Growing Up Hayden

 

We’ve named our blog, Growing Up Hayden because we feel it’s a testament to what it is to live in the now, in a world where the LGBT community is fighting for acceptance and equality.  Our content is focused on all aspects of what it is to live, love and thrive in what’s still a very judgmental world.  Growing Up Hayden is a live narrative that we hope will continue to illustrate positive changes and a more and more loving, open and welcoming world.

Spread Harmony

Spread Harmony

Microsoft’s new holiday ad is promoting peace, love and harmony. The ad tackles such issues as LGBTQ rights, Muslim Americans, and the strained relationship between the African-American community and police officers. To us at Hayden’s List, this ad embodies the “true” meaning of Christmas and emulates the Golden Rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Of course celebrating what is good and right in the world is upsetting to some “Christians.”  The ad was blasted by Bill Donohue, founder of the Catholic League. He claims that Microsoft is “exploiting Christmas” by “pushing the LGBT agenda.”  Donohue added “If the bi-coastal elites at Microsoft really believe in diversity, then let them have their LGBT celebrations in June during gay pride month, and leave December to Christians.”

Microsoft described their ad as bringing people together who are making a difference in the world. “This is their vision of hope, peace and beauty. We wanted to lift people up and remind them that ordinary people can make a difference.”

Thank you, Microsoft. We here at Hayden’s List will continue to spread harmony.

You can watch the ad here.

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Seattle Woman Shuts Down Homophobic Neighbor With Christmas Display

Seattle Woman Shuts Down Homophobic Neighbor With Christmas Display

Lexi Magnusson, a Seattle mom who is new to the neighborhood believes her new neighbor found out she was raised Mormon and therefore thought making derogatory comments about the LGBTQ community was accepted.  But Magnusson did not start a neighborhood brawl.  Instead she decided to use her Christmas display to let her neighbor know where her family stands on LGBTQ issues.

Magnusson told The Huffington Post that she and her husband no longer attend the Mormon Church. Regarding her neighbor Magnusson said, “I imagine she thought we still held the same belief about LGBTQ issues as the Church does. We absolutely do not. It’s why I left the Mormon church.”

The neighbor told Magnusson that she had moved to protect her children from the dangers of a gay lifestyle. Magnusson said that she only responded verbally with “‘Your kids are going to be exposed to this no matter where you take them. Kids these days get it. They know not to be horrible to other kids based on how they were born.” Magnusson let her Christmas lights do the rest. She mounted 10,000 Christmas lights on the bushes lining her house in the color of the rainbow, the LGBTQ rainbow.

Looks like Magnusson’s neighbor may have to move again.  Merry Christmas!

http://www.scarymommy.com/woman-uses-christmas-lights-message-homophobic-neighbor/

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Sprint’s Holiday Ad Features LGBTQ Couple

Sprint’s Holiday Ad Features LGBTQ Couple

Verizon’s former, “Can you hear me now?” spokesperson, Paul Marcarelli, now works for the competition, Sprint. Sprint’s new holiday ad features Paul with his real-life boyfriend as they go shopping for a Christmas tree.  We love it for its subtly.  Instead of going overboard to let audiences know they’re featuring a gay couple in the ad, the clip flows naturally and without making it a big deal. You can watch the commercial here.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/11/new-sprint-ad-features-pitchman-boyfriend-shopping-christmas-tree/

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Anti-Gay Preacher Ruins Christmas for Texas Children

A video has surfaced showing Pastor David Grisham of Alaska ruining Christmas for the children in Amarillo, Texas. Pastor Grisham was at a Westgate Shopping Mall when he told children “Santa’s not real. And parents you all need to stop lying to your children and telling them that Santa Claus is real when in fact he’s not.”

Parents reacted strongly. “I’ve got my kids over there, we don’t need you coming over here blabbing whatever it is you’re blabbing,” one father told Pastor Grisham. “But that and the calls of other parents who told Grisham to keep his preachy pie-hole shut fell on deaf ears.” The pastor continued his tirade against Santa Claus. “The man you’re going to see today is just a man in a suit dressed up like Santa but Santa doesn’t exist,” Pastor Grisham said.

Parents posted complaints on the Westgate mall’s Facebook page and demanded that Pastor Grisham be banned from the mall.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/12/antigay-preacher-mall-kids-santa-not-real/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Sendible&utm_campaign=RSS

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Pence’s DC Neighbors Are Trolling Him With LGBTQ Flags

Pence’s DC Neighbors Are Trolling Him With LGBTQ Flags

Vice President Elect Mike Pence has a history of opposition to LGBTQ rights. As Governor of Indiana, Pence supported LGBTQ discrimination with his Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He also cut public health funding and opposed needle exchange efforts which led to a massive HIV outbreak in Indiana.

Pence’s new neighbors in Washington D.C. who disagree with the vice president-elect’s views are expressing themselves in the neighborhood. Pence is currently renting a $6,000-a-month home in the Chevy Chase area of Washington D.C, and his neighbors are displaying rainbow flags on their porches and lawns. Their aim, neighbors say, is to send a “respectful message” to Pence, who vehemently opposes marriage equality and other LGBTQ-related causes.

“This is one way that I can show my disagreement,” Ilse Heintzen, who lives on Pence’s block, told the news station. “I have no idea what [the vice president- elect] will think about it, but I hope he will change his mind.”

No word yet on whether or not Pence has seen the flags, but here’s to hoping the colorful gesture has an impact.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-rainbow-flags_us_58405509e4b0c68e047f5a0f

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#AnywhereButTarget… We Disagree

There is a website and hashtag circulating this holiday season to encourage consumers to shop #AnywhereButTARGET.  Hayden’s List feels differently. We believe in supporting companies that support us, the LGBTQ community. Here’s why Target deserves our support:

– In 2014 Target joined several other national companies to sign on to an amicus brief in support of marriage equality. The brief evaluated the issues created by states that both prohibited marriage equality and those that refused to recognize marriages that were conducted legally in other states.
– Long before they were legally required to do so, Target offered comprehensive, competitive benefits to their LGBTQ team members and their families.
– In June 2015, Target shared their #TakePride philosophy and celebrated Pride Month with volunteerism, sponsored events and a new merchandise collection.
– In August 2015, Target introduced, to much criticism, gender neutral signs for children’s bedding and children’s toys
– Target was recognized by the Human Rights Campaign as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality, earning a score of 100 on the 2016 Corporate Equality Index.
– Target announced in April 2016 the support of Federal Equality Act, which provides protections to LGBTQ individuals, and opposes action that enables discrimination.
– Target welcomes transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.

This holiday season, please support those businesses that support us. Check out the retail section of your city on Hayden’s List. Spread some joy by helping a community member find a LGBTQ friendly or not so friendly store by leaving a review here.

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A Forever Home

A Forever Home

November was National Adoption Month. Every year in Connecticut, The Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Judicial Branch finalize hundreds of adoptions, typically 400 to 500 a year.

Connecticut’s DCF Commissioner Joette Katz said the recruitment of families has been re-designed to move away from a general message about the need for adoptive and foster families to one that focuses on a specific child who needs a home. “All around the country, states and counties struggle to achieve results through the conventional marketing recruitment methods that child welfare agencies have always used,” Katz said in a statement. “But when we focus on finding a family for one child at a time, it really brings a spotlight on the joys and rewards of adopting. The pictures and stories of the individual kids are that compelling.”

One of those adoptions provided a young girl named Indigo a forever home. Michael Brinckerhoff had met Indigo’s mother at a support group sixteen years ago and had only met Indigo twice. He received a call that a five-year-old’s mother had told DCF that she wanted her daughter to live with him.

Twenty-six hours after that call, Brinckerhoff and his partner, now fiance, Troy Saunders, went to pick up Indigo at a home in Danbury. Brinckerhoff said that he and Saunders were not thinking of having children of their own but after being with Indigo for 2 weeks, he told Saunders “She’s staying here; we’re going to figure this out.”

DCF’s initial goal, had been to reunite Indigo with her mother, but when that couldn’t happen, the couple began the adoption process. On April 4th, the adoption was official.

Brinckerhoff says that one night after putting Indigo to bed, she asked him to turn the light back on. “She looked at me and said, ‘Thank you for taking care of me, I love you.’”

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