Maxwell the Orange Tabby Cat: Why the Youngest Acts Protective

I’m 64. I came out in 1985, in the early years of the AIDS crisis — before marriage equality, before federal workplace protections, before rainbow logos in stores, before being out was treated as normal. Freedoms that feel ordinary now were impossible, illegal, or dangerous for most of my life: holding hands, keeping your job, keeping your kids, marrying the person you love, and saying who you are out loud. Pride matters because people fought for those rights and because rights do not defend the