Celebrating Pride Month

Published: 25 June 2020

This month is Pride month, where we raise awareness of all LGBT+ issues and campaign for freedoms and equality whilst also celebrating the LGBT+ community.

This year, it’s ever more important to recognize how the history of Pride is deeply connected to the Black Lives Matter movement. The recent engagement with the Black Lives Matter movement is inspiring a greater understanding of Pride month and the intersectionality between the two.

The first Pride was less of a celebration but more a protest led by LGBT+ people of colour, inspired by the activism of the civil rights movement. On 28 June 1969 black gay men, lesbians, drag queens and trans women led demonstrations and protests following a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Riots and protesting continued, lasting for several days, this became known as the Stonewall Uprising, and catalysed the LGBT+ rights movement we see and celebrate today.

Two leading figures in the Stonewall Uprising were Marsha P Johnson and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, both black transwomen who went on to become activists and community leaders for LGBT+ people of colour.

It’s now been 50 years since the Stonewall riots, and today both the Black Lives Matter and the LGBT+ Pride movements remain as closely connected as ever.

Whilst the Pride parades may not be happening this year, there is a huge amount happening online. Here’s a taster:

• London Pride is taking its theme #YouMeUsWe online, asking for pledges of allyship within the LGBT+ community. 
• Amnesty International has partnered with UK Black Pride, Stonewall and ParaPride to bring a full calendar of Pride celebrations online this year via the Pride Inside Festival.
• Global Pride will celebrate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a 24 hour stream of speeches, performances and Pride content, starting on 27 June 2020.
• The best online LGBT+ exhibitions for Pride Month

The LGBT+ Staff Network St George’s is open to for staff to join either as a member of the LGBT+ community or as an ally. The Network is always here to welcome allies and new members to our community. Without the struggle of many people, pride celebrations would not exist. This month it is important to remember the people that stood before us, and to carry their torch into the future. The Black Lives Matter protests have showed us recently how far we have to go still to obtain equality, the staff network stands beside our BAME colleagues and wants to work together to build a stronger and more equal community for all. Find out more about the LGBT+ Staff Network.