I certainly appreciate your comment. Although I am gay, and I love that Pride Month is a thing, I also relate all too well with the need to highlight mental health.

I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at age 10, came out at age 15, and experienced debilitating physical pain from 16 to my early 30's. I learned to conceal and internalize, first from my father, then because nobody seemed to be able to relate when I would open up about my circumstances. No matter how many people told me, "This is temporary," "Keep your chin up," or "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get it together,"; for me, it felt eternal and all I wanted was to escape the cycle of physical and mental anguish. I missed my prime and will likely never have a normal & lasting relationship, due to complications of my disease. Most people cannot endure the additional stress related to chronic illness. I wouldn't want to inflict that upon anyone that wasn't familiar with or willing to navigate it with me, either.

Nevertheless, while it took far too long to get the proper care I needed (and not for lack of me trying, being dismissed endlessly by professionals who didn't think I had an understanding of my body and mind), I am finally in a good place. I lost a little over 15 years of my life, but I am working my ass off to make up for it now. Had I not chosen to start a career in tech, I would have been earning my degree in Psychology. I have, and always will have, a deep-seated desire to help others. I still make every attempt to be a support for anyone expressing the need for guidance.

So, thank you for your comment. Thank you for bringing that to the table. It might not feel like the most appropriate space to create the dialogue that I did, but that is also part of deconstructing the stigma. Making space for conversation and letting others know that it's okay to open up. I am going to be sure, with every 'Happy Pride Month' post that I share, to also include the fact that it is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month as well. Best wishes to you. Happy Pride, and Men's Mental Health Awareness Month!

I see a lot of deleted posts, and a questionable comment (not sure if it was meant jokingly or not). Otherwise, it appears to be a rather inclusive and supportive space. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Thank you for being polite, but I'd like to tease this statement out a bit. If you celebrate holidays at all, I imagine at least one of them would be about the way people live their lives. Memorial Day? Father's Day? Maybe I'm wrong, but from my view, these holidays are about the lifestyle choices that these veterans or fathers made (or had forced upon them) that improved the lives of people around them. We have these holidays because we want to shine a spotlight on their struggles and their contributions.

Similarly, holidays like Black History Month and Pride Month exist because there's still work to do in making sure that all people can live peaceful, equitable lives without fear of social harassment (e.g. deleted comments below) or legal discrimination (e.g. bills lately proposed by the Texan GOP-controlled Senate to pick something recent and local to you). If these problems didn't exist, there would be no need to shine a spotlight on it. Since they do, it's good to talk about them so that we can find a solution collectively. On the flip side, minority groups often make significant cultural contributions that are overlooked by mainstream society. Americans owe most popular music within the last 60+ years, from Elvis Presley to Eminem, to Black American Jazz, R&B, and other early developments.

This is all to say, all power to you if you personally don't like to celebrate these kinds of holidays, but I hope this gives you a little insight as to why they exist.

Hey there! DEV is an inclusive community that celebrates diversity and champions folks from marginalized backgrounds. This is a big part of our values and it's important to us that we create a warm, welcoming space for LGBTQ2S+ folks.

While we want you to feel comfortable expressing your feelings, we have a Code of Conduct you agreed to when you signed up that makes our values clear and states amongst many other things:

Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
...
Dismissing or attacking inclusion-oriented requests

While your statement seems like it's coming from a genuine place, it still feels dismissive and close-minded to insinuate that you don't think this belongs here. This topic fits our community very well and is important to us. LGBTQ2S+ folks have been marginalized in tech throughout history and continue to be; we believe it's important to recognize these facts and to try to create a space that includes and celebrates our fellow LGBTQ2S+ developers & folks working in tech.

Going forward, please keep these thoughts to yourself. We don't want to explain or debate concepts of social justice with you and we don't want you to put others in a position to explain themselves either. This post is meant to be celebratory in nature and is not an invitation for debate.

Your link doesn't work 😶