Pride Month is a special time for celebration, but it also is a time to reflect on how this important month came to be. In this week’s vlog, Dr. Satterwhite and Dr. Pang share what this month means to them and how they continue to honor the spirit of Pride this month and beyond.
Align Surgical’s team will be celebrating Pride by participating in this year’s Trans Pride LA and SF Trans March events. Come stop by our booth to say hi!
Dr. Satterwhite:
We’re fortunate being here in California, particularly in San Francisco, where we can just have Pride all the time – where we can be who we are. And I think for me, this is a time for me to just be grateful to be in this position where I can provide care to our patient population. It’s a true honor to be able to take care of the patient population. I find it touching and certainly humbling when patients thank me for the work that I do. But it’s nothing compared to what the patients have to go through – the work that they have to do for themselves, for their community to be where they are today, to be here in my office. They’re the patients who, despite all the negativity and the badness that’s been thrown at them since they were a kid, still made it to get here and go through all the hurdles, which there still are, to get to this office to move forward with their operations. I take pride in knowing that I can be part of that special journey for all of our patients.
It’s an opportunity to reflect on the happiness and the excitement and certainly take the time to commemorate and remember those who didn’t make it and those who fought for you know where we are today. We’re following a path that’s been created by many, many other brave souls before us and I’m just a tiny, little person in that path, but I’d like to do my small part in maintaining that Pride as we move along.
Dr. Pang:
I feel like I say this every year, but Pride is such a deeply special month. Every year, I feel like it’s needed more than ever. Pride was born of protest. It’s a group of people who were standing up for themselves and making a statement about their rights being human rights. Every year, I feel as though we are doing the same thing.
It’s a celebration for sure. It’s a celebration about queer joy, queer success, the queer power of visibility. At the same time, it’s very much still a protest. It’s still for people and trans-people to stand up and say that their rights should be recognized. That their rights are human rights, their access to care are basic human rights and that’s a very powerful thing.