Honoring Equality

There’s an old curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Boy howdy, we are living in some seriously interesting times!

As June comes after May, Pride Month comes after Mental Health Awareness month. Interesting, that. June is Pride Month remembering the police raid of the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969. May was designated National Mental Health Awareness Month in 1949 because of the increased number of veterans suffering from mental illnesses after returning from World War II.

And yet, the coincidental timing of these two months back-to-back is important in today’s times. We are living in “interesting times.”

• According to a Gallup poll released in 2021, 70% of Americans,?including 55% of Republicans, support same-sex marriage.
• So far in 2023, as tracked by the Associated Press, nearly 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures.?
• A?2020 survey?conducted by GLAAD and Procter & Gamble found that 75% of people who do not identify as LGBTQIA+ — that is, a supermajority — were comfortable with seeing non-straight folks in marketing campaigns.

LGBTQIA+ youth are more than four times?as likely?to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et?al., 2020). 45%?of LGBTQIA+ youth?seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including?more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth surveyed by?the Trevor Project.

There’s a direct connection between our support of ALL people and the mental health of ALL people. And all of this is directly connected to the work we get to do here at J&J: creating a world of work in which ALL people can thrive.

There’s another old saying that “history repeats itself.” Right now, the politics of fear is taking yet another turn. Fear of “the other” is one of the most effective tactics in this vile bag of tricks. This fear is embedded deep into the psyche of many of us, from fairytales and science fiction and the prejudice in our own families. Humans, in general, are beings adverse to change; for many in society today, things are changing too fast. That can be scary. I get it.

For me, one of the things that I’ve always loved about Pride Month is that it’s incredibly generous, joyous, and inclusive. As a cisgender white straight woman, I’ve had the opportunity to attend many a Pride Parade and have always experienced being joyfully welcomed to the party. The development of the acronym LGBTQIA+ is itself a study in inclusion! There are more than 20 “pride flags” and the colors are symbolic. Generally, the colors are used this way: red represents life; orange is healing; yellow represents sunlight; green is nature; blue is harmony; purple is spirit; black and brown represent people of color and those lost to AIDS; blue and pink represent boys and girls; white represents those who are transitioning or are neutral/no gender.

America is often compared to a “melting pot” where diverse cultures and ethnicities come together to form the rich fabric of our country. To me, Pride Month is yet another way to celebrate all that we are. I know I could use a little more life, healing, sunlight, nature, harmony, and spirit. When I think about what our collective intolerance is doing to the young people of today, I feel angry at the fear of the unknown and pace of change that is allowing so many to be captured by xenophobia.

I feel called to remember the teachings of my youth. I grew up in a non-denominational church at Harvard University. One of the things that we were grounded in is that Christians are called to love (not merely tolerate but actually love!) those considered outside the mainstream. Pride Month is yet another opportunity to practice that way of being.