Explained: What Is Pride Month and Why Is It Celebrated In June?

June is celebrated as Pride month to celebrate gender diversity and promote equality, acceptance and harmony among communities.

What is Pride?

The Pride month celebrates LGBTQIA+ communities all across the world, their rights and culture. It is marked by a spirit of resistance and acceptance as opposed to an attitude of shame. Pride is now recognised as a massive celebration including marches, protests and parades. People gather in huge numbers across the world and express themselves in myriad forms.

When is Pride Celebrated?

June is celebrated as Pride month to commemorate the onset of a movement, a series of protests that began in 1970s in the United States to recognise the rights of these communities. Since then, Pride has been celebrated all over the world which includes holding parades and protests, organising parties and gatherings.

What is the History of Pride Month?

The original event that is commemorated by these parades, dates back to 28 June 1969, known as the Stonewall Uprising. Police raids on gay bars were common and routine back in the 1950s and 60s. Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich village was also raided on the early hours of 28 June.

Police officials stormed the Stonewall Inn, asking people to show IDs and arresting the ones whose gender presentation did not match their official documentation.  But a nearby crowd grew restless and angry, and eventually patrons fought back. They pelted the police, forcing them to retreat, and aggressive street confrontations continued over the next few nights.

Following the uprisings, the organizers marched to the Central Park, adopting the “Gay Pride” theme, to celebrate individualities and shun conservative discourse around the subject of non-binary sexualities. The theme was popularized world-wide and developed in what is recognized today as Pride.

There have been incidents of uprisings against police forces before this event as well but this one is more widely known and recognised as a symbol of LGBTQIA+ communities fighting for their rights.

The LGBTQ people had witness legal sanctions for years, even criminalisation on pretext of religion and morality. In the 1960s, homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder. Many areas in the U.S. banned same-sex relations and denied basic human rights to people suspected of being gay.

India too, had a law inherited from the British government banning consensual sex among members of the same gender. The law was framed by the colonial government in 1870 claiming it as sexual activities against the “order of nature.”

India’s Struggle For Gender Rights

In 2001, the struggle for recognizing gay rights started when Naaz foundation filed a petition for legalization of sex among consenting adults of the same gender.

In 2018, after several attempts, a part of the Section 377 of Indian Penal Code was brought down by the Supreme Court in order to de-criminalize homosexuality as it is against equality.

In December 2019, Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. This prohibits discrimination towards transgender people in area of education, health, employment, and accommodation. However, the legislation has also been criticized as it erects barriers for transgender people to be recognised. For example, it requires transgender people to register with the government and provide evidence that they have undergone gender confirmation surgery.

Transgender persons continue to face difficulty obtaining medical treatment and there have been reports of police violence against LGBTQAI+ persons and threatened victims not to report the incidents. The Covid-19 lockdowns also had adverse effects on the people of LGBT+ communities due to deficient access to therapies and medicines.