On June 23, Software for Good will continue our tradition of marching in the Twin Cities Pride parade alongside fellow members of the Minnesota tech community. We’re honored to participate in LGBTQ+ Pride as a sponsor of the parade and festival, and through our work on the Twin Cities Pride mobile app. This year, we’ll march under the theme “Upgrade Equality.”
As a software company, performing and installing upgrades is part of our routine. Projects don’t end when we launch an application or website — we continue to check in, fix bugs that have appeared, and upgrade the tools and systems necessary to make the software work.
“Software is never done,” we often tell our clients; there’s always more we can do to improve an application, and to keep it from degrading over time.
For any kind of human rights, including those for the LGBTQ+ community, there’s no one moment when equality is achieved. Progress happens in a variety of ways, and even after victories, oppression can resurface — like the news last month that the Trump administration plans to remove anti-discrimination protections for trans people in healthcare and housing.
Just as we monitor our software for problems and continue to improve it, the fight for equal rights requires vigilance and evolution. We should keep paying attention to what’s happening politically, advocating for legal protections, supporting businesses owned and art created by LGBTQ+ people, and calling out discrimination when we see it. And we should be aware of and acknowledge the intersections of LGBTQ+ life and identity with race, class, gender, and ability.
“Upgrade Equality” doesn’t mean forgetting or overwriting what’s come before. This year’s Pride marks 50 years since the Stonewall Uprising that sparked the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and liberation, and marching for Pride means honoring that history and carrying it forward.
We hope you’ll join us at Twin Cities Pride this weekend — you can use our app for iOS and Android to navigate the fest — and keep looking for ways to upgrade equality.