First black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court.

Like most of you, 2021 has been sort of surreal. After more than a year of some hybrid form of working from home with your “pod” of people (family, friends, or some combination thereof), where our collective 24/7 life cycle consisted of wake, eat, work, yell at your kids/friends/pets, maybe shower, binge watch a show, maybe exercise, maybe drink, and then repeat in some similar order again … and again.  The light at the end of the COVID tunnel seemed elusive, and for some it still is.   

UPDATE: (6/17/21) The SCOTUS ruled in the Fulton v City of Philadelphia case mentioned in this blog post. The SCOTUS unanimously decided that Philadelphia does not have the right bar a religious agency from refusing to work with same-sex couples.To read the full decision, click here.

June is Pride month, which celebrates Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Allies and Pansexual (LGBTQIA+) persons. The annual recognition of Pride is in June to honor the Stonewall Riots of 1969. The Stonewall Riots occurred in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The raid lead to days of protests and clashes with law enforcement because of the violent way employees and patrons of the Stonewall Inn were treated during the raid. Although there have been gay rights organizations founded since the 1920’s, the Stonewall Uprising is considered by many to have kicked off a gay rights movement both in the United States and world-wide. As a result, there has been some progress.

EDITORS' NOTE: At Constangy, we like to say that DEI is in our DNA. Like many in the world, we in the DEI Practice Group are inspired by current events and strive to channel that inspiration to support and drive change within ourselves and with our clients. Neil Wasser, one of our Partners and Chair of our Firm’s Executive Committee, shared a personal message yesterday. His words and leadership resonated so strongly, and we would like to share them with you (with his permission, of course).  

- Lara and Punam