Sometimes love wins, even in rural Texas.
For many of us, when we see news headlines emanating from East Texas, we see few signs of hope, of inclusion, or of love. Instead, the memory of the horrible lynching of James Byrd Jr. in 1998 stills resonates today. It is a region of small towns and small minds.
At least that was true up until this past week, when a bit of a Pride miracle manifested itself in the form of a sugar cookie. Yes, a cookie.
Our story begins on June 3rd, when the two sisters, Miranda and Dawn, who run the local bakery “Confection Cookie Art” in Lufkin, Texas, posted on their Facebook profile a photo with a message supporting LGBTQ+ Pride.
Nothing salacious, nothing even remotely controversial, unless you are a hate-filled homophobe. Which apparently there are in abundance in East Texas, because that same day they received countless hate messages and several big orders orders were cancelled.
Well as anyone who has ever lived in a small town can attest, news travelled fast. Soon the little bakery was overwhelmed with people offering to help, to donate, to buy the cancelled orders. The owners were a bit overwhelmed, suggesting that if anyone wanted to donate, to please give to a local animal shelter instead (over $1,800 was raised overnight).
By the next day the bakery had people lining up around the block to show their support, buying cookies as fast as they could make them.
Even a certain someone from Mesquite, Texas, who was a winner of a certain crown but gave it up and created drama for a certain other queen who was the first runner-up got involved, stirring up the drama and telling the “T”:
(the #backrolls tells you that the sisters are true fans)
So there you have it, a little bit of sugary Pride good news this year!
