Pride Month is a month of celebrating people’s sexualities, whether you’re gay, bi, non binary or transgender. It includes workshops, pride parades, parties and many more LGBTQ+ activities during the month of June.
To answer why it is celebrated in June and not any other month, we go back to the year of 1969 in the United States. The treatment of queer people has significantly improved but that wasn’t the case 52 years ago. People used to get arrested just for being gay. They used to be stoned and beaten to death because of this. The Stonewall riots pioneered the lgbtq movement in the United States.
The Stonewall Riots were in response to the police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar by the gay community to tell them to stop treating them like this. They had enough. They just wanted to be treated like humans. Among the protesters, one such pioneer was Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender woman and activist. It was thanks to her and many gay activists that the pride movement began. It is very important to note the impact of Black people in all walks of life, like the lgbtq+ community.
A year after the Stonewall riots, a pride parade was held to commemorate the riots. It is an important moment in history and also the reason why pride month exists.
Pride month is a month for all gay people. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, gay pride is defined as the idea that gay people should not keep the fact of their sexuality secret and that they should be proud of it instead.
What can we do as allies? We can be there for them. We should listen when they speak and make their lives easier by not speaking over them.