Can We Talk Pride?
Happy Pride!! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
June. For the LGBTQIA+ community, it's more than just another month on the calendar; it's a time for celebration, remembrance, and advocacy. It's a time when we amplify our voices, honor our history, and stand united for the future.
We celebrate each other — the beautiful spectrum of identities, the unique journeys, and the powerful bonds that tie us together. We celebrate our hard-won accomplishments, recognizing how far we've come in the fight for equality and acceptance. From shared laughter to profound understanding, we find strength in our similarities and richness in our differences.
Pride is also an opportunity to uplift our community's entrepreneurs and champion the businesses that stand in solidarity with us. Their support is a vital thread in the fabric of our progress.
But Pride isn't just about looking forward; it's about looking back with reverence and respect. We honor the trailblazers who paved the way, those who fought, protested, and persevered so that we might have the freedoms we cherish today. We reflect on their sacrifices and acknowledge the incredible distance we've traveled. In my lifetime I have witnessed many positive changes for the LGBTQ community. I remember watching Ellen come out on TV, I have personally gone through no rights of legal recognition of my relationship, civil union, federal recognition of same sex marriage. We see an increase of acceptance of the LGBTQ community.
Even as we celebrate, we remain aware of the challenges that confront our community. It's truly stunning that in 2025, families still reject their own children for simply being who they are. We face legislative assaults threatening our fundamental right to marry the person we love. And tragically, the threat of violence and hate-fueled attacks remains a grim reality.
In my lifetime alone, the journey has been a rollercoaster of progress and setbacks. I remember when gay men were scapegoated for the AIDS epidemic. I remember when we were barred from serving our country in the military, then allowed to serve only if we lived in silence about our love, to finally, a taste of full inclusion. But even that inclusion proved fragile for our transgender siblings, who have had their right to serve snatched away after a brief period of recognition.
In the United States we've fought for the right to adopt children, to build families, to simply marry the person of our choosing. These battles, heartbreakingly, are not relegated to history; they continue today. Our transgender family members, in particular, are at the forefront of an intensifying struggle. They are fighting for the fundamental right to make their own medical decisions, decisions about their own bodies, and for parents to make healthcare choices for their children in consultation with medical professionals. They are fighting to get the government out of their homes, out of the doctor's office, and out of the most personal aspects of their lives. In the US our rights are under threat.
So, as we celebrate Pride this June, let us remember: it is a celebration, a remembrance, and a call to action. Let us continue to stand together, to advocate fiercely, and to ensure that the progress we've made is not only protected but expanded, until true equality and acceptance are realities for every member of our diverse and vibrant community.
