Michelle Morales is determined to support the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community to challenge intolerance and promote acceptance.
Morales started as a volunteer at the San Joaquin Pride Center, only a couple month after she became the event director of the newly Pride Festival to take place on Saturday, August 25th, 2012 at Oak Grove Regional Park in Stockton.
Michelle Morales at the San Joaquin Pride Center
Morales, describes the center as “support mechanism,” a support environment that she wishes she would have had while growing up.
“Growing up I was fairly shy… I was the oldest of six kids; I had an image to portray, to make the right decisions for my brothers and sisters.”
Through the years Morales learned to reverse the negativity she had experienced for so many years and so embrace who she is.
“My uncle raised and he was homosexual…he taught me to love people and not to judge them I think that is a good quality that I always carried around.”
For Morales homosexuality is an issue surrounded by ignorance.
“ They[society] think is psychological, that something must of happen to you along the line and that is why you are this way , is not necessarily like that ,” explains Morales, “you can’t control who you fall in love with or who you have feelings for
“Society as a whole has become more accepting ofhomosexuality than when I was a teenager, but there is always going to be the one person that says something negative.”
In the near future Morales wants to further her education to better serve the youth in the community and embrace who they are.
“I want o work with teens that are in the process of coming out; that have some questions about their feelings are and what their preferences are.”
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