Celebrating Your LGBTQIA+ Pride Stories 💖

Publish Date: Jun 1 '22

154 44

Editorial Update: On July 20th, 2022, we donated $1,000 USD to the Marsha P Johnson Institute in honor of our LGBTQIA+ community members, their allies, and those who participated in this year's celebration. Thank you for joining us!

Happy Pride Month! 🌈

Many countries around the world recognize June as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month — a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, +) community. As many of you know, Pride Month is a time to celebrate those who have been historically marginalized for loving outside the bounds of heterosexual monogamy or for their position on the gender spectrum. Pride Month is a time of joy, togetherness, and reflection on the history of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Pride Month + DEV

At DEV, we feel it's important to publicly recognize and celebrate Pride Month for a variety of reasons, especially because we are a diverse community of individuals with regards to sexuality and gender identity, and we believe that all of you have the fundamental right to love who you love and be who you are without fear. This month and always, we stand with our LGBTQIA+ team members, mentors, teachers, family members, and friends.

While DEV is globally distributed and Pride Month takes place during other times of the year for some countries, our team celebrates Pride Month in June due to an important anniversary that we feel is crucial to honor: The Stonewall uprising in the United States.

On June 28, 1969, in Greenwich Village, New York City, police raided a popular gay bar in the area called The Stonewall Inn, which was a sadly common practice in the US at the time. In response, many members of the LGBTQIA+ community demonstrated and fought back against the hatred and bigotry of law enforcement and the larger system behind it. This series of protests led to the formation of many activist groups and organizations. While "Stonewall" was far from the beginning of the gay rights movement, it is widely considered a pivotal moment for LGBTQIA+ rights and resistance.

Join our Pride Month Celebration & Donation Drive!

Like in previous years on DEV, we'll be celebrating Pride Month by collecting and amplifying posts from our LGBTQIA+ members who wish to share their story and experience of being technologists.

However, this year, DEV is making an important change to our Pride celebration: We will be donating $10 to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute for every #devpride story received from now through June 30, 2022 @ 11:59 PM UTC

If you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community who is able to share publicly about your identity, we invite you to write a post about your experience at the intersection of LGBTQIA+ issues and tech using this template or my simply tagging your post with #devpride. Our team will be reviewing all posts received and marking posts authored by our LGBTQIA+ members as "valid" so they appear on the #devpride tag page.
We also invite allies to write a #devpride post about how they will recommit to standing behind their LGBTQIA+ colleagues, mentors/mentees, family, and friends. We will not "validate" #devpride ally posts because we would like to keep the tag page filled with first-account stories, however we will be looking out for your posts in the main feed!
For each first-account #devpride and #devpride ally post, DEV will donate $10 to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.
Additionally, we will donate $10 for every #devpride post that is cross-posted to CodeNewbie Community in June and/or for every original #devpride post shared there.

PS: If you’re not able or ready to share your identity with the world right now, or you’re not sure what your identity is, we see you! Your identity is real, your survival matters, and we are proud of you regardless. 💜

About Marsha P. Johnson and the MPJ Institute

Marsha P. Johnson (1945–1992) was an important Black transgender activist, self-identified drag queen, and one of the key leaders of the Stonewall uprising.

In their own words, The Marsha P. Johnson Institute exists to "elevate, support, and nourish the voices of BLACK trans people" and "seeks to eradicate systemic, community, and physical violence that silences our community from actualizing freedom, joy, and safety."

At DEV, we believe it's imperative not only to celebrate people of all identities, but also to work together to shed light on white supremacy, hatred, and the abuse of our most vulnerable, which includes the Black trans community. For us, part of this work means donating money to organizations doing the work like the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. We hope you'll consider joining us in raising money for this wonderful organization.

You can also donate to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute on your own by clicking here.

Note: The Marsha P. Johnson Institute has no involvement in the organization of #devpride. This is an independent donation drive benefitting an organization our team cares about.

A very happy Pride Month to all! In the comments below, we invite you to share...

Links to your Pride stories (– don’t forget to use the DEV post embed tag!)
Other LGBTQIA+ organizations we should know about
Links to Pride Month/LGBTQIA+ events/initiatives you or your company/organization are hosting
Any other thoughts you have about this celebration

Here's to LGBTQIA+ Pride — before, during, and long after June. 💜

Comments 44 total

Gracie Gregory (she/her)Jun 1, 2022
- tzwelJun 7, 2022
  lmao what about white queer trans lives?
Carleii DevJun 1, 2022
My heart
Ashutosh SharmaJun 1, 2022
What an initiative !
𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 1, 2022

loving outside the bounds of heterosexual monogamy and living outside of the gender binary

This is very nitpicky, but technically MTF and FTM transgender people still live inside the gender binary, at least to some extent ;)
- Gracie Gregory (she/her)Jun 1, 2022
  Thanks for this comment! We are going to incorporate this into the post right now :)
Michael TharringtonJun 1, 2022
EDIT: The community member that this response was directed at has left the community.

As a member of the DEV team, I don't see this post as "political activism" but rather as us being inclusive and celebrating LGBTQIA+ folks.

I think it has much more to do with caring about people and being empathetic than it does about politics. This post is also very much in line with our values and Code of Conduct, so you shouldn't feign being surprised by this post.

We are absolutely a platform for developers AND we're very transparent about our beliefs and values; it's possible to do both!

Lastly, while you say you refrain from posting your political conviction, it doesn't feel that way when you hop into a post that celebrates LGBTQIA+ and complain about us being too political. That's not helpful, it's hurtful. It's uncalled for and not welcoming or inclusive.
- 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 2, 2022
  
  As a member of the DEV team, I don't see this post as "political activism"
  
  But it very clearly is though. There's a clear political message and it's being amplified through platform tools.
  
  Looking at a bunch of definitions online, most of them seem to be well reflected in the first sentence of the wikipedia article:
  
  Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good.
  
  In that sense, I think it's at least reasonable to consider this sort of advertising for a political topic a form of activism, as the ultimate goal is to sway public opinion, thereby influencing political decisions to some degree.
  - Michael TharringtonJun 2, 2022
    I see it more as social activism than political activism, but I don't really want to argue semantics. If you want to define this post as political activism then okay.
    
    The main point I wanted to get at in my message is that it's rude and unhelpful to hop into the comments section of a post that is celebrating LGBTQIA+ individuals and try to down-talk or dismiss the message. Our Code of Conduct states:
    
    Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
    
    Dismissing or attacking inclusion-oriented requests
    
    I see the message above as a dismissal of an inclusion-oriented request.
    
    And despite what the original message said, we can absolutely celebrate LGBTQIA+ folks AND still be a platform for developers. In fact, I think we're a better community because we try to do both.
    
    We're transparent about our values here not necessarily to try and "influence political decisions", but rather to be welcoming and celebrate LGBTQIA+ folks — it's a simple as that. You could say that our donations to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute are evidence of our political activism, but again I see this as being compassionate toward people who have been marginalized. And honestly, I don't care how you want to define it. We're not doing anything shady or trying to hide anything from you all... just the opposite actually, we're being super transparent and letting you all know what matters to us and what kind of community we want to foster. This way, if you disagree with us, you clearly know where we stand and so can "vote with your legs and find another platform."
    
    I don't really want to continue debating this with you here because I think it takes away from the focus of this post. To be very clear, please refrain from messaging me any further about this.
    - 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 2, 2022
      Good point tbh. Distinguishing between political and social activism feels a bit like splitting hairs, but I was already nitpicking to begin with, so that's fair.
      
      As I said elsewhere, I don't see the merit in this complaint mainly because Dev never was a community to talk about code and nothing else; there's always been conversations around the broader social topics surrounding software as well.
      
      That being said, from the perspective of someone who misunderstands Dev to be exclusively or even primarily a platform to talk about code, it is absolutely reasonable criticism.
      
      Because of this, I think trying to disprove that this whole thing is some form of activism is just the wrong way to address that criticism. Dev has never been apolitical, so there's nothing wrong with a bit of activism for a good cause, whether this is what's happening here or not.
Ben HalpernJun 1, 2022
Good luck to anyone who participates with a story! 💜
Arika OJun 1, 2022
EDIT: The community member to wich I'm replying has left the community.

This is a weird hill to die on.
Lars Gyrup Brink NielsenJun 1, 2022
Reach out if you would like to share your #DevPride story on the This is Learning publication for increased discoverability.

This is Learning

Inclusive software development publication free from conflict of interest. This publication is all about sharing software development knowledge for free and not at all about money or KPIs. Cross-posts are welcome.
protiumJun 1, 2022
With all due respect, I don't see a base to call this post "political activism". As mentioned by Michael, it is about caring for each other, for the minorities and people whose voices are oppressed. This is a simple way to say "we see you and we care about you". Why would someone feel offended by such a caring act?

Personally I think you could give yourself some time to understand what's the real reason this offends you, as a member of a community and a society. But please don't call it "political activism" because that is just harmful.
- Uriel BittonJun 2, 2022
  he's not as concerned as why they are posting a political, he's referring more to the fact that it has nothing to do with programming. I think that's his main point. While i am all for supporting the lgbq+ community, i do see where he's coming from since it has nothing to do with programming. But on the other hand, its a platform where this aforementioned community is probably highly present on, so it is a very tricky situation. Both sides have value.
  
  So yeah i understand both sides, therefore no good/respectful way to resolve this situation.
  - 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 2, 2022
    I kind of understand what they're saying, but honestly, Dev has never been exclusively about the technicalities of development. There's always been discussions about all the peripherals of software development, reaching all the way into mental health, workplace culture, etc. so it doesn't seem very off-topic for this platform to talk about yet another topic that affects the developer community more than the act of programming itself.
    
    It'd be a different situation entirely on a platform like stackoverflow, but for Dev, it's a real stretch to see this as a problem.
- 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 2, 2022
  
  But please don't call it "political activism" because that is just harmful.
  
  Why though? What would be the problem with a platform like Dev that's always been very loose with its topics (Talking about communities, culture, etc. relating development has always been a thing here) to also take a political stance on a topic that affects a big portion of the community?
  
  This is activism. That's a good thing.
  - protiumJun 2, 2022
    From my perspective this post is not intended to promote a political view. It's a celebration. I feel nowadays many people will use the term "political activism" to hide their lack of empathy and possible hate.
    I feel that calling it political activism is a way of not acknowledging its existence and role in society.
    - KeffJun 2, 2022
      I think it's a very sensitive topic, my philosophy is, respect everyone for what they are, regardless. No need to celebrate anything, do whatever you want and let everyone else do whatever they want. That being said, we should do whatever we can to remove the systemic and social issues that attack these minorities, not just in the case of LGBTQIA+ but every minority.
      
      We should not need to celebrate being black, indian, chinese or whatever... but we should make sure their rights are not violated, and we should respect and aknowledge everyone regardless...
      
      If celebrating it is the way to visibilize and help fix the issue for now, then I see no problem.
      
      What I mean by "We should not need to celebrate" is that in an ideal society we should get to a point, where being gay, trans, black, or whatever, is normal, and the strange thing was judging people for being different. That's were I want the world to go. A place where it does not matter what, who, or how you are, you're treated as a human, with respect, and that labels are only used for communicating, not for anything else.
      
      PD: I'm not part of the LGBTQIA+ community, or any other minority, so I can't talk from experience (I'm a white heterosexual male, living in europe...). I'm all about fixing this issues BTW and I love the work being done by the DEV team and everyone else involved in this movement, I'm not discrediting it what so ever. Just wanted to add my point of view.
      - 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 2, 2022
        Yea I guess the point of pride is to not need pride.
- Christian GötzJun 2, 2022
  
  As mentioned by Michael, it is about caring for each other, for the minorities and people whose voices are oppressed. This is a simple way to say "we see you and we care about you". Why would someone feel offended by such a caring act?
  
  Well, for me, the point is this:
  In a healthy society, it should never matter, if a human being is gay, trans, black, white, yellow, blue, big, small, disabled, has any kind of a fetish, etc. ... etc.
  
  Any human being should be treated as any other human being despite all it's individual properties. (Don't get me wrong: Individual properties are necessary, but don't matter in regard how we should treat each other.)
  
  That is, what I don't get about this "LGBTQIA+ Pride Month" or that "black lives matter" movement.
  On one side, they want to be treated equally. Well fine, that's legit. On the other side, they force their "minority thing" up front and "yell" at you, that they are different.
  
  It is like so:
  Gay person: "So, you know, I'm gay."
  Hetero person: "Well, ok. So what?"
  Gay person: "No, you don't understood. I said, I'm gay!"
  Hetero person: "Yeah, I got it. So what? Fine for you."
  Gay person: "No, no, no, no! I said, that I'm GAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!"
  Hetero person: "WTF is wrong with you? I don't care if you are gay! You got that?!"
  
  That is, how I (as a general hetero guy) feel about all this "gay celebration" and "black lives matter" stuff.
  I just don't care about such personal things, because I want to treat all human beings the same. (All lives matter, by the way.)
  
  Especially on such a developer platform. What matters on such a platform is, that all these people here share the same passion about software development. That should be the point. I just don't care, what the sexual preferences of a developer are or what skin color he/she has.
  That just doesn't (and never should) matter in this context.
  
  That is, why so much "normal" persons feel offended by these events. It feels like, they are yelling at you that they are different and somewhat special. That's the opposite of an "equally rights" movement.
  It's more like a fight of the "minorities" against the "majorities".
  - protiumJun 2, 2022
    I don't understand your analogy. It's pride month, the Dev team is proposing a fun activity to celebrate it. Does it feel like a yell because it is pinned?
    
    I get that you wouldn't understand why this is important if you have never been part of an oppressed minority. But for some people this can mean a whole world. It would be nice if we all members of the community can learn to appreciate that rather than feel annoyed by a pinned post.
    Also, I don't think the Dev community is forcing anyone to participate from the celebration but please correct me if I'm wrong.
    - Arika OJun 2, 2022
      I think some of these comments are a good (and sad) reminder that just because someone is involved in the field of technology it doesn't mean they are as supportive as we believe them to be.
      - KeffJun 2, 2022
        People are people, and no matter the field they will act as such, be it technology, art, whatever... we will always have more and less supportive people, even people who will not support anybody but themselves. You can't expect eveyone to be as supportive as you might want to, not everyone can. It's a shame, but it is what it is I guess...
        
        protiumJun 2, 2022
        At this point I don’t even expect support, it can not be forced. But I do expect people to be intelligent enough to ignore a pinned post about a topic they clearly don’t care about. Instead they go ahead and express their lack of empathy
        
        Michael TharringtonJun 2, 2022
        Strange because it doesn't feel like a fight of the "minorities" against the "majorities" at all to me.
        
        I don't get pissed off if someone who is marginalized celebrates who they are, I'm happy to celebrate with them and will proudly do my best to help lift them up. It makes me feel a lot better to be compassionate and caring for marginalized people when they're celebrating who they are than it does to get upset and offended by them.
        
        I have plenty of friends and family that are part of the LGBTQIA+ and Black communities, and I'm happy to celebrate with them and acknowledge the oppression that they have faced and continue to face. It's about being empathetic, compassionate, and absolutely about pushing for equality too.
        
        KeffJun 2, 2022
        You said it, intelligence. It's lacking now a days it seems. I've talked about this with friends and family lately. The phrase "We're evolving, but backwards" is more relevant than ever. Some of the coments in this thread show that...
        
        Christian GötzJun 3, 2022
        protium said:
        
        I don't understand your analogy. It's pride month, the Dev team is proposing a fun activity to celebrate it. Does it feel like a yell because it is pinned?
        
        This is kinda how it feels like.
        I mean, you go to dev.to and the first thing you see is a big fat banner about "pride month", filling out most of the space. It is like an unrelated advertisment, which you have to explicitely click away. You have to opt-out, instead opt-in.
        It is not so, that I can't ignore it. I can and I did it year after year. But now was the point, where I had to say what I think about it to support the other people, who think the same.
        I mean, you are flooded almost everywhere with that stuff. The mainstream/internet is full with this agenda. It get's harder and harder to just simply "ignore" it.
        
        It would be better, if there was a big fat pinned banner about some hot new software development stuff. That's what I'm interested in, when I visit a developer community site.
        
        I know, I know ... I'm one of the bad guys here. (It's funny, how my first comment was marked as "low quality/non-constructive by the community", just because I have an opinion, which is not mainstream. Even, that I made clear, how a healthy society should behave.)
        
        I mean, this is another thing: Most people don't think for themselves anymore or stand their ground.
        Nowadays, it's all about to fulfill and support the current political agenda. And everybody, who don't want to get brainwashed, steps aside and say "no, not with me" is judged by the "social justice warriors".
        
        Arika OJun 3, 2022
        I am sorry Christian, but I don't think your comment was maked as "low quality/non-constructive by the community" because your opinion is different but because you are clearly "dismissing or attacking inclusion-oriented requests" (which is very clearly stated in the Code of conduct). I mean, you use some pretty telling words: "political agenda", "brainwashed", "social justice warriors" and to pretend you're the victim here it's a bit of a stretch.
Lisa ArmstrongJun 1, 2022
Glad to hear about the initiative!
Just to nick pick some more, it's Greenwich (not wiTch).
... although I don't think the Queens who were there would be too upset about the gaff!
- Gracie Gregory (she/her)Jun 3, 2022
  Ha! Thanks for the edit! We've implemented it :)
~Jun 2, 2022
They can't retrain from supporting anything so long as they are getting paid😁
I could swear to God this community has had a "donation" from the same entities that polluted our planet with this lgbt- stuff. You can see it everywhere, movies, TV, festivals, advertisements, and on a coding community now!

I fear the dark day where you'd have to accept the term of service "I support lgbt-" when you register on any online platform..
- 𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 2, 2022
  Surely you wouldn't have any suspects for who's behind those "entities" you speak of, no?
Yongchang HeJun 2, 2022
Sending love!
Ar1suJun 2, 2022

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

14:44 PM - 31 May 2022
- protiumJun 2, 2022
  It is so funny how people get mad for a few colors. It must be that "ignoring things that you don't care about" is a really hard skill to master.
l1u7Jun 2, 2022
🤢 🤢 🤢 🤢
Michael TharringtonJun 2, 2022
Woot woot! Happy to celebrate Pride Month with everybody. 🙌

I'm really looking forward to reading folks posts under #devpride.
Abby PhoenixJun 2, 2022
Thank you all for actively working to make DEV such a welcoming and inclusive place on the internet!
Yrvin EscorihuelaJun 4, 2022
What is the interest to invade the intimacy of the human being appealing it as diversity?

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