wearing a rainbow name badge. It was a normal medical ID badge but hers had a rainbow flag around her photo and name as well as her preferred pronouns, “she/her” and the word “Ally” on the bottom.
I thought to myself, it’s a little early for the typical, “It’s Pride month so let’s capitalize on the Gays,” propaganda we have become so used to seeing. I watched as she cared for my sister, attentive, listening and responding, answering questions, and offering sound advice and reassurance. As she started to leave the room, I had to ask her, “Excuse me, does everyone wear those Pride name tags for June?” She was professional and respectful and politely responded, “No, I am a ‘Safe Place’ trained, LGBTQI Ally. There are 4 of us here in this office. We know it’s already difficult for a person to come seek medical help and it’s compounded when you don’t feel seen. We want to make sure every patient feels comfortable here.”
I was shocked and impressed at the same time but the only thing that I felt more was gratefulness! I thanked her for that. I told her how much I appreciated her for being that person.
As we left the doctor’s office, I thought more about why I was so surprised. I had become so used to big corporations only supporting Pride in June. It’s not uncommon to see banks, grocery stores, gas stations, fast food restaurants, and especially large chain stores suddenly all have rainbow flags and claim to be “Proud supporters” of the
LGBTQI community.
At least for the month of June, then suddenly, come July, they are super patriotic and no sign the rainbow anywhere, until the next year of course. It hadn’t crossed my mind that there were some who not only believed in supporting our community year-round but actually provided training on HOW to be supportive to us.
There are websites like The Trevor Project and The Safe Zone Project that offer curriculum and tools to help individuals to be better educated on the correct terms to use, the proper use of pronouns, and other things that may seem small but mean a lot to a queer person that struggles to be recognized and acknowledged. It’s an unspoken challenge that thankfully is getting addressed more often these days but there’s still a long way to go, even within the LGBTQI community.
I have to admit that even I have been guilty of assuming a pronoun or forgetting to simply ASK how someone prefers to be addressed. In those instances, I would advise anyone to be humble enough to first, apologize, then proceed to make a conscious effort to remember and use the correct identifier. It doesn’t take much effort on your
part but means a lot. It’s a matter of respect.
We look forward to June and all of the festivities it brings. We invite you to join us. We want you to go to that Pride parade, buy that super cute rainbow outfit with matching
shoes, get that fabulous rainbow makeup with as much glitter as you can stand! We love it! We want you to “come out” and have a fantastic time celebrating with us. All that we ask is that you please remember that Pride was, and still is, a protest.
It’s an opportunity to educate our families, friends, and loved ones. Although we don’t have to throw bricks through windows or get arrested for protesting anymore (we
hope,) we are still fighting.
We are fighting for fair legislation, fighting against discrimination in the workplace, and trying to protect our youth who are literally killing themselves to be seen. We want you to join us because we as a community need you… not only for all of the month of June but for every day after that.
Immani Brown aka Immani Love
