{"id":227,"date":"2023-06-23T14:41:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T18:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/?p=227"},"modified":"2024-06-14T11:29:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T15:29:05","slug":"better-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/2023\/06\/23\/better-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/em>By Raylene Espitia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This blog post features a Duane Morris staff member in celebration of Pride Month.<\/em><\/p>\n

Greetings! I come in peace and I am here to share a little bit about me. My name is Raylene (or Ray \u2013 your call), and I joined Duane Morris roughly 10 months ago as a Legal Assistant with the Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration group in the Chicago office. I came out as bisexual at the age of 21 and was fortunate to be surrounded by supportive friends and family. A few years later, I moved alone from California to Chicago. Every single person I met for the next couple years was brand new to me and of course, knew nothing about me either. During this time, the majority of the people I met had the tendency to assume that I am straight and\/or treated me differently when I told them that I identify as bisexual. Having such a significant part of me ignored and misunderstood brought back feelings of isolation, frustration, and loneliness, to name a few. However, this encouraged me to practice self-acceptance more than ever before and to seek ways to help others like me. In January of this year, I found an LGBTQ+ organization to join and it\u2019s been such a joy to be a part of. I am so happy to be around people again who understand me and can make me feel like I belong.<\/p>\n

During my time serving the youth with the Center on Halsted, I have seen so many kids and young adults finally find a space where their identities are recognized and accepted. From the very beginning, I was surprised, humbled, and overwhelmed to see the impact that providing a safe space for people had on their wellbeing. I am sharing this because I think it\u2019s important for people to realize that everyone has the power to make an impact on LGBTQ+ lives. Together we can make our community a better place.<\/p>\n

Pride month is as much of a time to celebrate as it is to acknowledge the issues our community still face today. Seeing firsthand what these groups of people working together can do to make the world a safer place for others gives me hope that we are getting better as a whole day after day. Every day I am grateful to be surrounded by supportive friends, family, and now, a workplace \u2013 shout out, Duane Morris! \u2013 that gives me permission to be myself proudly.<\/p>\n

Happy Pride!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Raylene Espitia This blog post features a Duane Morris staff member in celebration of Pride Month. Greetings! I come in peace and I am here to share a little bit about me. My name is Raylene (or Ray \u2013 your call), and I joined Duane Morris roughly 10 months ago as a Legal Assistant … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Better Together”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[144,90,109,108,143],"ppma_author":[47],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-center-on-halsted","tag-dm-pride","tag-duane-morris-pride","tag-pride-month","tag-raylene-espitia"],"authors":[{"term_id":47,"user_id":490,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dmdandi","display_name":"Duane Morris Diversity and Inclusion","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2020\/10\/dmlogo.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/diversityandinclusion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}