What is Pride?

For quite some years now, pride has become a widely recognised word in LGBTQ+ circles as the celebration of being ourselves. The concept of Pride is not that recognised yet in India, given that the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality only in 2018. But, what is Pride? What does it celebrate? In our first article in Pride June we highlight, What is Pride?

Pride celebrations, which we do in the month of June today, began as a protest years ago in 1969. Following a police invasion of a gay club in Greenwich Village, the Stonewall protests began in New York on 28th June. The majority of the people were either drag queens or Gay men of colour. At that time, being gay was a criminal offence in the state of New York. This uprising induced a spark and shift towards LGBTQ+ activism, which has begun culminating as more and more countries are beginning to decriminalise homosexuality. The yearly celebrations in June are a reminder of the work that still needs to be done and that we should be proud of who we are instead of facing shame.

The LGBTQ+ community has fought a long battle to gain acceptance from society, and most of them in fact still do. The month of June is all about teaching acceptance, educating people about pride and above all, love. Throughout the world today, many organisations organise events to drive home the point of how damaging Homophobia can be.

Gay pride, or LGBTQ+ pride celebrations, promotes equality, self-esteem, and more recognition as a social group. The word pride has become most visibly associated with gay movements as it is a fight against the stereotyped social stigma they face.

The second reason why Pride matters for everyone is because it is a space and time where others are more aware of their own behaviors and how supportive they are or are not of our community.

Though romanticised highly by corporations for a few weeks in the summer, the pride movements are about safety and comfort to many within the community. The pride movements around the world today, give people confidence and courage to openly embrace their identity. For most of history, they have been persecuted but pride is exactly about that. So that they know that times have changed and they are now safe.

Being queer is as beautiful an experience as being straight. But, traditionally the societies homophobic attitude has made this experience a daily struggle. Corporations today are jumping on the bandwagon to celebrate queerness in this one month. But one month isn't all the time these people are struggling. If you truly are a champion of the cause, try and support and all of your gay and queer friends. Let them know you are a safe person. Work together to create a world free of the disease of toxic homophobia.