Showing Up

I’ve had mixed feelings about Pride month this year. As always, I want to celebrate, but so many scary things are happening in our country right now that adversely affect the LGBTQIA+ community that it’s hard to feel celebratory sometimes.

In spite of that, or maybe because of it, I think it’s important for me to show up — to show up with my rainbow-clad self, in all the places where we need to shine light in the darkness. Those in the LGBTQIA+ community need our support and protection more than ever right now.

Let’s be clear: I’m straight, and cis. But I’m also an ally. I’m proud to be part of a community that supports its LGBTQIA+ members. I’m a proud friend to many LGBTQIA+ folks. I’m the proud mom to a pansexual son.

I’m also one of the Left Behind — a member of the club no one wants to belong to, the sad community of those who have lost an LGBTQIA+ loved one to suicide.

The extraordinarily high rates of suicide/suicide attempts among LGBTQIA+ youth and my own experience with loss are why I run my Pride fundraising efforts each June. The organizations I’m supporting — The Trevor Project, the Human Rights Campaign, and Knit the Rainbow — do work to support LGBTQIA+ youth, provide resources to those considering suicide, or to advance the cause of their rights and make this country a more reasonable place to be LGBTQIA+.

When you buy my Pride Like the Wind pattern this month, I’ll pass along the proceeds to those organizations. But if you don’t knit, you can help by making donations directly to one or more of those groups. I hope you’ll give that a thought, in honor of someone you’re proud to love, or someone you wanted to be allowed to love.