Happy Pride everyone! The world is only more beautiful with everyone and everything in it. Many of the friends I’ve made through iNat are LGBTQIA+ and my life & outdoor adventures are that much better because of it. 
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While we’re sharing pretty stuff, look, a new one!
For those curious: there is a lot of history behind pride flags and the colors included. I’d recommend checking out the Wikipedia article here
The newer colors here are light blue / white / pink, which are the trans flag colours. Brown, for lgbt people of colour who face multiplied discrimination. And black to commemorate the victims of the HIV crisis which devastated an entire generation of lgbt people, particularly gay men, nearly unchecked for years.
…also, @kestrel , I love how one of the blue ones is the isopod virus that turns them blue. I’m dying 
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Ha, thanks! I was only using my photos & I wanted to have a diversity of taxa for each color - but there are not a lot of blue species around me, so when trying to think of other blue arthropods I remembered the isopod virus & knew I had a photo of it! 
I also love that the two blue butterflies are likely two males of two different species: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21586784. 
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Blue butterflies are always so beautiful, especially silver studded blues (in the UK)
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happy pride y’all!
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Thank you very much. Happy to be here~
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I’m definitely interested! That would be so great to have a space for all of us to connect and even work together. :))
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I updated the logo from one we previously had to make sure to represent black, brown, and trans folks, who are often not represented in the queer community! I’m typically not a fan of big corporations turning their logos rainbow but I don’t mind for iNat, especially because this is something important to our team :)
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Happy Pride, y’all!
Honored to have been able to share my story in the blog post. As a young queer brown kid into nature, I never saw someone who looked like me growing up. It’s still scary putting myself out there, but I hope that even if one person sees someone like them and realizes “I’m safe to be my whole self” that’s enough for me :)
Things across the world are changing and people are becoming more comfortable being themselves. And I’m so grateful to see so much love and support in our community!
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I wasn’t going to post this on the thread, but was advised it would not be wrong - HIV has also devastated many areas in Africa (men using prostitutes). I’ve read of some villages where there are basically no men left - they died of HIV. Women have often been left to keep families alive. One of the world experts on HIV, Dr. Allan Ronald, did most of his work out of of Winnipeg (https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/health_sciences/medicine/units/medical_microbiology/faculty/ronald.html). This is not to diminish the losses suffered by the homosexual people who died, but to add a bit of context to how devastating the virus has been worldwide.
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I think it’s different when a not-for-profit company does it. I do agree that there are some cases where the corporation does it purely to get more customers.
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Or who don’t commit… because at the end of the day it’s just pridewashing to get money
I and many queer people would rather see proportional/equitable representation and support for our rights than a few more rainbows.
I trust iNat means it, though.
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In Bethesda’s case it’s also because of the strong homophobia present in those countries that they don’t change the profile picture for those accounts.
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I also wanted to mention those whose voices are not heard here. The ones who didn’t make it.
Whether they gave up science because they thought they would not belong. Whether they were not accepted to the college of their choice due to discrimination. Whether they are not ready to speak openly about their identity. Whether they cannot pursue science because they live hand-to-mouth without societal support. Whether they could never finish school because they were thrown out of their parents’ house for who they were. Whether they’re still homeless now. Whether they are in jail for their orientation and identity. For those who died; to AIDS, depression/suicide, to lynchings, and other causes. I nearly died myself one year ago.
Of the whole spectrum of lgbt people, despite the hardships I did and continue to live through, I don’t dare forget I’m still privileged.
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We have come a long way since the stereotype of the limp-wristed, lisping effeminate.
I will say, though, that the increasing awareness of homosexual activity among non-human animals will not necessarily be all good for us. It could just feed the anti-science movement – one more way that science is dismantling the world that had been so comfortable for a few.
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IMO it is a natural scientist’s mission to rebuild the world on the basis of truth. So, Onward!
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Stonewall was my stepping stone. Used to do educational speaking gigs on being gay many moons ago. Always used other species’ same sex pairing examples to get across how absolutely in sync we all are.
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I’d like to thank the folks at iNat, and all of you fellow i-Natters for making the effort to make this an open and welcoming community. It’s not always easy to take a stand publicly in the face of occasional aggressive pushback from the few who somehow feel threatened by diversity, so I applaud all of you who do!
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What a cool story! Have you ever written that particular pair up, like in a blog post or something? I’d love to read more about them, if you have and it’s shareable/you feel comfortable sharing it.
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I’d be interested in an ongoing LGBTQ+ project as well! (I am planning to attend the mixer.)
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