Happy (and all the other emotions) Pride
Pride is an incredible time to gather and celebrate the beauty, power, and love in the queer community. And yet, it can also be one of reflection, sorrow, and deep reverence. Living out loud, in all one’s queer joy, has rarely been easy and for many the joy is often in conflict with the realities of threats, cruelty, and fear.
As adrienne maree brown says, “joy carves out space for sorrow, and sorrow carves out space for joy.”
Pride can be a complex time for many. This year during Pride, in the face of the current sociopolitical climate, we remember and uplift all those that have come before to pave the way for the sweet moments of love and connection within the LGBTQQAI+ community. We honor those that have been silenced, harmed, murdered, and were crucial in the fight to live and love, and continue to acknowledge, witness, and work to change the burden that BIPOC queer folx have shouldered for too long.
As a team and in the therapy room, we strive to honor the full experience of LGBTQAI+ folx, queer pride, and all the complexities that come with it. Being an inclusive practice is a combination of knowledge and action. It means:
-Being a team that prioritizes competence:
Competence starts with ongoing training, consultations, and personal and professional development in identity formation and examining our own implicit and explicit biases. Beyond that, competence means understanding the ever-changing landscape of safety, advocacy, and resources for the clients we serve. We also recognize that there are endless forms of competence including knowledge, intuition and connection for us to use in our work together.
-Being a source of connection:
It is important that people feel a sense of belonging and community, in and out of the therapy room. We can serve as one of your touchpoints for connection, while also helping you find your space in the broader community you live.
-Being a place of celebration:
We hope that therapy is not just a space for challenges but also one that celebrates you: your triumphs, abilities, and efforts throughout our work together.
Want to keep exploring? Some important spaces, places, and people that inform our work or may be a resource for folx to access:
adrienne maree brown
A queer, Black, feminist writer, doula, and facilitator who integrates pleasure activism, somatics, and collective healing into liberatory movement work.
Ericka Hart, MEd
A Black, queer, nonbinary sex educator, and activist whose work dismantles white supremacy and ableism within sex education and healthcare.
Alok Vaid-Menon
A gender non-conforming writer and performance artist whose work blends advocacy, community healing, and critiques of binary mental health frameworks.
Mia Mingus
A queer, disabled Korean American community organizer whose work in transformative justice, healing justice, and disability justice has redefined trauma-informed, collective care.
Judith Butler, PhD
A nonbinary philosopher whose work on gender performativity (Gender Trouble) has deeply influenced queer theory and the field of therapy.
MAP: https://www.lgbtmap.org/about-map/our-work-and-mission
MAP is an independent, nonprofit think tank. We work to create a thriving, inclusive, and equitable America where all people have a fair chance to pursue health and happiness, earn a living, take care of the ones they love, be safe in their communities, and participate in civic life.
For therapists: The Gender Affirming Letter Access Project (GALAP):
https://www.thegalap.org/resources/harm-reduction-guide-to-referral-letters
For further actions and organizations that we love to support, check out our anti-racism resource document.