June is PRIDE month!!

And at MLY we say “ooooh yeah!” to LOVE in all its forms! To celebrate, we interviewed our founder, Ariel Saint White, who’s identified as LGBTQ since she was young.

What’s your favorite part of PRIDE?

For me, the best part of LGBTQ is celebrating love and sexuality in all its different shades of beauty.

What does PRIDE mean to you?

I’ve always identified as LGBTQ. Most people wouldn’t assume this about me. I don't care much about labels one way or the other, but if anyone ever asked, they would know I'm queer.

I remember my first two major celebrity crushes when I was a little girl around 4 or 5: Atrayu from The Neverending Story, a boy close to my age, and Kelly LeBrock from Weird Science, an incarnation of the Goddess.

Even though I am a very feminine-looking woman, married to a man, I’ve always felt fluid in my sexuality… falling in love with the person more than anything else.

I think it is the spirit that makes someone beautiful. To me, gender and genitalia are not important.

In many indigenous cultures, there were those in the tribe called ‘Two Spirits.’ Two Spirits were both man and woman, feminine and masculine… oftentimes they were shamans, teachers, artists. Think of David Bowie and Prince; epic artists that embody both masculine and feminine aspects.

I relate to this idea of being a Two-Spirit even though to the outside world I look like a feminine woman. 😉

I feel equally connected to both masculine and feminine energies.

What words do you have to offer our community at the end of PRIDE month?

At the end of pride month, I want to take a moment as the founder of MLY to say that we celebrate diversity in all of its forms and flavors!

We are also inspired and encouraged by younger generations who are tending to explore their identity beyond the constraints and boxes of clearly defined sexuality or gender.

We think it is beautiful when people can be fully themselves, whatever that looks like along the spectrum of expression.

If you study our closest living relatives Bonobos, they are matriarchal, bisexual and solve conflicts with pleasure! “Make love, not war.”

While extreme control is on the rise in certain parts of the world, we are still hopeful for the change ahead and celebrate the choices that consenting adults make for themselves.

At the end of the day, LOVE is the most powerful energy in the world and we will always choose love over fear.

What does celebrating diversity look like for you?

Xx