Let's Celebrate Pride Month
June is Pride Month, when the LGBTQ communities around the world come together to celebrate the freedom they have to be who they are. At Keepods we believe everyone deserves to be accepted and loved unconditionally. To express our support we decided to share all you need to know about pride month!
The original organizers chose to celebrate pride month on June to commemorate the Stonewall riots in New York City in June 1969, which sparked the modern gay rights movement. The majority of Pride celebrations take place in June each year, though some cities hold them at other times of the year.
What sparked Pride Month?
Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, in the early hours of June 28, 1969, and began dragging customers outside. As patrons resisted arrests and a growing crowd of onlookers threw bottles and coins at the officers, tensions quickly rose. After years of harassment by authorities, New York's gay community erupted in three-day riots in their neighborhoods.
The uprising sparked the formation of organizations like the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, which were modeled after the civil rights and women's rights movements, respectively. To hold political leaders accountable, members staged protests and disrupted public meetings. The first Gay Pride marches were held a year after the Stonewall riots.
The Stonewall Inn, which is still a popular nightclub, was designated a national monument in 2016.
Who celebrates it?
Pride celebrations are open to anyone who feels their sexual identity is outside the mainstream, though many straight people attend as well.
LGBTQ is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. Queer is a broad term for non-straight people; Those whose sex is not clearly defined due to genetic, hormonal, or biological differences are referred to as intersex, while those who do not experience sexual attraction are referred to as asexual. Gender-fluid people, or those whose gender identity shifts over time or depending on the situation, may also be included in these categories.
What's the origin of the rainbow flag?
It all started in 1978, when San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk — one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States — commissioned signer Gilbert Baker to create a flag for the city's upcoming Pride celebrations.
Baker, a well-known gay rights activist, drew inspiration from the rainbow to represent the diversity of gay people, and other sexualities on the spectrum, such as bisexuality, pansexuality, and asexuality, are represented by a subset of flags.
We hope you managed to learn something new as we did!
Happy pride month,
Joel
