Pride Month :- Do we NEED to recognise the LGBTQ+ community?
- The Youth's Lens
- Jul 18, 2018
- 2 min read
A controversial opinion on why should the LBTQ+ community have their own month by philanthropist Mihir Sardana.
Do we really need pride month?
The LGBTQ+ community recognise the month of June as ‘Pride Month’, in honour of the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Around this time, multinational corporations, such as Disney, Netflix and Skittles, release products and advertisements advocating for same-sex love, in what seems to be a bid to shove ‘the gay agenda’ down the throats of regular, heterosexual, people. Additionally, a fair amount of Hollywood television shows and movie have either leading or side characters that are queer, yet activists still call for more representation. All in all, the world seems to be a more progressive and accepting place, but as we move into July, leaving behind all the pomp and circumstance, a growing minority asks, ‘do we really need an entire month dedicated to pride?’
A Little History…
The gay scene around the world was underground throughout the 1960s and the decades preceding it, due to homosexuality being universally illegal. This led to queer individuals establishing safe spaces, such as bars and clubs, which allowed them to have a place where they could openly be themselves. However, these sanctuaries were a subject to constant raids and harassment by local police. On one such occasion, a raid being conducted by the NYPD at the Stonewall Inn, turned into a violent riot, as patrons of the bar and residents from the surrounding area were sick and tired of the discrimination. Even though it isn’t considered as the event that kick-started the LGBTQ+ rights movement, it is credited for changing the tides and creating an important discussion, in both the United States of America and the rest of the world.
Well, surely the world’s moved past that:
With Australia becoming the 26th nation to legalise same sex marriage late last year, homosexuality is still illegal in 74 countries, and in 10 of these countries, the penalty is death. Currently, India and Kenya are looking at the prospect of decriminalising homosexuality. Additionally, the Trevor Project, a LQBTQ+ organisation, reports that queer youth contemplate suicide 3 times more than their heterosexual counterparts and the National LGBTI Health Alliance (Australia), records that 35% of transgender people, aged 18 or over, have attempted suicide. However, this only the tip of the iceberg. Anti-LGBTQ+ hate-crimes continue to increase, recent examples include the 2016 pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, with around 50 casualties, and the participants of Istanbul pride 2018, being meet with tear-gas and police brutality.
Bibliography and References
Written By Mihir Sardana, Edited By Abhinav Jain
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