One of the most globally celebrated months is here. The month of June is observed as Pride Month worldwide. The LGBTQ+ community around the world celebrates love, acceptance and diversity during this month.
LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the community. They observe Pride Month to fight for their rights and acceptance in society.
Why is June celebrated as Pride Month?
According to the Associated Press, Pride Month initially began in June 1970 as Gay Pride Week, which marked the first anniversary of New York’s gay bar violence raid. This raid on June 28, 1969, sparked a series of protests that significantly contributed to LGBTQ+ rights.
In 1999, June was declared Gay and Lesbian Pride Month by then-US President Bill Clinton.
However, some of the major LGBTQ+ events occurred at different times of the month. For instance, the month of April is celebrated as Tokyo’s Rainbow Pride and Rio de Janeiro’s Gay Pride takes place in November.
Why does the Rainbow Flag represent the LGBTQ+ community?
The Rainbow Flag is the universal representation of the LGBTQ+ community. The Rainbow Flag was created in 1978 for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade by artist Gilbert Baker.
Gilbert Baker, in a 2015 interview with the Museum of Modern Art, specified the reason behind creating the rainbow flag. He said, “A flag really fits that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility, or saying, ‘This is who I am!’.”
“I was in the right place at the right time to make the thing that we needed. It was necessary to have a rainbow flag because, up until that, we had the pink triangle from the Nazis.”`
Additionally, each colour of the Rainbow Flag has a different meaning.
Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Blue: Serenity
Purple: Spirit
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)
