By Savanna Elizabeth
Activism has many faces. It is you checking in on a friend who's running low just as much as it is a celebrity showing up to a protest.
It's sharing what you know with someone who needs it the same way that it is fighting for your neighbors.
Activism exists in the meal you cook for your partner; the hand you offer to your friend; the chosen family you keep fed and warm. It is there on the days you show up despite hardship and speak in unison with the voices of change.
This Pride month, I want you to remember that the way we've had to reimagine family, home, and community - often because the traditional version was never built with us in mind - is activism.
We are continuously learning how to create homes, families, safe spaces, and joy where they weren’t permitted before. We exist each day with the right to be seen. We live each moment with the reminders of what Pride Month was originally - staying true. Standing up. Being a part of a community especially when it's hard.
These ways of being have brought us closer to each other and the ground below us; held space for those who’ve felt constricted by bounds that find ways to leave someone out. They remind us of who we are, what we will continue to fight for, and why it all matters.
A life of community, compassion, and connection is queer ecology. Sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes it’s loud, but it’s always us, who we are, who we have been, and who we will continue to be.
You don't have to flatten nor change yourself to be an activist.
Show up as you are.
Listen.
Learn a little more.
Do what you can.
Remember why it matters.
Activism looks like you; the life you live; the love you give.
Don’t forget it.
More on queer ecology is linked here.