First, I want to thank everyone for supporting, signing, and sharing this petition. It means a lot to close this petition at nearly 1500 signatures. Secondly, Faith Cheltenham announced last month that she will be stepping down as the President of BiNet USA in 2021. Two days ago she released a personal statement of her feelings on the matter. Many unsubstantiated claims were made and troubling viewpoints aired and ultimately Faith has chosen to walk away from not just activism, but from the entire LGBTQIA+ community. While this was never the intention of this petition, given her very strong feelings toward the bisexual community and many of its activists, it would seem the best thing she can do right now for herself and the community at large is to walk away. I hope that she takes the time to rest and finds some peace and comfort in a life outside of community activism. It is not easy to give so much of oneself to a cause and feel as if you are accomplishing little to nothing in exchange. It is not easy to care so much when others seem to care so little. While none have been quite as self-destructive as Faith has been, there have been plenty of activists and advocates who have found the task more than they could handle. While I'm sure much discussion will continue to be had about the events of the last month as we move forward as a community, my sincere wish is that we will learn from this experience and seek to participate in activism for the sake of community betterment and not personal gain. Now more than ever we need to support each other and hopefully more organizations and activists will remember the importance of self-care and moderation in the donation of our time and efforts. Burn out is a very real and dangerous thing as we have all just witnessed. So comes the bittersweet end of a very sad page in our community history. However discouraging it has been to watch a community leader choose to go out in this way, I am proud that the community had the strength to speak out and hold together in the face of one who wanted so badly to divide us. While petitions may seems like an out-dated and ineffective way to accomplish change there is much to be said for the constructive way that a petition enables a community to give voice to a grievance without having to result to harmful and destructive methods and I hope we will see more people using healthy ways to resolve issues in the future. While the destruction of BiNet USA has undoubtedly been a sad affair, fortunately, there are still many many many activists and advocates out there working tirelessly to keeping building our community into something better and stronger than ever before. My hope is that you will continue to give them your support and raise up those who seek to unite and encourage us to be proud of who we are. Thank you all again and may you always have reason to be proud. With Pride and Love, Elizabeth