A to Z Challenge: B(e) Kind 366 - B is for Birthday

The letter B is my favourite letter. I'm sure you can guess why -- my name is Brandy after all! B is also for B(e) Kind 366 and if you've never visited before B(e) is a play on my nickname - "B" - and being kind! B(e) Kind 366 has been years in the making, but 2016 is finally here and I am doing an act of kindness, random or otherwise, every day of this year.

In 2015 I blogged A-Z with lists of acts of kindness for every letter of the alphabet. Here's a link to last year's B list: Random Acts of Kindness beginning with B.

This year the act of kindness I perform on each day of the A-Z Challenge corresponds with the letter of the alphabet for that day of the challenge.

Today B is for Birthday - or better yet, "buy someone birthday dinner."

It's one of my friend's birthday's today so I bought him dinner. To be honest I didn't actually make it to the restaurant, but my husband did and I gave him my debit card to pay for dinner. This particular act wasn't on last year's list, but with 366 different acts to perform, I find myself coming up with a number of acts not on my lists!

One thing that was listed was Big Brothers Big Sisters. Saturday is also the day that my husband and I take our "Little" out. We became a Big Couple earlier this year and it's one of the best things we've done. Today we took him to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.

All in all today was a great "B" day!

A to Z Challenge: B(e) Kind 366 - A is for Ally, Activist, & Advocate

For the 2015 A-Z Challenge I posted Random Acts of Kindness ideas for each letter as a lead up to 2016 and the launch of B(e) Kind 366! Now it's 2016 and I've been B(e)ing kind for 92 days now! For A-Z 2016 my plan is take one idea from my alphabetized lists, perform that act, and then blog about it! Fun, right?!

With that said, here's the link to my A List from last year: Random Acts of Kindness beginning with "A". 

My chosen act for "A" is Ally and I'm adding Activist and Advocate as well. 

Yesterday, March 31st was the International Transgender Day of Visibility. This date is recognized as a day dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of the discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. Admittedly, yesterday came and went and I didn't promote #TDOV, but I remembered today. I posted the following video on my facebook page today and try to take steps on a regular basis to do exactly what this video asks allies to do: be an activist ally not an armchair ally! As a cisgendered woman it's important that I recognize and use my privilege to advocate along side folks that don't find life quite as simple as I do. 

I've taken LGBTTQ* awareness and support training and really do try as much as I can to make an active effort to refrain from using gendered language. It's difficult; it really is! If you'd like to see how difficult try telling someone what your weekend plans are without using any gendered terminology: she, he, mom, dad, sister, brother, wife, husband, etc.  

I'll close with this infographic and hope that you'll consider becoming an activist ally/advocate too!