It’s easy to feel like you don’t recognize your own country when cruelty and chaos ooze daily from the White House, leaving a murky film over so much of what we cherish.

It’s easy to feel like the hard-won progress toward making this place a more welcoming, more inclusive, more equitable home is being rapidly, gleefully rolled back.

It’s easy to feel like compassion has, in so many of the hearts on display, been snuffed out by callousness.

But here’s another side of our story.

Three years ago, I wrote a column about a campaign to send holiday cards to LGBTQ+ folks who’ve been shunned by their families because of who they are or who they love.

The campaign was launched by Carolyn Pinta, co-creator of the Pinta Pride Project, an organization that raises awareness and support for the LGBTQ+ community. Her card campaign was inspired by Home for the Holidays, a Facebook group that provides a safe space for LGBTQ+ people who can’t, actually, go home for the holidays.

In November 2022, Pinta started a spreadsheet with addresses of members from the group who wanted to receive holiday cards, set up card-writing parties and added information to the Pinta Pride Project website for anyone who wanted to send or receive cards. When I checked in........

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