Pride Month
Pride month is a time for members of the LGBTQ community and allies to get together and celebrate the advances of LGBTQ+ rights as well as to honor those lost to hate crimes and HIV/AIDS. It is also a time to recommit to the work that still needs to be done to achieve equality.
The catalyst for Pride was the 1969 Stonewall Riots – a response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, NY. The raid resulted in bar patrons, staff and neighborhood residents rioting and demanding places where LGBTQ+ people could go and be open about their sexual orientation without fear of arrest. Pride Month is largely credited as being started by Brenda Howard who organized Gay Pride Week a year after the Stonewall riots.
Bill Clinton was the first US President to officially recognize Pride Month in 1999.
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Education
“First Person” Video Series
PBS produced a show about gender identity, sexuality and queer community. There are three (3) seasons that explore gender identity and sexuality, and a variety of LGBTQ-related news and issues.
Division Spotlights
LGBTQ+ Trailblazers:
- Alan Turing: A groundbreaking mathematician and scientist who is considered to be the father of artificial intelligence and computer science. He is credited with breaking Nazi codes during WWII
- Gertrude Pickett: Also known as, Ma Rainey, is recognized the mother of the blues. In a time when most people were closeted, she sang openly about her relationships with other women and about living life as a black woman in America. She became a popular performer in the 1920s and her work inspired poets such as Sterling Brown and Langston Hughes.
- Kathy Kozachenko: She was voted on to the city council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, making her the first openly gay person to be elected to office in United States in 1974.
- Marsha P. Johnson: A transgender black woman, was one of the organizers of the Stonewall riots in 1969.
- Edith Windsor: Plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case that overturned the Defense of Marriage act in 2013, making same sex marriage legal in the US.
- Harvey Milk: The first openly gay person elected to public office in California in the late 1970’s who was assassinated. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
- Gilbert Baker: A gay artist and activist who created the Rainbow flag without licensing it so the LGBTQ+ symbol would spread worldwide.
Ways to Celebrate Pride Month
- Learn about LGBTQ+ history by visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Illegal to be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall online exhibition.
- Visit the Human Rights Campaign’s Glossary of Terms to learn about vocabulary related to gender identity and expressions.
- Find out how you can be an ally by engaging with The Trevor Project, an advocacy program for LGBTQ youth and read their Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Non-Binary Youth
- Support a national or local LGBTQ+ organization focused on equality issues or providing services to the LGBTQ+ community
- Attend a Pride parade in your community
