his past Thursday, Crystal shared with us her latest presentation entitled “ Pride 101”

With the Omaha Pride Celebration coming up on July 12th this year, Crystal spoke a little bit about gender identification, which can be about what represents you or makes you feel comfortable.  Part of your image is certainly about picking out the clothes you wear that represent who you are.  But there are also some people that use pronouns to identify themselves.  Such as He/him/his, for someone who might identify as male.  Or She/her/hers, for someone who identifies as female.  Crystal shared that when you are meeting someone for the first time who identifies themselves with pronouns,  even if you don’t get their pronouns right the first time, try not to worry too much about it.   Most people will appreciate your efforts the first time around to try and get it right.  And you can always ask that person what their preferred pronouns are.  But keep in mind that most people don’t like to be known by a definition.  Queer identity will be always be different for everyone.  

In general flags can always be a good sign of how things are changing all of the time.  Even though the rainbow flag is widely used, there are more than twenty different Pride flags.   The current rainbow flag made it’s debut  in 1978. 

If you have someone in your life who has recently come out to you, it’s okay to be a little curious and to ask questions.  You can always begin by being an ally for that person.  An ally would be someone that they can trust, or who may be able to push them towards the right resources.  And speaking of resources, below are just a few:

Trevor Lifeline….for LGBTQ and young people.

Omaha for Us….is an LGBTQ community center in Omaha.  Their address is 

3337 N. 107th Street.   ( 108th and Maple area)