Happy Pride Month!
Hey guys! Happy Pride Month!!
It’s June, and you know what that means: Pride Month is here! Today, Pride is celebrated all around the world, honoring LGBTQIA+ individuals and their communities. Pride is for everyone who identifies with the community, as well as allies and supporters. Anyone can be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, including disabled people, people of color, and individuals from different religious and ethnic backgrounds.
What does LGBTQIA+ stand for?
LGBTQIA + stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual. The additional “+” stands for all of the other identities not listed in the short acronym. It is a term used for the entire community. The acronym keeps changing to include more people’s identities!
What is Pride Month and why do we celebrate this month?
Pride Month is dedicated to uplifting, commemorating, and elevating the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals and their communities. It’s about honoring the activists and supporters who fought for people to be who they are and to obtain their rights to marry and love whom they want. It is also about advocating for and dismantling homophobia and discrimination against the community. Pride Month reminds us that it’s okay to be different and that love is love. Throughout the world, millions of people celebrate Pride to express themselves and their happiness by attending pride parades and activities, virtual parades, reading books, watching documentaries, TV shows and movies with LGBTQIA+ representation, and going to webinars to engage and learn about the LGBTQIA + community, activists, and history. For some, it’s a celebration of their journey to self-acceptance. Pride Month is not only about celebrating people who are out but also those who are not out and struggle to tell their loved ones.
We celebrate Pride because it’s a reminder of what activists, supporters, and individuals in the and figuring out if they’re in the LGBTQIA + community have accomplished, from the Stonewall Riots to today. It’s about progress! The Stonewall Riots were a catalyst for the Gay Liberation Movement. People were always fighting for LGBTQ+ rights before the Stonewall Riots occurred, but this event and others during the 1950s and 60s gave the community a lot of traction and attention. People wanted change and they didn’t want to go to jail for being themselves and loving someone! Who would want to do that? So, they fought for themselves, their loved ones, and future generations to ensure they could be their true selves without going to jail or being discriminated against. They wanted to be respected and treated with dignity. Even today, people are still fighting for rights and acceptance in society. We commemorate the activists, individuals, and supporters who paved the way for us to be who we are without being punished or discriminated against. We continue their work to ensure that all people feel comfortable and that the LGBTQ+ community is normalized instead of considered taboo.
What are the Stonewall Riots?
The Stonewall Riots were a series of violent demonstrations against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, on June 28th, 1969. Police were undercover at the Inn that night, singling out drag queens and arresting them. It is unclear what exactly sparked the riots, but witnesses say that the police roughed up a transgender woman, claimed to be LGBTQ+ activist Stormé DeLarverie, who said her handcuffs were too tight. People started to throw pennies and bottles, and some slashed a tire on a police car. Historians disagree on the exact beginnings of the riots and whether Marsha P. Johnson or Sylvia Rivera, both major advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, were involved. This event sparked the Gay Liberation Movement, which is why Pride is celebrated in June.
Pride is about celebrating what we as individuals and as a community have done, and honoring those who came before us. It is also a way to remind us that we still have a long way to go. We celebrate ourselves and our allies! We are proud to be who we are. We also advocate and fight for the community to ensure that all people feel welcome!
Love, Enable Everything
Sources:
Photos from Google
https://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-timeline
https://people.com/human-interest/pride-month-explained-pride-month-facts/
