As I was researching America the Beautiful and really digging into who Bates was and what she created and how she lived her life in a time when women didn't have the same rights, let alone queer people, is that she lived her life still and loved fully. This is the 250th anniversary of America, just thinking about where we've come from and how far we have progressed.
Even as we face challenges now, we still see that people are resistant to equality, to letting people live the lives they want to live. We have to remember and look back and be proud of where we were, where we have come from, and where we're at now. Doesn't mean that we can't relax; it means that we should find the strength from the past to keep pushing forward till now.
I hope that America can be twice as progressive, twice as equal, twice as free as it is now in another 250 years, if we can make it through.