Everything you should know about the Pride Month...

Radhika Bansal, Ground Report: We have entered Pride month as soon as we entered the month of June. Pride month is when the world's LGBTQIA+ communities come together and celebrate the freedom to be themselves. It is the time when people celebrate themselves openly. They celebrate who they are with other people all around the world. Even straight people participate with great enthusiasm in pride rallies all over the month. To show their support, many people like to purchase and sport pride merchandise. 

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, and began hauling customers outside. Tensions quickly escalated as patrons resisted arrest and a growing crowd of bystanders threw bottles and coins at the officers. New York's gay community, fed up after years of harassment by authorities, broke out in neighborhood riots that went on for three days.

The uprising became a catalyst for an emerging gay rights movement as organizations such as the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance were formed, modeled after the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement. Members held protests, met with political leaders and interrupted public meetings to hold those leaders accountable. A year after the Stonewall riots, the nation's first Gay Pride marches were held.

LGBTQIA+ community is denoted by a rainbow flag. A subset of flags represent other sexualities on the spectrum, such as bisexual, pansexual and asexual. Under this rainbow flag every sexuality which exists comes under this flag.

It is not important for anyone to belong to LGBTQIA+ Community to be a part of these rallies! Even straight people join these celebrations with their friends in support of this community.

Being Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender is still taken as a taboo. Because of this many people still don’t talk openly about the same. They have not come out to their families and friends and live under a false identity for most of their lives just because they are afraid what will the people say. Their parents will be hurt and they will face a lot of criticism and shame from the society.

We have to change this. Being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or anything have to be a person’s own personal matter. Society should accept a person as who they are and not as what their sexual preferences are. Many people today are coming out gender neutral and do not prefer to be called he or she, and prefers to be referred as they or them!

Pride month is very important for LGBTQIA+ Community as they can celebrate who they are openly and freely.

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