June is Pride month....and when most Pride events (pre covid) are held....but why?.......Well June 28th marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots...... the event that catalysed the gay rights movement in 1969 in New York City’s Greenwich Village, at the Stonewall Inn. In the early morning hours of June 28, police raided this popular gathering place for young gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people—arresting the employees for selling liquor without a license, roughing up many of the patrons, and clearing the bar. Outside, the crowd that watched the bar’s patrons being herded into police vans became enraged, the riots continued for 5 days and became know as The Stonewall Riots, or the Stonewall Uprising, which ignited the gay rights movements in the USA.
And to this day the month of June is known as Pride month with events being held all over the world to mark the anniversary.
Pride is important to me, its important not to forget those who have fought before us, to allow us the freedoms we have today, and we must not give up the fight for equality for the next generations...we have come a long way, but there is still a long way to go.
Generations before me have suffered abuse, violence, discrimination and even death and their suffering has directly led to me being able to live as openly as I live, to be able to shout I'm gay and I'm proud, to be able to work as an openly gay woman without the fear of being sacked, to join the military, to not have my sexuality treated as a mental health illness, to foster, to adopt, to take part in sports, to get married, to report hate crime, to not have harmful legislation passed prohibiting the "promotion of homosexuality"......and when you talk about the fight for equality most of these rights have only come into being in the last 20 years....
So yes when I came out I was classed as mentally ill, I couldn't get married, I couldn't joint the forces, I could be sacked from my job........
So, we continue to fight, because around the world here are still people who aren't given these rights, and even in the UK over the last few years there has been definite shift in attitudes sliding backwards, so yes the fight for true equality continues, and I am determined to be part of telling the next generation that they to should "Be Proud"