day 2 pittsburgh to louisville - the children are our future

We're writing to you tonight from the Chariot Hotel, just outside of Louisville, Kentucky. There's a lovely pool, but there's no water so... that cannonball really did a doozy! And there are some super incredible plaster of paris horses that may not be running the derby this year but someday their time will come! (The Derby is in just a week, so the streets are lined with bleachers. We just thought they were awaiting our arrival...)

We started the day with a lovely breakfast at Renee's parents house - there was bacon, there were blueberry muffins made with love by her stepdad and there were puppies.  Oh my, were there puppies.

Then we jumped into Dolly (that's the big orange element for those of you reading these out of order...) and off to Louisville we went.  7 hours later and many a dead insect, we arrived in Louisville!
We had a lovely meal including a tortilla bowl the size of Mal's head and Renee sampled the region's first, well, healthy meal - a Hot Brown.  What is a hot brown you ask?  Toast with turkey smothered in a cheesy goodness sauce with bacon and parmesan on top.  Yes.  Yes indeed.    

Finally, we got to the actual point of today's drive - we met with the local Louisville GLBT Youth group.  They were easy to find - in a big ole Lutheran church.  The group was great and we have to give a special shout out to Erika for coordinating our visit.  This group gets together every Friday night and have been around for 18 years!   We got to chat to a bunch of the youth and they were super friendly and open and all around amazing.  Some of them were kind enough to be on camera to share their experiences of being queer in Kentucky.  One youth, we'll call him K - had the sweetest disposition ever.  He told us about hating ties, always wanting them off and about trying on his mom's gowns when she wasn't home.  And drag - he loves drag and actually loves high heels!  (Hey, we don't have to understand it.)  When we asked him about what it means to be queer and be in the Bible belt - he told us that his pastor actually told him that it wasn't true that God didn't judge people - but that he did!  K didn't let this sway him, to him, God isn't judging but is looking down at us and is just angry because we keep screwin' it up.

We met with so many great 'kids' (we use that term lovingly) and will posting some of our interviews later, including a great one with the most soft spoken but quietly fierce Alex and with these jokesters (James and Tyler) who are making waves, in the best possible way, at U. of Louisville - challenging gender roles and forging their path.  They left us with one of the best quotes of the night, which I'm paraphrasing here - "don't forget about us, we're fighting the same fight."

That we are.

Thank you Louisville.

Tomorrow - more muffins and Nashville!