Spirit Day

Well I figured that starting with Spirit Day would be a nice way to begin writing my blog entries!

To start with, a small introduction! I'm Dan Griffin, the Resource Manager on the LGBTQ committee, and I'm studying maths here at Exeter. Since I am but a lowly mathematician, I'm not very good at reading and writing! So you'll have to deal with my meager literary skills! :P

You may have realized that a couple of days ago was Spirit Day: http://www.glaad.org/spiritday . It was created as a day to raise awareness of LGBTQ bullying that goes on, and to get people to remember and show their support to people who are suffering, or have taken their lives because of bullying and homophobia, by spreading the word and wearing purple! (I don't have any purple clothes, but I wore some purple socks! Lame I know!) I'm not going to dwell on this sort of thing in my posts because I find it too upsetting a topic, but I hope to have many more happy and motivating things to show you in my posts!

http://chaoticmiko.deviantart.com/art/C-183383479?q=&qo=

As a hobby, I also draw lots of artwork, and have a gallery on a site called deviantART, and they also had a huge event for Spirit Day! I thought it was really nice! There's a whole gallery of nice uplifting artwork, and people showing their support for the cause, and I browsed through it and picked out a few of my favorites to show you that I thought were worth sharing!

http://kon-memoirs.deviantart.com/art/NOH8-183502658?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Aprojects%2Fawareness%2F2010%2Fspiritday+max_age%3A24h&qo=116

I love the message in this picture! I think it's just the sort of thing which people who've had a rough time in their life need to hear! There really is a world full of lovely and accepting people and sometimes it just takes time before people can find this out for themselves!

http://hazza-6660.deviantart.com/art/Love-is-blind-Spirit-Day-183504301?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Aprojects%2Fawareness%2F2010%2Fspiritday+max_age%3A24h&qo=7

I think this piece gives a message that everyone should be able to understand. It's very simple, but still meaningful! Love is blind: so it shouldn't be influenced by something trivial like gender. I think it's a nice way to think about the matter!

http://aranwen.deviantart.com/art/Purple-Rose-Ring-1-183509495?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Aprojects%2Fawareness%2F2010%2Fspiritday+max_age%3A24h&qo=8

I bet this would have been a great accessory to wear with purple on Spirit Day!

http://tuinen.deviantart.com/art/The-Purple-Knight-183536565?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Aprojects%2Fawareness%2F2010%2Fspiritday+max_age%3A24h&qo=137

Well this drawing doesn't have a huge amount of meaning: it's just plain cool!

http://kt-pl.deviantart.com/art/it-s-spirit-day-183310637?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Aprojects%2Fawareness%2F2010%2Fspiritday&qo=85

And this picture relates to another project which I completely adore! The "It gets better" project! http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject . It's a brilliant cause that's worth sharing if you hadn't heard of it before, it involves a variety people making videos aimed towards anyone who's had a tough life so far dealing with their sexuality, and reassuring them that it gets better!

I hope you enjoyed my first blog entry! I'll be doing more of a similar sort of nature in the future: sharing things I find which I think are nice, motivating or uplifting, or sharing artwork that I've found and particularly enjoyed!

Dan. :)