have always been an important part of my life. They make it easier to connect with others, avoid offending people and ensure that others perceive me as a good and trustworthy person. Also, I need to bone up on dealing with rude people in the right way and learn how to say no more.
Lara Americo
The past year was not easy. I hope this year we can continue to learn from our mistakes and forgive. Especially people from the queer community. We need each other more than ever.
Rev. Chris Ayers
I want to have more transgender friends and make new friends who are drag queens. I believe transgender people and drag queens have so much to teach the modern church.
Jimmie Cobb
I’m not really one for making resolutions, but why not give it a shot?
I want to make an effort this year to listen more closely to what individuals have to say. So too often in conversations, I find myself inquiring about people and their lives, asking the right questions, being concerned and trying to be a good listener, but in my effort to formulate the next question, I find myself not really listening to their responses.
My intent and the reason for this New Year’s resolution, is to be a great listener and a concerned friend. I frustrate myself quite often by not realizing that I really have not heard their answers. This is an injustice to them, and I find myself asking the same question again. It is not Alzheimer’s, but my desire to get to the next question.
Moving forward, it is my resolution to become a better listener and thus become a better friend, co-worker and family member and otherwise better person to those individuals I so value in my life.
Torie Dominguez
I never make New Year’s resolutions…but I do make exceptions, so I’ll lay out some goals for 2018: to become more financially stable and physically independent, and to bring my day-to-day choices more in line with my values, for example by purchasing exclusively cruelty-free and vegan cosmetics.
Paige Dula
My New Year’s resolution is to do my best to vote out the hateful NCGA [North Carolina General Assembly] and get some newer representatives who are pro-LGBTQ.
Rev. Dawn Flynn
My New Year’s resolution is to work harder in letting our leaders in local and state government know the status quo is not acceptable as it relates to LGBT rights. They need to be educated on what it means to be LGB and to live in the greater metro Charlotte area being afraid for our lives every day when we go to work, school or shopping. They don’t have those fears. Neither should we.
Arthur Hartsell
[I resolve to] do things I’ve wanted to but didn’t have the confidence to do and would talk myself out of, strengthen skills I have, fill gaps where skills are missing, grow in confidence and do the things.
Jamie Grace (aka Trinity)
1. Finding better dates.
2. Saving more money.
3. Driving less agressively.
4. Spending less time on Facebook.
Stan C. Kimer
I have always considered New Year’s an arbitrary date, so believe it or not, I have never made New Year’s resolutions nor set goals. Less stress and less chance of failure and disappointment that way!
Jack Kirven
Be playful and remember to enjoy your fantasies!! They inspire happiness and drive ambition. Here’s my dream life, but what is yours?
If I had my way, my dream life would be performing my original postmodern performance art to generous audiences, studying languages, playing chess, and puttering around in a garden full of butterflies, hummingbirds, and honey bees while being surrounded by cats and Janet Jackson playing from the strategically placed speakers all around the homestead surrounding my tiny house. LOL #AuntMildred #NotAshamed
Lainey Millen
Last year was one that was as contentious as they come. For me, it was one of mixed emotions, sometimes hopelessness, sometimes irritability at the injustices I was witnessing and challenges which I’d sure not want to repeat. That being said, I resolve to be more positive and focused toward better health, simplification of my day-to-day life and seizing more precious moments with loved ones and friends while picking those causes where I feel my participation will be more realized. I won’t give up the good fight!
Joanne Spataro
[I resolve] to make the big leaps in 2018 I’ve been preparing for in 2017. And, continue searching for the best and brightest nachos in the nation.
James Miller
Finding the next space for our rapidly growing Center!
Bishop Tonyia M. Rawls
While I did not make any resolutions this year, I did make a couple of life changes: I am kinder to myself, and I am committing to greatness in all that I do.
Lee Storrow
In 2018, I’m hoping to make further political gains for HIV treatment and prevention advocacy. It’s time our state stepped up to make PrEP more accessible to those who need it. By the end of 2018, every local health department in the state should be prescribing PrEP, and the NC Department of Health and Human Services and General Assembly should work together to subsidize the cost of the medication and associated STI testing for low income residents.
Drew Swope
[I resolve to] stop swearing. All my friends’ kids know words they shouldn’t because of me. I got a good education, but you’d never know it. So now is the time.
J. Wesley Thompson
My New Year’s resolutions are to forgive quickly, take chances, love deeply, kiss slowly, give more than I receive, forget my mistakes but remember what learned, and be happy.
Rev. Debbie Warren
Last year I read an article that inspired me to describe the feelings I wanted to experience during the upcoming year, rather than list resolutions. It pushed me to go deeper and think about the kind of experiences I wanted to have in the New Year. So when I think about the feelings I want to experience in 2018, the first that come to mind are awe and wonder — the kind of feelings I experience when I see a beautiful vista or go on an adventure in a National Park.
I also think of peace and security. These are feelings I experience when I tie up loose ends related to finances, bills, balances and know that I have a good plan in place for meeting my obligations and caring for my family.
Love and connection speak to creating more time with my partner and with my wonderful friends. This speaks to being really intentional about time, planning and ensuring that I don’t overcommit.
Jerry Yelton
My New Year’s resolutions are to embrace my identities and live a queerer, more authentic life, highlight and validate the identities of others and bake better and more often. : :