How I Chose to Celebrate Pride Month

The sea of rainbow-colored corporate logos on June first helped usher in Pride month. It sure is nice to know that, for one month of the year, major businesses are invested in more than ever in getting that LGBTQ+ coin. I even saw that Disney, after a track record of patting themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum when it comes to gay representation, had created a Pride month themed banner. "Everyone is welcome under the rainbow! Especially when you buy our movies and support our re-makes of your childhood faves! Love you gays!"

Pride for me is about more than the apps of my phone temporarily adding a rainbow background for a month. It's about survival and resilience. Despite all the invalidation, the violence and the inequality that me and my community have faced, we are still here. And we will stay here. We are vibrant and full of beauty. We are worthy and deserving of happiness and love. Pride cannot be quantified in the amount of corporations who shove a rainbow in our face, that's missing the point of the celebration of Pride.

In order to celebrate Pride in a meaningful way to myself, I chose to donate to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. As an already marginalized community, it is so upsetting to me that our black and brown, and trans and nonbinary siblings end up left behind in the crusade for equality. The Martha P. Johnson Institute, in the spirit of their namesake, seeks to help black trans individuals receive the dignity and support that they deserve. Link: (https://marshap.org/)

Pride wouldn't exist without the brave contributions of our queer, trans siblings of color. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at Stonewall struggled to put the plight of LGBTQ+ people in the country on the map, and throughout the country we deeply indebted to the actions that people of color have taken on behalf of our community at large. Juneteenth, taking place on June 19th, gave me a perfect opportunity to celebrate the emancipation and existence of my black friends. It also gave me a chance to do some research into places to donate to black creatives (here's the list I found: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/where-to-donate-black-lives-matter-1879701). I ultimately decided to donate to a program called Arts Administrators of Color, which seeks to increase diversity and inclusion in the art world by supporting black artists and administrators. They even created an emergency fund to continue financial support for black creatives throughout the pandemic. Link: (https://aacnetwork.org/support/)

TW: genocide

As we try to celebrate our futures and our lives, June for me was also a sobering time of acknowledging the past. In Canada, the discovery of numerous unmarked Indigenous childrens' graves brought the overlooked genocide and destruction of Native American people and culture to the forefront of my mind . Such heinous reminder of history encouraged me to donate to the Native American communities on the stolen land I live on. The Denver Indian Family Resource Center is based in Denver, Colorado, and offers support to Native American families to help them protect their children, there-by helping ensure better futures for a people with a past often marred in pain. Link: (https://difrc.org/about-us/)

Learn the Native Land you are on: https://native-land.ca/

As it was ushered in, I'm sure tomorrow, Pride will be ushered out with the dissolution of all the rainbow imagery corporations have been so confidently waving around for the past thirty days. That's why it's important to celebrate our history and resilience in our own meaningful way. Happy Pride!

Other places I donated this month:

onePulse Foundation: Set up by the owners of Pulse Nightclub, where once there was great heartbreak, there is now hope in the shape of a museum and memorial. Link: (https://onepulsefoundation.org/)

The Bail Project: An organization committed to fighting mass incarceration, Black Lives Matter wasn't just a once in a lifetime event last year; incarceration rates of the black population are still disproportionately high, and a number of protestors also require bail payments. Link: (https://bailproject.org/)

The Audre Lorde Project: Supports black queer and genderqueer individuals on their journey to acceptance and security. Link: (https://alp.org/)

Native Wellness: Seeks to aid in the well being of Native American peoples by embracing ancestral traditions and teachings to prevent their erasure. Link: (https://www.nativewellness.com/)

Stop AAPI Hate: Actively combat hate crimes and racist incidents carried out against the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Link: (https://stopaapihate.org/)

Creators of Color on YouTube to subscribe to and support on Patreon:

The Artisan Geek: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCamkpihJtPvMuH49D6FejEw) amandabb: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUCygxhG2VsJXz7i1GkmLVQ) As Told By Kenya: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfdQZXHsR1L2g4jDrMmVMTw) Most of Miree: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSeCAChMFerPDPLXm-QaHEA) Melina Pendulum: (https://www.youtube.com/user/MelinaPendulum) Jarvis Johnson: (https://www.youtube.com/user/VSympathyV) Xiran Jay Zhao: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqSz_KlrE8_IDht7tWsQ-RA) harriyanna hook: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnjO3MVUXhw52kKsfs1XA7w) Sean Thompson: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7LNsfU-ZEjOXxPwORj6BvQ) Mina Le: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOss5XiPpnLHGmLrBvNkJg)