For the LGBTQ+ community, June is usually a month full of festivities meant for us all to come together and celebrate equality. With Coronavirus canceling large events, we are forced to look beyond the parties, parades, and rainbow propaganda to learn how we can come together to support our community. Here are some ways you can support the LGBTQ+ community, even after the month of June.
Spend time educating yourself on LGBTQ+ history and topics such as gender identity and sexual orientation.
Donate to organizations that are supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Shop at LGBTQ+ owned businesses. It is easy to find online stores that are owned by members of the LGBTQ+ community if shopping local is not a possibility for you because of coronavirus.
Be vocal about your allyship. Even though it can be hard, it is important that we continue to have these conversations with our family, friends, and our co-workers.
Listen to LGBTQ+ members of your community. Learn how you can support them and what they need from you as an ally.
Most importantly, support the Black Lives Matter movement. We have to remember the Black Trans Women that fought for us and stand with them now. The LGBTQ+ community is taking a stand in solidarity with BLM by, “focusing its Pride Month programming on elevating black voices.”
Protesting police brutality in 1969 at the Stonewall Riot is what started the first ever Pride and was the beginning of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Standing up to fight the injustice and inequality is what Pride is truly about. It was only a short 50 years ago when our Black allies and Black LGBTQ+ members took to the streets with us for the first time to fight for our rights, and they have stood with us every year since then. Standing with the BLM is the most significant way members of LGBTQ+ can honor “its own roots as an uprising against bigotry, racism, homophobia, and transphobia.”
Read more about the first pride here.
Just because this Pride is different, it does not mean Pride is canceled. We need to come together and support each other now more than ever.
