June 23, 2025
This month, our nation’s capital, Washington, DC, hosted WorldPride 2025, an international festival held May 17 to June 8 that included concerts, a human rights conference, and more than 200 related events.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the globe gathered to celebrate and walk together in a festive parade. They also protested the unprecedented anti-LGBTQ environment.
Executive Orders are targeting the trans community—from defunding gender-affirming health care for transgender youth to banning trans people from serving in the military. More than 350 LGBTQ+ pages, policies, and guides have been removed from federal government websites. And already, 588 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country.
This Pride Month is an opportunity to support the LGBTQ+ community’s ongoing fight for safety, inclusivity, equality, and justice. Together, we can show support, share resources, and advocate for the clients and communities art therapists serve.
What to Watch
- Watch AATA’s June 2025 Continuing Education virtual learning session, Queer Worldmaking in Art Therapy: Affirming Queer/Trans Lives Through Creative Practice, with presenters Kachina Mooney, Sara Blevins-Ranes, and Nicholas Denson. They introduced foundational concepts of queer worldmaking and offered practical insights into how art therapists can incorporate these transformative ideas into their clinical practice.
- Watch Language Is Power: Ethical Practice of Bias-Free Language to Counteract Oppression, presented by Dr. Lynn Kapitan and Alex Kapitan. This session explores bias in language on race/ethnicity, gender, and disability—and how to construct bias-free alternatives that serve liberation.
- Watch this CE session, Identity, Art Therapy, and Working with LGBTQIA+ Community, with Jenni Ford, who discusses identity work, the intersection of layers of identity, and the use of art therapy interventions to aid in working with clients in LGBTQIA+ populations
Where to Show Up
- Join the AATA LGBTQIA/Queer Shared Interest Group for those who identify as LGBTQ+ to make meaningful connections within the art therapy community.
- Attend AATA’s annual conferences, in person and virtual, with sessions including Transitioning into Visibility: Art Amplifying Transgender and Non-Binary Stories for Social Change and Addressing Traumatic Experiences of Cis-Heterosexism in LGBTQIA+ Art Therapy. (Early Bird registration discounts end June 28!
What to Read
- Read about Stonewall. Dan Anthon recalls the time of the march when he was living in New York City and active in marches against the Vietnam War and the reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration:
“I walked alongside the vibrant and inspiring ‘Drag Queens’ who were the heart of the Stonewall movement. I recall this so personally because it seemed that one day a gigantic door opened and nearly every person I knew came out of the closet. Everyone but me.” (Learn more about the Stonewall Uprising here.)
- Learn How Art Therapists Can Build inclusivity and Foster Trust for individuals in the LGBTQIA+ Community in this article by AATA Board Member Michael Galarraga
How to Take Action
- Take Action. If you’d like to share your views with your lawmakers in support of the LGBTQ community, check out the Trevor Project, the Human Rights Campaign, and Mental Health America.
- Share our Pride Month Featured Member profiles.
