What P.R.I.D.E. Means to Me: Love, Honor, Respect

By Adrianne Jones, chief admissions officer, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine 

P ronouns

R epresent

I  dentity 

D etermination and 

E xpression.

June is undeniably the month of pride. Pride is parades, drag shows, rainbows and so much more! It is a celebration where the intersections of all our gay identities meet.  

June is our Pride history month honoring Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, those two Black transgender women, who in 1969 stepped out of the Stonewall bar and unleashed the “pow-her.” Ladies, indeed we have come a long way, baby! 

Recently, there has been such hostility and backlash toward the LGBTQIA+ community and especially our transgender members, in particular our transgender youth and Black transgender women. We are all looking for safe(r) spaces; I for one have never found comfort in the closet, especially when it feels more and more like a revolving door as you come out and you go back in, and you come out. Discrimination is palpable. 

Pride month allows us to honor those who went before us in this fight for freedom, equality and human rights. We hug our allies tightly.   

Pride is about being accepted and respected. Feeling free to live your life, and to love whom you love, the rest of the 335 days in the year. Pride is about being a part of such a large community embellished by the diaspora of diversity; you are inspired trying to take it all in: L-G-B-T-Q-I-A-+

Pride is a celebration, where every day of the month, if you could, you would party like Prince said (like it’s 1999). It’s the month I smile so much my face hurts, wearing my rainbow colors and sashaying about in my Black and Proud t-shirt. Pride is the month where skittles are more than candy; it’s real life. Nevermind that it is still dangerous to be out and gay, but we persist. G-r-r-r-l, get your celebration on.  

In June, you take yourself seriously, you love yourself fiercely and you feel at home with yourself, finally. You learn that you come from a long line of survivors and that you are as strong as you think you are. You must look both ways before crossing the street, monitor for hostility and mind those microaggressions. 

The reality of Pride is that we are still fighting for our rights! Not everyone in the community feels this way. I am just one perspective. I wax philosophical while rolling up my Pride flags as the month of June is ending, but I will come back OUT to do it all again, but that’s on October 11, 2023, (National Coming Out Day) so plan ahead. Same place, same time, next year for Pride, it’s always in June.

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) welcomed Adrianne Jones as its new chief admissions officer in 2020. She is in charge of enrollment for programs across the college’s three locations. 

Jones, an out lesbian, comes to this new role with 25 years of experience in admissions and student counseling in higher education settings. She received her master’s in liberal studies, humanities and social sciences from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and her bachelor’s in English and history from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Jones is also in the process of getting her PhD from Walden University, for which she is writing a dissertation titled “Sponsorship Experiences of LGBTQ African American Women Executives in Higher Education Leadership.” 

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community who has worked with LGBTQ students in her past role as an academic advisor, queer inclusivity is one of many characteristics that Jones values in an academic institution such as PCOM. Her pronouns are she/her/hers.