No Pride if There is No Equity

By: Sergio Duran, Assoc. AIA | Associate, WRT & EDI Co-Chair

As many of us celebrate Pride Month as a time of joy and support for the LGBTQ+ community, I take time to pause, look back, and reflect on what the true meaning of Pride is. For most, Pride is about taking the streets to celebrate diversity during a specific time of the year. For me, it is also about recognizing all the leaders that fought for our rights and paved the way for us to be able to celebrate diversity freely.

Pride is about learning about the journey of those trailblazers, of the ones that we lost along the way, and about the ones that continue to shape the future of the LGBTQ+ community. Pride is about unlearning the implicit behaviors that, even today, don’t always allow everyone to bring their whole selves into our workplaces and communities.

As professionals in design, I believe in the importance of acknowledging that each of our identities contribute to our practice, and that it is important to ask ourselves questions about how it is that each of our diverse backgrounds and lived experiences contribute to the future of our workplace, an equitable workplace.

I urge everyone to remember that there is no pride if there is no equity.