Before It's Too Late.

What a time to be alive - and to be black, and to be gay.

The intersectionality of this week has been difficult, to say the least. Being a member of two marginalized groups, both continuously fighting for basic human rights, and both being marginalized for traits out of their control (skin color; sexual orientation), can be exhausting. It's like paying to go to a concert and then being told you have to turn around not watch, for reasons out of your power.

I knew I was Black before I knew I was gay and while I celebrate this month with the LGBTQ community, I can't help but carry a heavy heart for the Black community. In a story in which we have been overwhelmingly targeted, unduly struck down by threat of our blackness, we require explicit attention, protection, and value. I stand in this fight with you - my brothers, my sisters.

To my colleagues, let’s all recognize that anti-Black racism and white supremacy are the bedrock of every single social injustice we aim to address. Be it housing, education, wages, gender justice, civic engagement, LGBTQ freedom, hunger, poverty, culture, you name it

You don't have to be a 'march in the streets' protester to make a change or support the cause. Do what you can where you are. Allies, I implore you to fund spaces that foster a radical imagination and the creation of new ways of being that could potentially replace centuries of systemic and structural racist practices in our society. Be the change you want to see.

Black lives have always mattered.

I'm grateful, every day, to be able to live and breathe. I'm grateful for my family, my friends, my partner, and my career. My manager, who's been an amazing ally, has truly shown me that you don't have to experience a situation first-hand to show empathy and support. This moment demands that we respond in unparalleled and unprecedented ways. Before it’s too late.