Celebrating Your LGBTQIA+ Pride Stories 💖

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. 💜