Everyone Is Awesome: Celebrating as an active accomplice in PRIDE Month 2022
My family and I have always loved Lego. My husband started an activity he calls Lego Therapy, where he puts on some music, and builds a complex Lego set over days or weeks. He usually ends his workday with this activity and does it over the weekend as well. Over the pandemic, he started ordering sets for the rest of our family as anxieties intensified, moods went down and lockdowns stretched on. Lego Therapy became a constructive time for each of us in our home, prompting us to practice mindfulness and intentionally detach from our languishing selves.
In advance of June 2021, Lego released a new set for PRIDE month: the Everyone Is Awesome set. My husband bought it for me because he knew how much I would love what it represents – and because it would be a great addition to the Lego Therapy activity in our home. He also knew that I had spent the past year thinking and learning a lot about how to be an ally.
In sharing with our summer intern my delight with the new set that had arrived earlier in the day, she made a brilliant suggestion: instead of building the set on my own, why not engage in conversation with colleagues and friends in the LGBTQIA2S+ community while building the set?
Now I was even more excited about the opportunity presented by this Lego set; it prompted me to create opportunities to amplify the voices of community leaders who have been having an impact on advancing change, disrupting the status quo, and building community. The idea of the 2022 Everyone is Awesome Series was created! Over last summer, I set up conversations with community leaders, and as we discussed a range of topics, I gradually assembled the Lego set, with the intention to share these conversations during PRIDE month in 2022. Every time I look at the completed set on the shelf in my office, I think of each of my colleagues and friends, and all that I have learned – and continue to learn from them.
This series is based on three goals:
1. Elevate and amplify LGBTQIA2S+ voices during PRIDE month and beyond.
2. Respectfully disrupt trends in performative allyship by giving LGBTQIA2S+ community leaders a platform to share their insights and authentic selves.
3. Spark conversations during PRIDE month based on resources and ideas directly from the LGBTQIA2S+ community that continue well beyond the month of June, and result in social impact.
I invite you to listen, watch and join the conversation. Perhaps you’ll even want your own Lego set to build as you watch these casual conversations. Share your ideas, thoughts, reflections, and questions about allyship, and the role that campaigns and awareness days/months play in social impact in the comments, we love to hear from you. If you’re engaged in the work of allyship, share your best practices with us on Instagram and/or LinkedIn because we love to learn and refine our craft! Happy PRIDE month and beyond!