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It’s June, and many cafes, bars, shops, restaurants, schools and other businesses, including therapy spaces, are awash with multicoloured flags and banners in overt displays of solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) communities. Or so they claim. June is Pride month, and an important reminder, if one were needed, to acknowledge diversity and celebrate and welcome all members of our communities. But many corporations seem guilty of what has become known as “rainbow-washing” in June when, for the rest of the year, they’re ambivalent at best and un-LGBTQ-friendly at worst.
I am a year-round LGBTQ+ and TNBGQ (transgender, nonbinary, gender questioning) ally and advocate. I display Pride and straight ally flags in my therapy room and in the office where I conduct online meetings. There are books on the shelves of my therapy room about gender and sexual diversity suitable for readers of different ages and ethnicities, which are visible to all clients, all the time. I display the straight ally flag in visual marketing on my business cards and website, as well as a statement of diversity and inclusion which reads:
I am an active LGBTQ+ and TNBGQ ally and welcome all genders and sexualities into my practice. I work within a framework which is anti-discriminatory, sex-affirmative, anti-racist and pro-neurodiversity. I acknowledge that I practice from my own frame of reference and engage in monthly supervision and regular personal and professional development to expand my learning and examine my own biases and assumptions. I centre client agency and autonomy and see value each client as the expert in their own experiences and desires.
These visual and written statements demonstrate to potential clients that they are welcome here, and that I will do my best to affirm their experiences from my own position. I do not say that I offer a “safe space” to LGBTQ+ and TNBGQ folk, as some “rainbow-washers” claim to do, because safety is not something that can be assigned by one person to another. It is deeply personal and subjective, an embodied experience that develops over time, through a building of trust and connection, in relationship. Attaching a rainbow sticker to a window for four weeks of the year does not denote safety. Hanging bunting across a threshold does not say “You are welcome and affirmed”; it says “We’re performative and up for a party.”
Pride is much more meaningful than multicoloured merchandising. It is a celebration of who you are, however you identify and whoever you love. It is a protest against discrimination on the grounds of sexuality, gender or relationship status. It is a commemoration of the lives and work, challenges and struggles of LGBTQ+ people now and throughout history. It is an exclamation of acceptance, affirmation, advocacy and inclusion. It is a reminder to challenge our biases and assumptions.
Pride is so much more than “rainbow washing.”
