It's an annual thing?every year we pick a different cause. This year it's the shout out against domestic violence and all proceeds are going to the South County Domestic Violence Resource Center.

We were running 10 minutes behind but other than that, we didn't have any problems.

Gun violence victims in the state are very excited and grateful for his candidacy. We cannot imagine much that could be more positive for Illinois families than getting Dan, and others like him, into the Legislature.

On our second night there, we heard of a ten year old girl being raped and murdered. There was violence there, we heard stories,

Sometimes it feels like my queerness was always there but I was too shell-shocked and splintered by violence to see it. When I finally did? It saved me. Opening up to my queerness saved me. Once I began to identify as queer, I began to require this dreaming and commitment to change from my partners. I define myself to claim myself, to foster a curated community of support

I can line up these moments of violence, precariously as dominoes. Sometimes I worry they will all fall; knocking each other down, knocking me down. Sometimes they do. Violence left me hollow. It left me enraged. It left me desperately needing to leave a body I couldn't trust. But most frustrating of all, violence left me too wounded to claim the space I needed in order to find fulfillment in the arms, heart, and body of a queer relationship.