Gay Savannah Georgia - First City Network, Georgia's Oldest LGBT Social Organization

First City Network
Office
307 E Harris St
Savannah, GA
31401-4617

Mailing
First City Network
PO Box 2442
Savannah, GA
31402-2442

(912) 236-CITY
Information Line only and unmonitored}

Savannah Pride: 30 Years of Color
By Savannah Pride Board Members

Life, healing, sunlight, nature, serenity, and spirit; or red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple are all ways to say the rainbow flag that reflects diversity in the GLBT movement and the pride that each person carries in their life. The rainbow flag turned 30 this year and is the 9th year of Savannah Pride. The board is sharing their view of what pride means to them, or what the 30 years of color means to them, or their coming out story.

What Pride Means to You?
What pride means to me... By Maria, Savannah Pride’s Treasurer! This is a question that I have asked myself for a quite a few years. Pride is the feeling within ourselves that we are happy and content with whom we are and who we choose as our partners. In our lives we face many choices that are easier for some, others of us have had to choose to take the pain that goes along with living the life that we were born to live. In choosing to live openly we find relief from our internal struggle of living a lie or consistently lying to those we love and all who are around us. In our community, through Savannah Pride and our events those who are still struggling with these choices find relief, acceptance and a safe haven to be who they are not have to pretend. We thank those faithful supporters and ask those of you who have missed our prior events to come out and support us in pride and all of our future events. Help make 2008 a year to remember!

What the 30 Years of Color Means to You?
Savannah Pride Secretary, Mark Miller serves on First City Network and Savannah Pride Boards keeps me busy and involved in the community whether being at Club One or attending church at Asbury Memorial which brings me my views of the colors in the Rainbow flag. Red represents the blood that flows from one generation to the next through parents and children and the forgiveness of God’s blood. Orange is the glow from the healing that is occurring in my life from when I was hiding in the closet. Yellow, the Sun which generates the warm weather that I love and that each morning is a new fresh start as the sun rises. Green, Nature and how we are born as we are naturally, whether gay or straight. The Blue, Serenity of the waters that lap and make a soothing sound to relax and enjoy life. Purple, which is my favorite color, represents the fun spirit that I was given through my family and friends which continues to grow each day and develop pride in myself and the surrounding community.

--Coming Out story and how that has made you proud?
Liza Byars, Procurement Director and her coming out was easier than she thought it would be. The day that I made the decision that I was going to come out to at least one person; ironically came out to me first. My sister, Heather came home for a weekend visit from college. We decided to take a drive to my aunts for a visit. On our way there my sister says to me "I need to tell you something; you know that girl I talk about all the time and call her my friend. Well she's more than a friend and I like her more than a friend". I felt a sense of relief, but also embarrassment because I to had a girl that I called my friend and talked about all the time and yes she was my first girlfriend. So my response was well that's funny because I'm gay too; at the time I was 17 and Heather was 24.

Heather was in shock and excited and I was in shock that I had told her, but excited to be able to talk and share things with someone so close to me. And the rest of the weekend we spent catching up on each others stories and the rest is history. Since then I have moved to the Savannah area and have become active in the GLBT community by being a Savannah Pride Board Member. I am Proud to be the voice of our community in helping build awareness and creating unity.

Volunteer Director, Stephanie Mojica shares her coming out story. To understand the story and to receive the full effect of how it has impacted my life, I have to take you back a few months prior to January 1st, 2006. Without going into detail lets just skip to the part where my life had completely fallen apart and I was what they call "rock bottom". I had lost it all including my mind. Somewhere in all this madness I managed to get an ounce of hope and thought to myself this is not me. I don't give up. So I picked myself up brushed myself off and got it together. Through this process I was trying to figure out who I was and what was missing in my life. This is where the story really begins and life changed. It was New Years Eve and I was out with my friend Jeffery at Venus De Milo. We were both having a terrible night and we were both ready to go home. We decided that we were gonna stick it out and make the best of the night. As we were sitting at the bar, a friend of Jeffery's who I had met many times and who never remembered my name came up to chat with us. She always referred to me as "Jeffery's straight friend". Well, feeling sassy as I was that night, I replied to that that was questionable. The look on her face was priceless for this person (no names) always has something to say. The night went on and we were having a much better time than earlier.

Twelve o'clock rolled around and we're standing there laughing and having a good ol time when this girl (you know the one with no memory of my name) walks up to me and calls me by my name. Shocked I just stand there. She leans into me and ask me if I've ever kissed a women before? I reply with a no and she asks if I want to? I take a big gulp of my wine "yes, of course". She then lays a kiss on me that not only brings me out the closet but yanks me from the closet so fast the hinges blew off. I guess you could say I KISSED A GIRL AND I LIKED IT! From this moment on my life has never been the same. This person changed my life in a matter of one second to the next and I hope that she knows that without her my life would not be what it is today. From that very moment I have had no shame, no issues, and no problems what so ever in being who I am. Within my first few months of being out I joined Savannah Pride Board 2006 and remain active on the bored to this day! I am PROUD to be who I am and I am PROUD to be the voice of other in our community.

I want to thank this nameless person (you know who you are) for changing my life forever.

Savannah Pride is a time for each of us to proudly represent who we are and is operated by support of the community with community members organizing the year long events. We need your continued support via volunteer (board member or volunteer), and financially for our community to show Pride in future years.