Pride 2026

A note from the Branch+Barrel team on Pride and allyship

Laura:

 As pride month comes to a close I have been reflecting on what it means to grow with a community. These last few years have presented us all with a pretty decent representation of what “challenging times” look like. When I chronicle the varying events, I see a spectrum of grief, pain, fear, breaking, love, growth, healing, adaptation, and repairing. While it’s been hard and complicated, it doesn’t have to be faced alone. It can be met with immense support, benevolence, and kindness from our communities.

I am picturing myself on a fabulously ornate stage decked out in the world's most flattering outfit (if you're imagining sequins you’re doing it right) and being handed an elegant bronze statue. I have won the award for “It’s been pretty crappy out there lately, and you’re still keeping it together”. I unfold my speech notes and breathe awkwardly into the podium microphone. In this moment, I can finally appreciate the sentiments of every award winner trying to list off the people that they would like to thank. It’s overwhelmingly vast and nigh on endless. That’s what community is to me: an endless list of people who have lifted me up and extracted so much beauty and love that has been within me all along. Of which, I don’t have enough lifetimes to thank enough.

Another layer of this metaphor can offer a fresh perspective to our internal struggles. For me, it’s been hard not to be consumed by my own world while I navigate the varying challenges that it presents. However, when I can poke my head over the din, I can see an enormous crowd of people who have been holding me up the entire time. It turns out, it’s not about me at all.  It was never about me. It was about the auditorium full of people who understand what it means to grieve, to feel pain, to feel hardness. We’ve all been through it. When we can come together with empathy, love, and compassion we create alchemy. A magic that’s hard to describe and even harder to find the depth of its significance in something as simple as a thank you.

Community exists in varying forms, shapes and sizes. It ebbs and flows. It’s both boundaried and limitless. It is contradictory and forever changing. Sometimes I think it should have its own pronoun ;)  It moves with us and around us. It is not one simple entity and not everyone in it needs to understand the depth of who we are as individuals in order to be included in it. I am a part of my community and I offer myself and my resources up to it with no measure of expectation for reward. I receive from it in the same way. This year, I have been dipping my cup deep into the well of my community that now flows through me in the form of strength and perseverance. 

Without further ado, I would like to formally introduce someone that is at the top of my speech list of people that I couldn’t have done it without: my colleague, dear friend, and ally, Aliah. The far-reaching amount of space that Aliah holds for me as a friend is remarkable. Her support for me coupled with her endless belief and hard work that she puts into Branch+Barrel makes her a goddess in my book. Hell, this whole blurb you just read wouldn’t even have been written without her behind-the-scenes encouragement and support. It feels very empowering bigger-than-us when we work together. It’s more than an honor to have her on my team and as a part of my community. 

Aliah:

I didn't choose to be an Ally. I was born one. My entire life has been shaped by watching the mistreatment of those that were perceived as different. To me, being different was a gift. It meant that you were special. It meant that you got to experience life in a way that the rules didn't apply. I thought, “How fortunate to live outside of the bounds of normalcy.” I couldn't understand where this invisible hatred was coming from that led people to commit such violence upon others. These amazing people gave me something to strive for. They were an example of what kind of human I wanted to be. I was always drawn to people who didn't look and act like everyone else. They were the most interesting, the most open, the most loving. This is where my drive to protect those that didn't fit in was born. Some people need extra support and yes, protection. 

I didn't know there was a term for people who supported other people simply for standing out in a stagnant and suffocating society. Ally. A simple four-letter word that holds so much space for others to exist. Ally. Friend. Partner. Confidant. Protector. Being an Ally can come in so many forms. It can be as simple as not joining the pack in its bullying mentality. It can be as grand as physically protecting someone who is being attacked by another who is fearful of what they don't understand and act out accordingly. It can be writing or calling your local governments to strengthen the laws around protecting the rights of those who are othered. It can be simply telling someone who is experiencing the tumult and confusion of living among people who see them as less than that you see them and that they are accepted.

Allyship flows in all aspects of life. The Oxford dictionary defines Allyship as “active support for the rights of a minority or marginalized group without being a member of it.” In the barest of terms, Allyship means to live and let live and support those who can't support themselves in any way you feel comfortable. It's making an effort to stand up for inequality. It's walking away from toxic conversations. It's not laughing at a joke when everyone else seems to think it's funny…most of them probably don't, they are just terrified of not fitting in. If fitting in means hurting others, you're doing it wrong. That is not what humanity is about. Humanity is about connection, growth and bringing enlightenment to the human experience.

Pride month is only a small reminder that we all need to learn to be more accepting, more inclusive, more human. But it is not something that is to be swept aside until next year. It is something that persists in all of its grand humanity. Those that are a part of this community have lives they are living, like everyone else. They have friends, family, lovers, children, pets, jobs, hobbies and passions just like every human. Their struggles do not disappear at the close of a month. Their struggles can only disappear with acceptance.

So, if you weren't born an Ally, that's OK. Humans are capable of incredible growth and it's never too late to start taking small steps towards being a more open and generous human. Whether you’re 9 or 99, we can all choose to be better than we were yesterday.

I see you, I support you and I thank you for all that you are.