June is dedicated as the Pride month in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village, New York, that initiated the launch of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in America. Since then, the whole of June is celebrated to uplift our LGBTQ+ friends and family in a way that respects diversity. The LGBTQ+ community has a rich history which is evident from the various Pride parades that it hosts every year.
This is a list of the top 15 ways to celebrate Pride month in your own way:
1. Be an ally
It doesn’t matter if you identify yourself as being queer or not; it’s more important to regularly check your biases and assumptions about the LGBTQ+ community so that you can stop yourself from spreading hate without knowing. Being an ally and a better listener for this cause is a great first step in the right direction.
2. Decorate your home
If you’re stuck indoors, then decorating your home with all the queer accessories is one thing that you can invest your time in. You can even order “Pride Boxes” stuffed with pins, flags, and other fun accessories that can make your decorating work easier, and it would also make your home look much more inclusive.
3. Invest your time in Queer art
This step is the most fun out of all the 15 ways of celebrating Pride month. You can even include your children in creating queer art like rainbow headbands, colorful DIY projects, jewelry, banners, dream catchers, posters, and much more.
4. Donate to Queer causes
Don’t you think the world be a better place if our local folks working for the queer community could get funding too? You don’t have to wait for the arrival of a specific month to contribute to queer causes. You can immediately contact organizations and various non-profits to do your part.
5. Volunteering and mentoring
Even though it would be great to chip in some money for the better working of the organizations for queer causes, the importance of volunteering and mentoring can never be underestimated. You can volunteer to just listen to the queers facing various troubles in their lives, or you can even take a young queer under your wing and help them out.
6. Learn about LGBTQ+ history
Learning about Queer history can help keep us interested as well as busy. The LGBTQ+ community was suppressed for a lot of years, and hence knowing about its leaders and advocates like Bayard Rustin becomes important.
7. Support Queer businesses
The LGBTQ+ community is a marginalized section of our society, and therefore we should, in all our capacities, support the businesses run by the queer community. We can take simple steps like ordering from an LGBTQ+ friendly restaurant or shopping at LGBTQ+ owned businesses to empower the queer community.
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8. Using inclusive language
In honor of Pride month, make a commitment to yourself to eliminate discriminatory terms from your language. We all should be more inclusive, even with our language, when it comes to respecting people’s chosen pronouns and names for themselves, their gender identity, and their sexual orientation.
9. Pride-movie-marathon
There are various movies brought out by Hollywood that not only entertain the viewers but also teach them about the issues faced by the queer community. You can therefore have a Pride movie marathon by watching movies like ‘Boys don’t cry,’ ‘Love, Simon,’ ‘The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love,’ and much more.
10. LGBTQ+ literature
Once you’re done watching the movies, then why not start reading some LGBTQ+ lit? Some of the best LGBTQ+ books that you can find belong to authors like David Sedaris, Nella Larsen, James Baldwin, Alison Bechdel, and many more.
11. Collaborative playlist
How can we forget about music enthusiasts when we have offered something for both the movie geeks and lit nerds? Music is an integral part of the Pride celebration. Hence all of us can create our own personalized playlist of queer tunes and especially thank the divas – Gaga, Katy, Ariana, and many more for giving us some good songs to dance on.
12. Pride-baking
If you have always had a knack for creating art in the kitchen, then this step ought to give you the most joy. For Pride-baking, all you have to do is bake a variety of delicious rainbow treats and share them with your friends and family. You can bake a rainbow cake, some cupcakes with rainbow frosting, and you can even make rainbow cocktails.
13. Say yes to rainbow hair
For the people who really want to make a statement this year, opting for semi-permanent rainbow hair should be your go-to. Anybody can go for the total hair transformation or rock the peek-a-boo rainbow. This ought to turn heads and start meaningful conversations too.
14. Teach love and acceptance
From children to adults, everybody should embrace love the way it comes. Therefore, it’s important to start discussions about homosexuality, gender identity, and inclusivity so that everybody can preach and practice acceptance.
15. Participate in a virtual Pride parade
Amidst the current health situation, organizing pride parades have become quite difficult for a lot of countries, but this does not mean that we can’t show our support the virtual parades. For this, we can log in from our phones or laptops to see live and pre-recorded performances, celebrity greetings, DJ sets, and more.
Conclusion
You will surely support your friends and family regardless of their gender identity or orientation but making sure that they know it is another thing altogether. Hence, this Pride Month, show your unconditional love and support to every queer person that comes your way.
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