To know history is to be able to see beyond the present, to remember the past gives you capacity to look forward as well, it’s to see that everything changes and the most dramatic changes are often the most unforeseen.
Participants recalled being threa -tened and criticized, and feeling hopeless, fearful, shameful, guilty, disap -pointed, frustrated, angry, and exhausted. Nonetheless, participants still revered their experiences with grassroots activism positively
grassroots activism also promoted responsibility, humility, agency, hope, flexibility, perseverance, and emotional regulation and provided opportunities for LGBTQ+ people to cope with their past and feel fulfilled.
In some ways, I feel like it connects with activism because when we're in these spaces we can almost radically imagine what the future could look like. Like, “Oh, the future could be a situation where I'm in a garden and I'm doing crafts and I'm learning skills and sharing skills with the community.”