Hey people! It’s Aaron, and as many of you may know, I am gay. Because it is pride month, I would like to share the start of pride and the struggles it took for the queer community to be seen and understood.
June 28, 1969. Everybody in the LGBTQIA+ knows about the Stonewall rebellion; it was the start of the gay rights movement. The rebellion started when the police raided Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, and led the queer people into police cars. People in the bar started fighting back against the police because they knew that it was all because of the polices’ homophobia. All of this led to six days of protesting against the law enforcement officers on Christopher Street. This specific raid jump-started the retaliation against the unjust law makers and protectors that made being gay basically illegal. People in this queer community were outraged by the injustice and wanted to do something about it. Leaders like Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman, and Sylvia Rivera, another black trans woman, planned protests for creating rights for the queer and trans community. These two women started the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries in hopes of helping people in the LGBT community.
June 28, 1970. The first pride parade happened. People marched around New York in recognition of the Stonewall riots that happened one year before. The people in the parade called it the “Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day.”
Although this was the start of pride, there were still many hardships that the queer community had to face and will still face. To this day, there are many restrictions in some areas that prohibit trans and queer people any type of healthcare. These laws still suggest that being anything other than a straight person continues to be borderline illegal in some places in our country. Beyond this, the safe place of a home or family no longer holds the same loving environment for many people.
But everything isn’t as bad as the beginning. Recently, Michaela Jaè Rodriguez became the first ever transgender actress to ever win a Golden Globe award for her work in POSE, and there are many other LGBT icons including Ellen DeGeneres, Billy Porter, and Lil Nas X winning other major awards. Major celebrities have recently come out as a part of the LGBT community including Jojo Siwa, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, and many more. Queer culture has been opened to many tv shows and movies including Rupauls Drag Race and Love, Simon. Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ have all created portrayals of homosexual relationships within their own originals shows and movies which normalizes these kinds of relationships. And best of all, every year during the month of June, it is pride month. Pride parades all over the world celebrate the lives of the queer community and loudly proclaims that they are gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, or whatever they identify as. It is because of the path that the leaders of the Stonewall riots have paved, the LGBTQIA+ is able to be proud of who they are. Continue to work towards equality and positive recognition, you are not alone and not unheard! And for everyone, showing love and care for those around you bridges gaps wider than you could imagine. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Aaron 🏳️🌈
My song for the week (it’s actually a really good embodiment of the community):
Keep an eye out for new posts on here and on the Instagram about our upcoming products! We are aiming to drop them in mid-June.
We don’t want to just tell our team members’ story. We want to help you tell yours like I told a piece of mine today. Everyone has something to teach or something that others can reflect on.
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