Step into your power, claim your space
We have power in our joy. We have power in resistance. We have power in our celebration. We have power in our pride.
June is a month of many themes. One that resonates for me is a theme of pride. Pride in my own identity, my connections with those who share aspects of my identity, and within the beautiful, diverse celebration of our shared humanity. Our LGBTQIA2+ Pride community seeks celebration in our diversity, in identity, joy, acceptance, beauty, and resistance, regardless of how our joy shows up to others.
Pride is about belonging.
Every human wants to belong. And each of us deserves to.
To those who have made it their mission to lessen, reduce, and deny celebration, belonging, and joy, your choice to become more bold has only strengthened the bonds, and affirmed the commitment that we will not be denied.
Resistance and passion have woven themselves into pride month for as long as it has existed, and over the past few years these are themes that have propelled many actions within many communities with events of celebration, recognition, and also grief.
A few years ago, pride month helped me step further into understanding and out of myself. I embodied a part of my identity that is much less visible. In theory I didn’t have to, and yet hearing others question their own identity in the same way I had for years made me feel a greater pull to share. There are lots of ways that identities can show up; they don’t have to be loud and proud in order to be celebrated.
Celebrating those identities can feel frightening or threatening, or like it might step on the toes of others who see that identity in a different light. The context I have for this is the privilege of heteronormativity and passing. Having found the person who is my person at a young age made it seem as though that was the entirety of what intimate relationship identity was. And I think, like many, as we evolve and grow and open ourselves to understanding over time, we see ourselves more clearly.
I knew decades ago that my sexuality was more complex, and it didn’t feel helpful or necessary to talk about in public-facing places. For a while, it seemed like it somehow lessened or diminished what my relationship is. What I have come to realize is my own evolution has really only fortified my sense that this richness of sexual orientation is something many people experience and feel disempowered to share or talk about. Because people who don’t share that identity, or don’t understand it, judge it or tell them to keep it quiet, or other such things.
I am a proud bisexual cisgender woman in a heterosexual monogamous relationship. I am grateful for it, and those are just parts of my identity that carry extra joy that feels more full in this month.
What I learn and am reminded of, it feels like every day now, is that we have the right to claim who we are, to stand as who we are, to show up fully as ourselves. That will make some people uncomfortable. I choose to consider that it may make some people uncomfortable because they don’t yet feel that they can do that, or maybe that it just doesn’t make sense to them. And that is their own work, they can choose to do.
This month I will wear my colors, my jewelry, thoughtfully, joyfully, and know that my joy and identity is woven in them. I will make it to at least one pride event and be present in my community, representing my volunteer organization at that table to show how we are trying to teach, support, and advocate for inclusion, safety, and consideration in our school systems. I will look around and feel belonging, more fully seen and recognized, in my own skin, for my own self.
Over the last several years, I have been connecting with more groups to support, advocate and educate about the rights our LGBTQIA2+ community deserve to have. Some of these groups have been around for decades, others have begun more recently as the need to protect spaces has grown. One of these groups provides the opportunity to defend and shield others who wanted to go and celebrate variety and spice and liveliness. This one called to me. I found myself joining, standing in a line of umbrellas, to sing and dance and provide a rainbow wall. To shield those who deserve the opportunity to explore all manner of life, literature, and expression, and dance to keep things moving along the way. I believe each person is deserving of dignity and respect and joy and love.
This month is a month of fire and passion and love and resistance. We will continue. We will remain. I will stand to support and protect the right to explore, express, and celebrate each human life in how beautiful and diverse we can be.
If you want to get connected with some groups doing excellent work out there here are a few I would start with:
Feel free to reach out for more resources or to share those that are showing up in your communities. I am happy to continue to share. Happy Pride!