A Rainbow of Diversity

Sunday, June 25, was a hot and muggy day, but an exhilarating one for Body Positive, as our green and white balloons bobbed down Fifth Avenue among the rainbow flags in New York's annual Heritage of Pride Parade. We were celebrating not only the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, but Body Positive's own origins in the LGBT community.

When Body Positive was born in 1987, most of the people we served -- and most of the people who did the work -- were gay men. Today, Body Positive reaches out to a much more diverse group. The people who use our services are all infected or affected by HIV or AIDS, but that is where the similarity ends. Our support groups, workshops, conferences, benefits counseling, and helpline reach people of all types of backgrounds, orientations, and circumstances. The diversity of the people who use Body Positive's services, and of the people who provide them, was reflected in the group that gathered at Pride. Men and women, staff and board members and volunteers, gay and straight, black and white and brown -- all marched together in the spirit of pride, behind the banner of an agency with its roots in the gay community.

People in the line of march and those along the sidelines cheered and whistled as the rainbow flags went down the street. Those rainbow flags, and the marchers who carried them, represent the rainbow of diversity . . . for everyone.

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This article was provided by Body Positive. It is a part of the publication Body Positive.

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