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JUNE FOCUS: ADVOCACY & COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT | ISSUE 1 OF 4 | 6.7.21
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Good morning and happy Monday! June is Pride
Month, which began more than 50 years ago as a way for the LGBTQ community to celebrate love, visibility and acceptance. In this edition, we’re centering LGBTQ voices and experiences.
Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:
Have a great week!
– Emily Blobaum, Fearless editor
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| BY COURTNEY REYES, ONE IOWA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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 June always rushes in with rainbows and LGBTQ folks on panels. The One Iowa team is full force in training more people than ever. This influx in June is welcome, but we know that we must continue the conversation of LGBTQ liberation all year
long.
We also know that we cannot do this work by ourselves. I believe that we have the numbers for good – that Iowans, like you reading this, want LGBTQ community members to feel safe and affirmed every day. Due to our current statewide political climate, we need allies to speak up. This is where you come in!
What can I do to help the LGBTQ community right now? Here a few of my go-to ways to use your power and privilege for good:
- Educate yourself and your company about the LGBTQ community. (One Iowa can help!)
- Don’t assume someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Listen to how they talk about themselves and their family -- mirror that language.
- When a marginalized person speaks up about injustice in a meeting/online, don’t stay silent. Let the room know you support this person.
- DO assume that there are LGBTQ people in your workplace and life. They just
may not be out to you.
- Shut down homophobic and transphobic talk/jokes immediately.
- Degender your language. Here are a few to get you started: Instead of saying "husband/wife," say "spouse/partner"; instead of saying "son/daughter," say "child"; instead of "ladies/gentlemen," say "distinguished guests"; and replace "hey, guys" with "hey, friends."
These are just a few easy actions to get you moving. It is so important to keep learning and to be OK with changing your mind with new information. Remember that advocating from a place of intersectionality is
crucial. We stand on the shoulders of the Black and Brown transgender folks who started the gay revolution over 50 years ago at the Stonewall Riots. We must continue their work.
No pride for some without liberation for all.
Courtney Reyes is a stay-at-home mom turned executive director who leads the advocacy group One Iowa. One Iowa advances, empowers and improves the lives of LGBTQ Iowans statewide. Learn more about the 15 anti-LGBTQ bills from the Iowa Legislature that One Iowa, One Iowa Action and a coalition of people stopped in 2021.
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Announcing dsm Magazine's 2021 LGBTQ Legacy Leaders
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The Business Record's sister publication, dsm Magazine, is pleased to announce the 2021 honorees for its annual LGBTQ Legacy Leader Awards, spotlighting
leaders and role models across the state for their work in advancing equality of LGBTQ+ individuals and for their other civic contributions.
The honorees include five people from the LGBTQ community as well as one ally:
- Tim Hickman, Des Moines, principal at Substance Architecture.
- Eugenia Kutsch-Stanton, Des Moines, research scientist at Corteva Agriscience.
- Randy Mayer, Ames, chief of the Bureau of HIV, STD and Hepatitis at the Iowa Department of Public Health.
- John Schmacker, Des Moines, retired certified public accountant and nonprofit executive.
- Elle Wyant, Iowa City/Cedar Rapids, account executive at United Parcel Service.
- Dr. Kyle Christiason
(ally), Cedar Falls, physician at UnityPoint Health.
dsm will recognize these individuals during a virtual event in October. Watch its website and social media for dates and registration
information.
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Six Iowa LGBTQ+ leaders on the importance of intersectional leadership
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| BY EMILY BLOBAUM, FEARLESS EDITOR
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Screen grabs from Zoom calls with LGBTQ+ leaders. Clockwise, from top left: Erika Hendel, Jen Carruthers, Buffy Jamison, Becky Ritland, Diana Prince, Courtney Reyes.
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All of the major LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations and nonprofits in the Des Moines metro area are being led by women or nonbinary people, many of them having
programming with a statewide reach. In two separate group interviews earlier this year, I met with six LGBTQ+ leaders and talked about why this is significant, the importance of intersectionality and visibility in leadership positions, and how they lead their organizations.
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Left: Tennis great Naomi Osaka. Center: CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch. Right:
Capital Crossroads director Britney Samuelson.
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- Citing mental health challenges, tennis great Naomi Osaka dropped out of the French Open last week. Prior to the tournament, Osaka had announced she would not participate in post-match news conferences because she said negative questions about her play affected her mental health.
- In 2021, the number of women running Fortune 500 businesses hit an all-time record: 41. Also keeping in line with making history: For the first time, two Black women are running Fortune 500 businesses (Roz Brewer of Walgreens and Thasunda Brown Duckett of TIAA) — and another executive is making history at the helm of the highest-ranking business ever run by a female CEO (Karen Lynch of CVS Health, which came in at No. 4).
- Britney Samuelson has been named the new director of Capital Crossroads. Samuelson joins Capital Crossroads under a new leadership model in which she will retain her current position at SPPG consulting firm.
- China announced that it will allow couples to have up to three children, after census data showed a steep decline in birth rates.
- The Olympics are poised to be the most women-centered Olympic Games in history. According to the IOC, women will make up nearly 49% of the total field of Olympians, an increase from the 45% participation at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the 2.2% at the 1900 Olympics, which were the first to include women.
- Women in the Czech Republic may soon be able to take nongendered versions of their surnames after lawmakers backed a change in the law. In the Czech language, the ending "-ova" is added to all surnames for women, so Mr. Novak's daughter becomes Ms. Novakova.
- The number of abortions in Iowa increased 24% in 2019, the most recent year for which state public health data is available. It’s a jump that critics attribute to the state’s decision to withdraw from a federally funded family planning program. There were 3,542 abortions provided in Iowa in 2019, according to state data.
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KNOW YOUR WORTH: FEARLESS STORIES AT WORK, BY
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‘Protecting Hands, Wise Counselor’: Romonda D. Belcher
Romonda D. Belcher doesn’t know how she stumbled across her dream to become a judge — only that the calling came early. The path to becoming an attorney, much less a judge, is long, but Belcher never lost sight of the judiciary as her end goal. Belcher attributes her persistence to her faith.
"Being a judge is what I do, not who I am," she says. "Who I am on the inside — my values, how I treat people, my character, my compassion — makes me the judge I am. I don’t just put on a robe and put on certain qualities. Who I am is who I am." READ THE FULL STORY>
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"IN OUR WORK AND IN OUR LIVING, WE
MUST RECOGNIZE THAT DIFFERENCE IS A REASON FOR CELEBRATION AND GROWTH, RATHER THAN A REASON FOR DESTRUCTION."
AUDRE LORDE
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Looking for other ways to celebrate Pride Month? Check out the following:
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