Celebrating PRIDE over the years has been literal sunshine and rainbows. The space provides a freedom to express and feel into that inhibited side of yourself. The last years of celebrating LGBTQ culture and folx has been a ball and has served as an official start to the fun filled summer months.  Obviously, this PRIDE ain’t like any of the others! I did sit with some ennui that the normal PRIDE festivities were not happening due to the pandemic and then a necessary focus on systemic racism and  dysfunctional police/government systems.  Now here at the end of this month, I've slowly realized that this is the most educational PRIDE I've ever celebrated and therefore the truest. For once I've stopped to absorb the history, ancestry and reclaimed legacy of the LGBTQ experience and journey in this country. I've been inspired by the trailblazing Black Tans folx who won’t be erased from the revolutionary fight at Stonewall. I've been riveted by dozens of stories from people like  Marsha P. Johonson, Ruth Ellis and Jewel Thais-Williams. I've shed tears through the heartbreaking stories surrounding the struggle to claim space and legitimacy in the US. There's been a lot of grief, it's been a long dark road, so many people lost their livelihoods and lives. This makes the beauty and freedom and openness of PRIDE mean So. Much. More.  It isn’t just dancing, sexuality, costumes and cocktails. PRIDE honors a legacy of fighting for equality, for civil rights and for true freedom to Be. It's about carving out a place in our shared history and refusing to be erased, forgotten. It’s standing up and saying MY LIFE HAS WORTH. That's absolutely the message I could use right now to keep moving forward and hold my head high while doing it. I feel a lot of hope this PRIDE month, I feel inspired to do my part in making the world a better place in my own special way.  Cheers to an educational, heart felt, and fabulously fierce PRIDE xoxoxoxoxo

#happypride #lgbtqlivesmatters #blacktranslivesmatter #equitynow