Evolve in every

Iwas asked this question at an event. Was there anyone who was older which inspired you that was in the LGBTQIA+ community? I mean in a way you learned mannerisms or asked for advice in your coming of age of finding yourself. Such as, how do I deal and where do I go if my family does not accept me? How do I deal with friends who push away from me once they are against who I am due to religion or what they were taught from home? Will I forever have to come out of the closet every time I meet someone at the workplace or even in general?

I saw the importance of LGBTQIA+ safe spaces and organizations. Safe spaces are important in our journey especially having people of every generation in a room:

By Monick Monell

٠ The Greatest Generation

Born 1901-1924.

٠ The Silent Generation

Born 1925-1945

٠ The Baby Boomer Generation

Born 1946-1964

٠ Generation X

Born 1965-1979

٠ Millennials

Born 1980-1994

٠ Generation Z

Born 1995-2012

٠ Gen Alpha

Born 2013 – 2025

We must remember the people who fought before laws were in place. Remember how others saw life through their eyes. What does freedom look like being in this world? What does resilience truly mean to us? Physical resilience, mental resilience, emotional resilience, and social resilience. They have a saying” those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

The importance of our words, our stories, our past and our present is as important as our future. It is 2023 and as I am writing this piece there are at least 471 antiLGBTQIA bills that have been introduced. We have 39 bills targeting Drag performances that our legislators are also trying to pass. Also, bills being proposed are attacking medical care and worldwide rights for LGBTQIA+ people, it is as if trying to erase us as a people.

For 2023, Pride means community, village, resources but also, I learned that it is important to listen and speak to our ancestors for answers. I have learned our ancestors are here right now! All of us in every generation have the heart to change the world and to remember we are evolving in every season. I want you all to walk into different rooms and come together like we used to in all generations. When new headlines and different politics, business, science come and try to censor us. Remember to pick up a book about our history, remember to go back and find answers and remember inspiration comes in us sharing our stories. Because the answers for change are in us!

If you are looking for spaces and resources to come together, please connect with your organization or with someone you connect that you feel safe with.

Living in New York City I am provided with joining such spaces as “The Generation Project ''. The Generations Project is a place for LGBTQIA+ to meet and connect across all generations and backgrounds, to share and preserve our history and tell our stories in our own voices. By revitalizing the oral tradition, we create opportunities for in-person gathering and communitybuilding, ensure the handing down of LGBTQ+ experiences to future generations and uplift marginalized voices.

Also, I am a member of “The Masculine Identified Lesbians of Color Collective’s” where the mission is to sponsor quarterly discussion groups and workshops, with the distinct goal of empowering a marginalized community of women who in some form or another have or will share similar experiences of rejection or judgment simply because of their identity as Masculine Identified Lesbians of Color. In addition, to create an intergenerational bonding process, along witha sense of mental and physical balance. MILCC's face today and options to enact change to the stigmas associated with being a MILCC.

As the 300 anti-education bills are being introduced this year to include a surge in curriculum censorship bills, which would restrict instruction around gender and sexuality in public schools. A new category of bills referred to as “forced outing” bills are also being introduced.

In every pride celebration remember the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally. Trans rights, Human rights, and LGBQ rights makes us all question where we fit in this world. I want us all to know we do not need permission to exist.

So, I will write this down one more time. “Evolve in every season” May not every story of our existence be of what is trying to erase us, but let every story be about our resilience and the generations to come.

Photo Credit: Catitude Photography