Monday Meme: Reduce

Is there a better time than now during Pride month to celebrate LGBT leaders and activists? We think not! Today’s Monday Meme celebrates a true pioneer in not just the civil rights movement but in the gay rights movement too. Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. Rustin was inspired by Gandhi’s protest techniques and brought them to the American civil rights movement, while helping Martin Luther King, Jr. become an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.Being an openly gay man in an incredibly homophobic era, Rustin was beaten, imprisoned and cast out of huge leadership positions. His behind the scenes work during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s gave way for a role as a public advocate of LGBT causes in the 1980’s. Rustin was honored posthumously with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Obama.

Celebrate Pride and do something good for the community! Now thru June 30, Proudly Yours will donate 50% of the proceeds of all card sales to the Pulse Victims Fund.