PRIDE MONTH

Thanks for your entry, Wally! They are our family indeed! Thank you for recognizing such. And Happy Birthday to you!

The Importance of Pride Month: LGBTQI+ rights are human rights, but unfortunately, that still isn't status quo.

KEY POINTS

• The first recorded march for LGBTQI+ rights in the United States was in 1969 in New York City. Now, 150 cities host Pride events.

• In the U.S., LBTQI+ youth are almost five times more likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual, cisgender youth.

• Pride Month and pride parades continue to be important for the solidarity, fight for human rights, and visibility of the LGBTQI+ community.

This month is LGBTQI+ Pride Month. In the US and other countries, many places display rainbow flags, companies have promotions, events, or products “in honor of LGBTQI+ Pride,” and there are cities around the world that have a parade sometime in the month of June.

That said, many people don’t know or understand why Pride Month exists and/or the purpose of the parade. Some react with fear and prejudice, some are puzzled as to why it’s necessary, while others think of it as just a big excuse to dress up and party.

But LGBTQI+ Pride Month actually has a very specific history and purpose. For many, if not most, in the LGBTQI+ community, it’s a deeply meaningful and moving day that has great significance.

Understanding the history of Pride

In order to understand Pride Month and why there are pride parades, it’s important to understand the history. The first recorded march for the rights of LGBTQI+ folks in the United States was in 1969 in New York City. The regular, systematic, and violent oppression of people in that community reached a boiling point, at a time when other social movements — the Civil Rights movement, Women’s Liberation movement, Disability Rights movement — were gaining momentum and fighting for oppressed groups to have a voice and demand for equal human treatment.

At that time, the police, and individuals felt it well within their rights to oppress and cause bodily harm to people within the LGBTQI+ community. The march was a response to that treatment — it was a demand that people within the community be treated with the basic rights, respect, and dignity afforded other human beings in the country.

Those first marchers were courageous. They risked their lives by exposing themselves to the public as part of the community and in doing so, they made the community visible and empowered. After this first march, it became an annual event. The next year there were also marches in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Today, there are 150 cities around the world that host Pride events during the summer.

So why are these events still happening?

Prejudice, oppression, violence, and death are still, unfortunately, common for people in the LBTQI+ community in the United States and across the globe. Many states in the US are continuing to pass legislation to deny the rights of people in this community. In the US, LBTQI+ youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual, cis youth because of the continued deep prejudice, hatred, and lack of acceptance they perceive around them.

Around the world, there are laws specifically being passed to deny the rights of LBTQI+ people to live, love, work, receive medical care, go to the bathroom, exercise, and even simply exist. People in this community continue to be subjected to rejection, prejudice, violence, and death.

For this reason, Pride Month — and the pride parades — continue to be deeply important in the continued solidarity, fight for human rights, and visibility of the LGBTQI+ community. Additionally, and equally important, is the label “pride.” For a group of people who are told continuously — through laws, religions, media, bullying, and directly — that LBTQI+ people are less-than or should not exist, it is deeply psychologically important that there be counter-messaging. Shame is debilitating and can lead to mental illness, addiction, isolation, and death.

It is deeply important that there be a visible, supported, and joyous event telling people of the LBTQI+ community that it is a beautiful, diverse, supported, and welcome community, and one to be proud to be a member of, and one that deserves the rights and dignities of every human.

~ Samantha Stein Psy.D.
Originally published in Phsycology Today, June 2021

If you need support or are seeking ways to support our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, consider The Youth Pride Association.

The Youth Pride Association is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with the mission to promote and foster the acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) people in educational institutions.

We work to address the alarming and substantial adversities LGBTQ youth face in schools.

Together we strive to...

• Educate LGBTQ youth through positive examples

• Support an environment where LGBTQ youth feel represented and safe

• Advocate for LGBTQ youth to their peers

• Ensure the acceptance of LGBTQ youth in their communities

During the 2021-2022 academic year, YPA provided programs services to:

2,131 students through the Acceptance Week program and 6,437 students through the Model School Policy Initiative.

https://www.ypapride.org/

Image: BIG Youth Pride 20th Anniversary at Dupont Circle

Hay House is hosting a Facebook live event with Ari Wisner, artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and creator of Transient Light Tarot tonight! Celebrate the divine rainbow and its symbolism of diversity, the spectrum of human expression, and how it’s inherent in nature.

This is a public event for anyone on or off facebook.

Monday, June 19 at 1 PM PT | 4 PM ET | 9 PM BST

Lovely imagery, copingwithwords__ . Thank you for sharing with us.

His name is Dillon, my son


Took him some time
to lose the closet
and suffered alone
because of it

still hurts a little
when I think of his pain
and wonder what he thought
I would do to him, or say

but, no matter

with the closet gone
when he knew full sure
his home was his sanctuary
he grew to who he was born to be
been to New York, Chicago twice
but knows like me he was kinda lucky
we are we the family




......

(Thanks for the opportunity)

Thank you for your entry, Craic. It's exactly the sort of thing I am looking for.

Still so much hatred and anger we need to combat.

LGBTQ+ pride flags vandalized at Stonewall National Monument 3 times during Pride month

NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of LGBTQ+ pride flags were damaged and ripped down at the Stonewall National Monument over the weekend, the third such bout of vandalism at the LGBTQ+ landmark during this Pride month, police said.

The latest occurrence happened Sunday, after others on June 9 and last Thursday. No arrests have been made in any of the incidents, and it’s unclear whether they were connected. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.

On Sunday, officers were called around 8 a.m. and found about 33 pride flags broken and tossed to the ground, police said.

Park volunteer Steven Menendez told New York’s Fox 5 News that, in all, 68 flags — nearly a quarter of those displayed — were damaged in some way.

“We have so much hatred and anger in the air right now,” Menendez told the station. “We really need to reverse that and replace it with love compassion and acceptance.”

The Stonewall National Monument, the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history, was dedicated in 2016. It encompasses a park across the street from the Stonewall Inn, a bar where patrons fought back against a police raid on June 28, 1969, and helped spark the contemporary LGBTQ+ rights movement.

The Stonewall Rebellion is commemorated every year with pride marches in cities across the U.S. and the world.

More on how Stonewall became a national monument.

https://globalcocktails.com/how-the-stonewall-area-became-a-national-monument/

Celebrate Pride Month by supporting and showing your pride for the LGBTQIA+ community.

https://www.withconfetti.com/collection/pride-month?utm_adgroup=pride_month&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=search-seasonal-pride&utm_term=pride%20month%20virtual%20events&utm_content=pride_month&hsa_acc=5647854541&hsa_cam=19910453003&hsa_grp=1168782688882189&hsa_ad&hsa_src=o&hsa_tgt=kwd-73049604623969%3Aloc-190&hsa_kw=pride%20month%20virtual%20events&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&msclkid=8ebc6dbd147e1fcf1e550928f7ea6c9f

Not an entry.

MidnightSonneteer said:. . .

Thank you, J! Stellar entry!