This is a post that I have been wanting to do for a while but have been struggling to write. I hope this is a text that supports the LGTBQ+ community and doesn’t offend anyone. If I do offend anyone, I apologize and ask you to reach out so I can learn how to be a better ally.
Portrait of Bambi
Rainbows are something I associated to my childhood, Lucky charms for breakfast on Sunday mornings and running so fast when I saw one to try and get to the place where it ended.
Now rainbows have taken another meaning; rainbows are like war paint, a sign of strength and bravery to be who you really are and not be scared of what others think about you.
As a cisgender straight woman, I am learning everyday how to be an ally. I believe pride is something everyone struggles with; to be proud of yourself and what you do, to make your family proud, live up to other’s expectations and the fear of disappointment. But what if to that very natural and brutal desire of making others proud you add being someone others don’t understand and that doesn’t conform to the heteronormative dynamics of society?
What if others tell you that who you are, who you love and what you feel is wrong, sinful, shameful?
How can you be proud?
Pride is about being comfortable in your own skin. Pride is something worth celebrating as an act of resistance, as an act of selflove.
Its June and everything turns rainbow, ready for battle.
It is important for us to remember how the annual parade of glitter, skin and rainbows started.
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall Inn riots. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the LGTBQ+ community against a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. They are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
For me celebrating pride is a way of fighting against homophobia, hate and misogyny.
My way of celebrating and showing my support to the LGTBQ+ community was asking three members of the LGTBQ community who I admire to let me take their portrait and share a bit of their story.
Bambi (@aboynamedbambi) is one of the most stylish people I know and has a presence that could light up a stadium. He is unapologetic and isn’t afraid of taking words that are meant to hurt him and making them his own. He blurs lines and makes everyone around him feel alive. As a latino gay man he embraces all parts of himself and is someone I look up to.
Tia (@tiawhitney) was outed in High school while living in a small town in Utah, she wasn’t ready to come out and her mom was not ready to hear it. Fast forward she now lives in NYC and has found a supportive community and her mom has accepted who she is. I admire the strength she had to be able to find herself when she felt lonely and surrounded by rejection. She is extremely caring and loving and an example of moving forward.
TIA
Annie (@trittscamera) is 7 weeks post op from top surgery. They are non binary and prefers them/they pronouns. They have shared their journey in social media which is painful yet beautiful. I reached out to Annie and told them I really admired what they were doing because I know there are so many people out there that are struggling with their identity and seeing their story makes them not feel alone. Annie says one of their happiest moments was being able to be shirtless in the park for the first time since second grade. A lot of people don’t understand why someone would go through such a painful procedure willingly. My answer was in Annie’s smile and their relationship to their new body.
Annie 7 weeks post op
These are three out of countless stories. Stories of people who have been brave and unafraid of being who they really are. They are proud and I admire them and see them as examples of who I want to be as a human being.