Each year, in June, I host a donation based yoga class in honor of Pride Month. It’s an easy, light and joyful class. In the spirit of Pride, we set an intention to be bigger, bolder, and brighter. And we meditate on the idea that everyone should have the freedom to love and be loved just as they are.

All of the donations I receive are sent to GLSEN, an organization whose mission is working ‘to ensure that LGBTQ students are able to learn and grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment.’

The other night, I was creating the social media promo material for this year’s class. I went to the GLSEN.org web page for the first time in a long while. On the home page there was a pop-up window that wasn’t there the last time I visited the page.

The window read: ‘Leave this site safely’. It has instructions for easily escaping the site, by quickly tapping three times.

And my heart broke.

It breaks my heart that in 2023 there are still queer, trans, fluid, questioning, and even curious straight people who can’t safely visit a web site that advocates on behalf of their safety and equality without having an escape plan; for fear of being ridiculed, bullied, disowned by their families, or worse.

This year, when some stores rolled out their Pride Merchandise displays, employees were bullied, threatened, physically accosted. Customers were harassed. Corporations were intimidated into removing merchandise in some states.

In 2010, when the It Gets Better Project started, the campaign promised our kids that even if life felt difficult as a queer/questioning/confused/normal teenager, things would get better for them. If they would just hang in there.

Things did seem to be getting better. There was much more queer/trans representation in the media. Much more visibility. There were more and more ‘out’ role models for young people to look to, for inspiration and more importantly, for hope.

There were celebrations of Supreme Court rulings. The rainbow flag flew on State Houses. Progress was being made! So much that a Progress Pride flag was introduced.

But there are still so many people who can’t live their authentic lives. People who are struggling with their identities, struggling with their sexuality and gender expression, and struggling with the fear of being targeted. There are young people who are looking for a place where they can go to be educated, to be accepted, to be validated. To save their lives. They are looking for a place to show them how things can get better for them. But sadly, that place needs a quick escape route, to protect them from being ‘outed’ to people who might make things much worse for them.

These things break my heart on a daily basis. …We told our kids it would get better.

How can we actually make it better for them?

We have to Up Our Allyship! Be more visible and be more of a role model.

Hang out your flags so that the young people who pass by your homes know that there are accepting, empowering adults in their neighborhood.

Have conversations with the younger people in your lives. They are so much more dialed in to these issues than we might think they are. They deal with the microcosms of the world in school, every single day. They know things.

Ask them about their first and second hand experiences with harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Ask them what needs to be done to make things better for everyone. Ask them how you can be a proper, modern, ally.

Stand up to harmful speech every single time you hear it. Young ears are always listening to the words you say. And the words you don’t say.

Donate to organizations that advance equity and justice. Vote for, and donate to politicians who fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

Look into your own heart, and set an intention to make things better for young people, in every and any way you can.

Don’t just hang in there. Be bigger. Be bolder. Shine a brighter light. Proudly.