06/09/2024
Happy Pride Month! Always remember, we are Q***R ALL YEAR. In 2023, US states filed 510+ anti-LGBTQIA+ bills. Many of them passed and were implemented in ways that take rights away from LGBTQIA+ individuals. In 2024, the ACLU is already tracking 516 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills and it’s only June. That being said, please consider the many ways in which you can extend your support to the LGBTQIA+ community beyond rainbow capitalism (buying products that represent the q***r community but don’t actually financially benefit q***r people) and performative allyship (actions and words that don’t make any meaningful impact for the community, and which sometimes even run contrary to the asks of the community).
1. Consider donating to local LGBTQIA+ Centers which provide information and essential services.
2. Consider donating to organizations that are legally challenging legislation which harms the LGBTQIA+ community.
3. Consider ways in which you may have inadvertently caused harm to LGBTQIA+ people. Seek to repair that harm, remembering that harm repair has to center what will make the person you harmed feel better (not simply what will make you feel better).
4. Consider how you can navigate your daily life in ways that invite greater safety for LGBTQIA+ community members. Introduce yourself with your pronouns, don’t ask invasive questions of q***r people that you wouldn’t ask of straight people, don’t place the onus of your LGBTQIA+ education on q***r people (do the work), speak up when you hear someone saying something harmful about LGBTQIA+ people, educate yourself in order to be able to offer factual counter narratives when you hear people repeat false propaganda about q***r issues, think about how your vote impacts the q***r community, respect the boundaries of q***r individuals.
5. Patronize q***r businesses and support q***r creators. Following q***r creators on social media is one way to learn about the vast diversity within the LGBTQIA+ community simply by listening. It’s incredible how much can be learned without demanding people’s labor. And when you find that knowledge valuable think about making a monetary donation to that creator (cause q***r people are trying to survive capitalism too).
6. Explore the biases you carry and work to deconstruct them. For example, consider how often “allies” talk about protecting q***r kids. And while this is important, recognize how often people operate as if q***r adults are not also worthy of having their needs met and living in environments where they are safe and can thrive. Ask yourself, do you advocate only for q***r kids because that feels safer? Remember too that bias exists within the LGBTQIA+ community. Just because you’re q***r doesn’t mean you don’t still have work to do.
7. Make sure your efforts to learn about and become friends with LGBTQIA+ people goes beyond simply being able to say you have a q***r friend. Do you bring their name up in rooms they wouldn’t otherwise be in? For opportunities they might not have access to? Do you listen to their perspectives and feedback and consider shifting course based on the information they provide you? Do you work to build trust and offer as much of yourself as you ask of them? Do you reach out to spend time together when you aren’t specifically seeking information about an LGBTQIA+ issue?
8. Dig into the concept of mutual liberation. Understand how if we are not for each other we are causing harm. Read about trauma and the impact it has on historically excluded groups of people. Remember this information when you have the instinct to be dismissive of a lived experience you haven’t had. Learn about intersectional identities and about how the history of failed collaboration across identities continues to be a barrier to our collective liberation today. Seek to understand that history so we can stop repeating it.
