Diversity
In solidarity: Pride 2020
LGBTQ* Affinity Group Co-Chairs Daisy Reeves and Tracy Talbot issue a message of support to our African American and black friends and colleagues this Pride season.Jun 11, 2020
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
June marks the start of Pride season, a period of coming together to celebrate and support LGBTQ* people and to raise awareness of issues facing the LGBTQ* community. At this time, however, Pride must be reflective of the events unfolding across the U.S. (and now beyond) over the last few weeks. The collective trauma and grief felt at the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others has brought to the surface a groundswell of pain and suffering, and it is something we want and need to acknowledge.
We reiterate the message of support from our co-chairs on behalf of the firm’s global LGBTQ* community: To our African American and black colleagues, friends and families - whether LGBTQ*, ally or otherwise - we stand beside you shoulder to shoulder. At BCLP we are “one firm” - if inequality and oppression exists for one of us, it exists for all of us.
It is important for us to remember that the Pride movement started in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, when trans women and gay men of color fought back against oppression and brutality, resulting in riots that invigorated the gay rights movement. Our community will forever be grateful for these leaders of change, but the current situation has laid bare the many inequalities that still remain in today’s society and the irreparable damage and hurt that is caused by bigotry, intolerance and hate.
As a start, to show our solidarity and support we are adopting the “Philadelphia flag,” which includes brown and black stripes to raise awareness of the issues people of color face, specifically within the LGBTQ* community. This will now be part of our “Be You” LGBTQ* rainbow to demonstrate the clear inclusion of people of color within our LGBTQ* communities and beyond, and it will be featured on the BCLP website during pride month as a symbol of unity.
We look forward to working together to help dismantle the systems of oppression and inequality that affect our African American and black colleagues, friends and families.
