I've been struggling with how to tweet about this for most of the day, but I just have to say what I'm going to say and hope.
Today is the start of #Pride2020. And the country — in particular black and brown folks — are hurting so badly right now.
Pride is a celebration of everything LGBTQIA+, when we encourage and uplift those around us who believe love is love. It is also a remembrance of those who have gone before, from Stonewall, those fighting the AIDS epidemic, all the way through to Larry Kramer just last week.
We must remember that struggle, and we must continue to fight for those struggling. BUT we can't forget about the struggle of others, it is not an either-or. We must su’port each other, listen to each other, fight for each other, and remember an individual might have many fights.
There was a message in the Lyft Slack about Pride-related activites, somebody reacted with 🙌, so, I reacted with a custom emoji I created when I started — :raise-pride: — and immediately noticed in contrast that I had used an image of my 🙌🏼, rather than the “default" yellow. 😳
So. Off to Photoshop I went, and I created this, instead. And now I want to share it with you. You can find the originals here:
- GIF: https://www.daveyshafik.com/~davey/pride/raise-pride.gif
- PSD: https://www.daveyshafik.com/~davey/pride/raise-pride.psd
Do with them as you wish, so long as it's for love.
As always, remember, love is love, and for those struggling, to find their place, to understand their way of being, to find acceptance, to become who they were meant to be: I love you especially, because you are worthy of love, from whomever you want in whatever way you want.💖🏳️🌈
I was going to start Pride off with a story about how I realized my own inherent bias recently and corrected it, it seems even more poignant now: