Happy Pride Month!

June 7, 2024

This month seeks to raise awareness in society from a positive stance on the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as to promote safe spaces where inclusion prevails and violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people are eradicated.

June is dedicated to promoting equal rights, as well as increasing LGBTQ+ visibility as a social group while celebrating sexual diversity and gender variance. “Pride,” as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the perspective that drives most LGBTQ+ rights groups and movements around the world.

Pride is celebrated in June because on June 28, 1969, police raided a gay bar in New York City known as the Stonewall Inn. The event sparked a series of riots by people in the LGBTQ+ community, constituting the major event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the US. The month of June was chosen to honor and commemorate those Stonewall riots.

LGBTQ+ Pride Month events attract millions of participants from around the world each year. Today, the celebrations include parades, marches, parties, concerts/shows, workshops, among other activities that take place in different nations.

For more information about Pride month and the LGBTQ+ community, check out the LGBTQ+ Resource Guide – Library Guides at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.