June is PRIDE Month
Contributor: I.D.E.A Culture & Climate Subcommittee
June is PRIDE Month
Pride is designed to celebrate and honor the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus) community, its members and the advancements they have made. Pride is most famously celebrated with parades and festivals in June throughout the country.
Day of Pride
On Wednesday June 22nd, please consider wearing something with a rainbow to show solidarity and unity in our ongoing efforts to support and celebrate diversity within our organization.
A Few Interesting Facts: Did you know that ….
- The first Pride was June 28, 1970, to memorialize the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. At the time, restaurants were barred from having gay employees and police would raid havens of the LGBTQ+ community. While there is a lot of debate over who ignited the riot in 1969, Marsha P. Johnson is often credited with it.
- The rainbow pride flag originated from 1976-1978, though flowers and bright colors have been used to symbolize the LGBTQ+ community for decades. The original flag had eight colors and was reduced to six. Each color has significance: red stripe - life orange stripe - healing; yellow stripe - sunlight; green stripe - nature; indigo stripe - serenity; purple stripe - spirit.
- The LGBTQ+ community is made of diverse members that have different sexual orientations and gender identies. This is a great glossary from the Human Rights Campaign.
- While there have been great strides in LGBTQ+ visibility in recent history, the first LGBTQ+ organization was founded in Chicago in 1924.
Highlighting a few individuals in history
- Sally Ride was the first American woman in space and the third woman overall. After leaving NASA, Sally wrote children’s books, taught at the college level, and developed youth programs.
- Bayard Rustin was an instrumental part of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s (though he was involved much earlier than that) and was a key organizer for Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington in 1963. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
- Leonard Matlovich was an American Vietnam veteran and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the miliary to fight their ban on LGBTQ+ individuals in the 1970s.
- Laverne Cox is an American actress and LGBTQ+ advocate most famous for her role in Orange is the New Black. She was the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
- Amandla Stenberg is an American actor and singer. They have won several awards such as one of Time’s Most Influential Teens, a Teen Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for Black Reel Awards.
A few resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dg86g-QlM0 - tips on being a good ally
https://buffaloprideweek.com/ - Buffalo Pride
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ - The Trevor Project
https://pflag.org/ - PFLAG
https://bolt.straightforequality.org/files/Straight%20for%20Equality%20Trans%20Allies/2019-breaking-binaries-worksheet.pdf - gender identiy guide
Educators Guide: ThinkB4YouSpeak
The resources in this guide are appropriate for use in the classroom, by community and youth organizations, as part of gay-straight alliance (GSA) meetings, in diversity clubs, as part of anti-bullying programs, or in conjunction with other initiatives that promote safety and respect.
https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/Guide%20to%20ThinkB4YouSpeak.pdf
https://transstudent.org/definitions/
Terms Guide
Language Matters_ LGBTQ+ Term Guide (1) (filesusr.com)
IMPORTANT RESOURCES for both parents & school professionals for Transgender + Gender Non-Conforming youth under 13 glyswny.org
GLYS info sheet: GLYS WNY, Inc. offers a variety of services, resources and programs to LGBTQ+ youth, ages 5-21, their allies and support systems in all eight counties of Western New York.
Sources:
https://www.them.us/story/the-complete-history-of-pride
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