The month of June is Pride month for the LGBTQ+ community, but why do we celebrate Pride?

Let’s start with a few questions: Did you know that being LGBTQ+ is illegal in over 70 countries? Did you know homosexuality is punishable by death in over 10 of those? Pride is much more than waving around a rainbow flag or marching in a parade- it is a statement.

Pride is a time when we remember our collective history and bring the community together to continue to fight for our rights. The fact that loving who you want to love and expressing your gender identity is illegal in places around the world is reason enough to come together. We didn’t get rights by being silent, we got them by being loud and proud of who we are. Pride is a necessity because, even in the United States, our rights aren’t set in stone. Although we make progress in the right direction, there’s still a long way to go. At the same time the SCOTUS provided work protections against discrimination for LGBTQ+ people, the current Administration worked to dismantle protections for transgender people in healthcare and to prevent LGBTQ+ couples from adopting children.

COVID-19 has caused Pride to look very different than in recent history. We haven’t been able to go out and have large parades and mass celebrations, but Pride isn’t cancelled. In fact, it’s gone back to its roots. Pride was founded in protest, and that’s why people in the LGBTQ+ community are standing alongside the black community in their fight for equal treatment in America. It was brave people like Marsha P. Johnson that ignited the modern gay rights movement, and so, we stand together to fight injustice.

Pride isn’t just a fight for rights, it also shows people that this community is strong in numbers, power, and love. We show our pride for the closeted kid too scared to be themselves, for the couple that was turned away from a bakery, and for the person whose gender expression is ridiculed. We show our pride to show it’s okay to be and express exactly who you are and love who you want to love.