At Chorus, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is a very important topic so we are excited to be celebrating Pride Month throughout June 2022. Over the next few months there will be an uptake of Pride events and I would like to share some information about the LGBT+ community and the events that will be taking place over the coming months.
Pride is a celebration of the rights of members of the LGBT+ community that takes place in various cities, across the world during the summer months. After the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn, New York a march took place the following year to celebrate the liberation of members of the LGBT+ community.
From there, the tradition of the Pride March followed by a day of celebrating gay culture spread across the globe.
Whilst the LGBT+ community take the opportunity to celebrate identity and the advancements in equality it is a moment to remember (just like so many other groups seeking equality) the sacrifices and efforts that had to be made to get where we are. And the struggles still yet to go.
The rainbow flag was originally devised by the artist Gilbert Baker in 1978 and has changed several times. The current iteration was designed by Daniel Quassar and is often referred to as the Progress Pride Flag to show the inclusion and movement the community has had, but the chevron the left pointing right to show the progress still to be made.
Each colour represents a theme:
Pink was later dropped because of a shortage of the coloured fabric and indigo/turquoise were merged to create the royal blue colour we use today.
LGBT+ is an initialism originally to directly represent people who were not heterosexual or cisgender. It now represents the diversity of sexuality, gender, identity, and the cultures that these communities have.
There are several variations of the term LGBT+ (for example LGBTQIA+) below are some definitions of where the acronym comes from:
.
This list is not definitive there are a lot more terminologies out there. It comes down to is how one chooses to identify as on the spectrum of gender and sexuality.
It is now widely believed that gender and sexuality are spectrums in which one can find oneself on, whereas previously the view was held that there were clearly defined points (i.e., male/female, gay/straight).
Below is a helpful diagram from https://www.genderbread.org/ to understand the differences between sexuality, sex, and gender.
As mentioned above, there are several different events taking place all over the country this summer, some of those events can be found here.
Bristol Pride will take place 25th June – 11th July with Pride Day on the 9th July (I am informed Carly Rae Jepsen will be headlining). So do come down and show support and have a few drinks to celebrate LGBT+ culture and achievements.
There’s plenty of other ways to get involved and Stonewall’s website does detail other activities that are occurring across the year.
However, if you are someone who likes to just relax and watch a few films over the weekend I would recommend the following:
.
I hope that the information above provides a small insight into the community that I belong to.
If I can just impart a final message, it would be you don’t have to understand why someone identifies themselves the way they do but just accept and love them for who they are. After all, love is love.