Love is Love
June marks the start of Pride month, and it's particularly exciting this year, especially as a New Yorker. Our city is playing host to the largest Pride celebration in the world, spanning the entire month of June, as NYC Pride welcomes WorldPride to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and a half-century of LGBTQIA+ liberation.
And, there are many things to celebrate this month. For example, states are now offering nonbinary checkbox options for drivers licenses and other things. And, the mainstream company Gilette recently launched this incredibly inspiring ad of a transgendered teen learning how to shave from his dad for the first time - it went viral (and send a score of viewers, this one included, into happy tears). It may be just an ad, but it marks a real cultural shift in the right direction! But, there is also still so much work to do, and sometimes it feels like for every one step forward we are moving two steps back.
Trump's administration has attacked nearly all of the political advances trans people made under President Obama. There's the military ban, the rolling backs of trans protections in schools and prisons, the trans erasure memo, and even last week’s proposed Housing and Urban Development rule regarding trans people struggling with homelessness. But his most recent proposal, which would essentially allow healthcare providers to discriminate based on gender identity, is his worst yet. As Katelyn Burns (the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S. history) says: "For the 1.4 million transgender people in the United States, it’s the cruelest move yet from a government that’s been openly hostile to us."
And so, during this month of June, today, all days, we will continue to use our voices in fierce opposition to these injustices and in resounding support of our LGBTQIA+ brothers and sisters. We will celebrate love in any and all forms, because what else is there on this earth to possibly do with love?! Love is love, and it is beautiful and good and meant to be celebrated. We hope you love this limited edition capsule we put together in honor of PRIDE month. Each sweater purchase will send $100 to the Ali Forney Center, whose mission is to protect LGBTQ youths from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently. xo Rachelle
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