The Importance of Pride Month—Inside the Community and Out!
- Wolfpak Press
- Jun 3, 2021
- 3 min read
By: Heather Mimikos
Starting June 1st (or sometimes even before then), many companies will promote rainbow merch, profile pictures, or make a post about Pride Month. While some companies will actually donate to organizations that help LGBTQ+ people, many just slap the rainbows on for show. You might ask, does this matter? A lot of straight people might not be aware of what Pride Month actually is, or its significance to the LGBTQ+ community. Even if you are part of the community, you might not know many details.
The most well-known “first” Pride parade actually occurred in late June of 1969. It wasn’t exactly a fun, popular parade with massive rainbow flags that you might see today; in fact, the Stonewall Riots were in response to cops storming and arresting people at a gay bar called The Stonewall Inn in New York. Altercations with the NYPD caused more confrontations for the next few nights, and that spirit of “Gay Pride” inspired more marches in the coming years. These marches spread across cities through the 1970s through to today, evolving into that fun parade with the giant flags. While it looks lighthearted from afar, the central theme of fighting to exist shines through. This is why a lot of members of the community find it upsetting that these huge companies can attach rainbows to everything and call that the end of their activism.
Content warning for next paragraph: talks about deaths of black trans women (not in graphic detail, but it is talked about). Skip to the next paragraph if you are concerned!
Intersectionality (first coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, described as “how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap”) is also a huge part to keep in mind, whether you are a part of the community or not. A good example of the importance of this is from Equality Network; basically, gay men deal with homophobia, and black men deal with racism, but black gay men deal with homophobia as well as racism. Now, not only would this man experience racism and homophobia from outside of the communities he is part of, but he could experience racism from the LGBTQ+ community and homophobia from the black community. Studies have shown that Black transgender people experience some of the highest levels of discrimination, and last summer, in the short span of 9 days, six Black trans women under the age of 32 were murdered. Their names were Brayla Stone, Merci Mack, Shakiie Peters, Draya McCary, Tatiana Hall, and Bree Black.
To all members of the LGBTQ+ community, Pride Month holds great significance. Only 6 years ago, same-sex marriage was legalized in the US via the Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, and as of recently, only 29 out of 195 countries have legalized same-sex marriage. As of last year, it was illegal to be LGBTQ+ in 70 countries, and punishable by death in 12. There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of equality for all sexualities and gender identities, which a lot of Americans might not realize.
How can you be an ally during this month? There are many events that celebrate LGBTQ+ besides the spotlighted Pride parade, such as a Transgender Pride parade and a parade specifically for youth! Other than that, you can support small LGBTQ+ owned businesses or LGBTQ+ artists -- many of which can be found in Seattle! These simple things can really make a difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ people in your community! Links are below!
Read more about Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw: https://time.com/5786710/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality/
*There were some instances like this before Stonewall, but Stonewall is the most well-known
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