Each June, communities across the world celebrate Pride Month as an important, reflective, and joyful time to recognize both the ongoing adversities and inspiring achievements of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere.

This year, Pride Month is particularly poignant. The United States - and the world - is finally beginning to grapple with the countless deaths faced by Black people due to police brutality, overt racism, and systemic hatred for centuries. In the midst of this pain and important work, we cannot forget the particularly deep and painful impact experienced by the LGBTQIA+ individuals that overlap with these communities. Black and transgender women are particularly oppressed and at risk of being victims of violence. For more data on the disproportionate affect of violence on the transgender and gender non-conforming community in 2020 alone, please read this report. Most importantly, you can support Black LGBTQIA+ people with your signatures and money. Discover ways to do so via GLAAD.

#DEVPride -- How we’re celebrating LGBTQIA+ Life in June

This year, we’re kicking off #DEVPride, a celebration of community members who self-identify as LGBTQIA+. We will be collecting stories (both written and spoken-word) from self-identifying members of the LGBTQIA+ community so we can highlight them in a site-wide celebration on June 23rd (Alan Turing’s birthday). 🌈

We’d love to read and listen to your story. Starting today, you can publish your #DEVPride post or email us a voice memo. For those sending in recordings, we’ll be cutting together a special clip of community voices as part of our June 23 celebration and as a mini episode to be featured on the DEVDiscuss podcast.

How to Participate

• Visit https://dev.to/new/devpride
• You’ll be presented with a few prompts - these are just for inspiration! Feel free to write your own story.
• Hit publish!

And if you’d like to send in a voice memo:

• Tell us what makes you proud in a 1-2 minute .m4a voice memo. - Email pod@dev.to with the recording!
• If you don’t have the means to record, call our Google Voice at +1 (929) 500-1513 and leave a message. 📞

Thank you to all of the LGBTQIA+ members of DEV. We are humbled by you and are ready to support you. We also can’t wait to celebrate together this month!

** Note: While June is a special time for LGBTQIA+ pride, it is by no means the only time we need to hear your stories on the subject. Please feel free to use the #DEVPride hashtag long after our June 2020 Pride celebration concludes. We will continue following and being inspired by your posts and achievements.