Why is Pride Month Important?

1 in 6 Gen Z adults identify as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community? We celebrate Pride month to publicly include all members of our families and communities who in the past had to hide who they were. Pride is celebrated in the month of June, as that was the month when the Stonewall riots took place. The Stonewall riots were important protests that took place in 1969 in the US, that changed gay rights for a lot of people in America and around the world. Pride is a celebration of people coming together in love and friendship, to show how far LGBTQ+ rights have come, and how in some places there’s still work to be done. Before the Stonewall riots, LGBTQ individuals had generally not broadcast their sexual orientation or identity, but the event galvanized the gay community and sparked greater political activism.

Some common ways to celebrate can include attending a parade, doing a related art project, fly a pride flag, volunteer your time as a family to an LGBTQIA+ related cause, and any other way your family sees fit! While bringing more awareness during the month of June is important, we also want to be sure we are carrying this messaging through in our daily lives throughout the remainder of the year.

Here is some information and some definitions that may be of help. I will be the first to mention that I did not know what some of the letters or terms meant. I had to research it. You don’t know what you don’t know but if you actually realize you don’t know something, you have all the world’s information in the palm of your hand! Google it! Find out! Learn about it and begin to understand!

• Biological Sex- This sex assigned at birth describes characteristics that would naturally develop such as hormones, genitalia, body hair, the pitch of a person’s voice, the shape of the body, etc. People are typically identified as male, female, or intersex.

• Gender Identity – How you describe your gender. This could include being genderqueer, male, female, a combination of the two, two-spirit, or something entirely different.

• Gender Expression – How you present yourself. This could include the clothes you wear, the style of your hair, if your actions and tone of voice are generally rougher or softer, etc.

• Attraction- This could include romantic and/or physical attraction. Some people are attracted to males, some to females, some to both, some to none, and for some people their attraction is based on something different.

So, now that we have a loose understanding of what sexuality entails, we can talk about what LGBTQIA+ actually stands for.

L – Lesbian -When one woman is attracted to other women.

G – Gay – When one person is attracted to someone of the same gender.

B– Bi-Sexual – When one person is attracted to someone of the same gender and others.

T – Trans – When someone identifies with a gender that is different than what was assigned at birth.

Q – Queer – General term for people who do not identify as being attracted to the opposite gender and/or do not identify with their sex assigned at birth. Sometimes used as a slur, but has largely been reclaimed by the LGBTQIA+ community. The “Q” also is said to stand for Questioning- When someone is questioning where they fall within the sexuality spectrums mentioned earlier.

I – Intersex – Describes someone who is born with a more unique combination of hormones, genitalia, chromosomes, etc.

A – Asexual -Typically refers to the absence of attraction and can be used as an umbrella term for the Ace Spectrum.

Plus – Summarizes a collection of all other queer identities not represented in the acronym such as pansexual and polysexual. Please note, the term “ally” is not included in this acronym.