Happy Pride Month, everyone!

I love this time of year the Pride parties, parades, and the overall good energy as people –community members and allies - celebrate LGBTQ pride. And as places all over the country continue to open up, it looks like we can all celebrate together.

Pride is about loving, accepting, and celebrating who you are – strengths, weaknesses, and everything else that makes you unique. As we come to the end of Pride month, I want you to take a moment and reflect on what makes you most proud.

I’ve always been proud of starting my own business and aligning the impact I want to have in the world with supporting my wonderful life. And little did I know the process of creating and growing my business would help me become more comfortable with uncertainty, imperfection, iterating, and living in the moment in all aspects of my life.

I’ve always been a bit of a control freak, perfectionist, and rule follower. I’ve learned in my business that I’m not going to know all of the answers; I’ll need to try things to see how they fit and expect the unexpected (a divorce, a pandemic, and a switch in focus, just to name a few). And I’m still here – more open, vulnerable, and willing to take risks I never thought I would. That growth makes me proud.

If you’d like to hear more of my story, I recorded an episode on my podcast Mission Driven Business where I opened up about a lot that I’ve gone through over the last few years. I share my pride in hopes that it helps someone else feel comfortable in their skin and know they are not alone in figuring things out daily.

I would as be remiss if I didn’t highlight that the Pride movement stemmed from the riots and protests that created awareness of deep-seated problems and energized people to take action to make substantial change. Unfortunately, our work is not done.

Anti-LGBTQ groups and legislators nationwide are attacking our community members. The ACLU is tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in the US. In 2023, 79 anti-trans bills have passed out of the 556 proposed nationwide. According to the Williams Institute, there are more than 300,000 high-school-aged (ages 13-17) transgender Youth in the United States today, and 44% of them live in states where they have lost access to or are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming care.

So yes, let loose, celebrate, and enjoy everything this month offers. I know I will. I’ll also use this month of extra visibility to uplift my trans family members to let them know they are seen, heard, and not alone.

Happy Pride, all!