What better day to talk about LGBTQ Pride than today? Not only are we celebrating Pride during the month of June, but today the Supreme Court of the United States made a decision on a landmark case. This case grants protections to LGBTQ individuals from being fired due to their sexual orientation. According to an article from NBC News titled In landmark case, Supreme Court rules LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination, reporter Pete Williams states, “Across the nation, 21 states have their own laws prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Seven more provide that protection only to public employees. Those laws remain in force, but Monday’s ruling means federal law now provides similar protection for LGBTQ employees in the rest of the country.”
This is an incredible win for the LGBTQ community. Some say it’s even more important than the court’s June 26, 2015 decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, which granted same-sex marriage to all 50 states, because not all members of the LGBTQ community intend on getting married, but most need a job.
To celebrate Pride Month, I reached out to an old high school friend, Lauren, to have a Pride Photo Shoot with her and her girlfriend, also named Lauren.
We met up on Mass Ave in Downtown Indianapolis and walked around for a little bit. It was great getting to catch up and meet Lauren’s girlfriend, Lauren. We’ll call them the Laurens from here on so things don’t get confusing. 🙂 After shooting for a while, I wanted to get to a parking garage downtown so that we could get the Indianapolis skyline in the background with the Pride flag. Incorporating the skyline was important to me because though Indiana can seem like a very judgemental and scary state at times…Indianapolis, to me, has always felt more accepting than most of the rest of the state and it’s been an awesome place to explore and see so many businesses and people support Pride Month.
And lastly, before sharing the awesome photos from this session, I just want to say that Pride Month is so much more than a bunch of partying or an “excuse for businesses to profit.” The celebration of Pride Month is in commemoration of the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City. On June 28, 1969, police raided a prominent meeting place for LGBTQ New Yorkers called the Stonewall Inn. A protest ensued and at the forefront of those protests were trans women of color like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. It’s a part of America’s history that is often forgotten, and definitely not taught in school history books, but it’s so important and I encourage you to research more about it. You can learn more about the LGBTQ rights movement by visiting glaad.org or hrc.org.
Thank you so much to The Laurens’ for hanging out with me for the evening! Happy Pride! 🙂
