Pride Month is a month to celebrate your uniqueness and commemorate the queer liberation movement. It is an occasion to fight back against the status quo and enjoy your own individuality.
The origin of Pride Month lies in the Stonewall riots, a series of riots for gay liberation that took place over several days beginning on June 28, 1969. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie are the ones credited with beginning the movement.
A year after the movement, the first pride parades were held in several states of the USA. Since then the movement has grown rapidly and has spread far and wide.
To celebrate Pride Month, we will be looking at ways you can be respectful to the queer community and how you can be an ally for the movement.
The first thing you can do is to educate yourself. We live in a hetero-normative society, where things are designed to be functional for straight people. Hence, it is completely normal to be ignorant about LGBTQ+ rights. You can start by educating yourself and those around you.
Listen to the experiences of queer people around you. If you have a friend from the queer community, ask them about their experiences and listen to it without judgment. If you don’t have a friend from the LGBTQ community, you can purchase books from authors whose life journeys will help you understand their struggles. There are also social media handles that you can follow to better understand, make sure to follow a community-specific queer handle, as different communities of queer people have different experiences.
Stereotypes of any kind are harmful and there are harmful stereotypes pertaining to queer community as well. Allegations of being a groomer and paedophile exist among the broader society. Even though, straight people are equally likely to be guilty of the same crimes.
One must understand that queer people are a group of people, who just like anyone else are equally capable of committing evils. That doesn’t justify prejudice and hate crimes against them. This thought process signifies that the oppressor group want marginalised communities to be perfect or not exist at all. But the same standard is not expected out of members from oppressor groups.
You can also be helpful by fighting for a better future for the queer community. Utopia can only be achieved when all are liberated. However, LGBTQ rights are still not acknowledged by mainstream society.
You can fight for these rights by participating in the nearest pride parade rallies. Even if you are straight you can still join the parade as they are accepting and welcoming of allies.
Child Help Foundation has been sympathetic to queer experiences. We have highlighted the struggles of transgender by organizing ration kit distribution and medical camp which helped our volunteers to understand the experiences of the trans community.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Make sure to share it with all your friends and family members to spread awareness and Happy Pride!