Pride Month is coming to a close in 10 days. I’ll be in Chicago next week - so looking forward to it! I wanted to talk about what it means to be a Good Ally and not to overstep marginalized voices. I leave you with this from grad school. I took a multicultural counseling course in which we were randomly paired with someone to cover a marginalized group. Our pair had to cover LGBTQIA. My academic partner is a straight cis gal. She was more interested in an A than being an Ally. I won’t go into details, however she completely changed the presentation without consulting me. This included a slide about LGBTQ role models and icons. It was replaced by a rainbow scarf that was supposed to be a metaphor for something...? The professor also didn’t believe that people were passionate about these issues; this was a few years after Prop 8 passed. I recorded video of how people felt about LGBTQ issues and how we can solve bullying in schools...but the professor didn’t believe that they were telling the truth - she thought they were actors! Ended up getting a B (hah!) I was much more interested in having a voice than to get an A in a graduate course. No worries, I called her out later on in my academic career. 😉 As Allies, let’s let marginalized people talk and lead the discussion and not simply for the sake of reputation. We need to understand that these issues are people’s livelihoods at stake and at risk. #pinup #bivisibility #pridemonth #pinuppride #retro #vintagefashion #femmevisibility #bipinup #pinupsofinstagram #pinupsofcolor