Pride Month: Representing the Rainbow

HISTORY

Hey, Happy Pride month! June is pride month and it's all about members of the LGBTQ+ community celebrating acceptance and being loved for who they are. I wanted to write about the history of pride month this week and how you can show your support this month and every month because support and love should be shown all year round :).

Pride Month starts on June 1st and the history of the celebrations go all the way back to June 28, 1969. On June 28, 1969 the Stonewall Riots began. The Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City was raided by police, starting riots by patrons at the bar. Six days of protests took place and these riots and protests became the spark that started the gay rights movement and they bought attention to the prejudice being held against the LGBTQ+ community. A year after the Stonewall Riots the first pride marches were held across the U.S.

Pride Month was celebrated for the first time in 1999, when President Bill Clinton declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride month. Now 22 years later we're here celebrating it again. Pride and gay rights have a long and heavy history and we've come a long way over the years. Organizations have formed such as the Gay Liberation Formation after the Stonewall Riots. Protests, marches, parties, and memorials are held all throughout Pride Month.

HOW CAN I CELEBRATE AND SUPPORT?

If you wish to celebrate and support pride month there's a number of things you can do:

First it's best to learn about Pride and it's history. There's tons of amazing articles and information and this blog post is a great start. There's a lot to know about LGBTQ+ rights, history and pride.

After you know about Pride it's easy to get involved and show your support.

• Attending celebrations and marches

• Donating to LGBTQ+ organizations

• Volunteering for an LGBTQ+ non-profit

• Learn about events happening in the LGBTQ+ community so you can learn how to support them and how they may impact voting choices

There's so much you can do to learn about Pride and show your support, these ideas are a good starting point. I hope that from reading this you can take away some of the history and events that make up pride month, but I also hope you see the love and joy that Pride Month Represents :)

XO- The writer