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How To Be a Strong Ally to Your LGBTQ+ Peers
And make it last even if it’s not Pride month
June is Pride month. It’s also the official time for companies to switch their logos into a rainbow version and for everybody to say that “love is love”.
And even if all that is great, I’m sorry to say it’s not enough.
LGBTQ+ people still face a lot of discrimination daily. In the worst cases, facing higher rates of unemployment, underpayment, homelessness, and suicide. In the best cases, we still have to face subtle homophobia deceptively wrapped as well-intended comments.
So we need strong and involved allies all year, and not only during one month.
What is an LGBTQ+ Ally
An ally exercises allyship on something, that is defined on the Merriam-Webster dictionary as follows:
: the state or condition of being an ally: supportive association with another person or group
specifically: such association with the members of a marginalized or mistreated group to which one does not belong
So an LGBTQ+ ally is a person that is supportive towards the LGBTQ+ community, even if they don’t belong to this community (i.e. if they are a cis heterosexual person).
