As you may have gathered, June is PRIDE MONTH across the globe. As a result, in our schools we have been, and will be, learning about issues related to equality and pride throughout the month. As a part of this, we will be publishing some stories on the blog to help us understand some issues related to pride, the equality it represents, and some of the important figures from history that relate to these issues.
So, without further ado, this first story will address the issue of why we have Pride Month, why it is in June, and why it is important to understand that there is no hierarchy of equality.
The idea of Pride dates back to the year 1969, with something called the Stonewall Uprising. This was an incident of unrest between the police and members of the LGBT+ community in New York City, in the USA. This was as a result of many years of members of the LGBT+ community being treated very badly and the community was very upset at the way police had treated LGBT+ people for decades. At this time LGBT+ people had very few rights in the USA, as well as across the world. Whilst the Stonewall Uprising is widely regarded as the advent of LGBT+ rights movement, it is also important to note that many of those taking part in the uprising had also suffered mistreatment due to other factors such as their race or gender. It was not just members of the LGBT+ community that were involved in the uprising, many other individuals, who supported the rights of LGBT+ people were also involved in the unrest due to them thinking that LGBT+ people had been treated very unfairly at the time.
Due to the Stonewall Uprising, many organisations formed over the course of the next few months. In New York City, the Gay Liberation Front, an organisation which addressed social inequalities between the years of 1969 to 1972 such as homophobia, racism, and sexism. Similar organisations also formed around the world in countries such as the UK, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.
As a result of the Stonewall Uprising, the month of June now sees Pride celebrations around the world, to honour the ongoing work of the LGBT+ community in promoting equality.
This June celebration of Pride is why, this month, we are learning about, and celebrating the diversity, of our whole school community and tackling bullying. This includes helping children understand why no-one should be bullied because of their ethnic origins, religion, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, physical or mental disabilities. This work is part of our job, as a school, to promote fairness and justice for all. At the end of the month, we will be asking all of our pupils to celebrate their own differences; to be proud of who they are and proud of their own family by taking part in our Pride Parade.
When thinking about our Pride celebrations it is important that we remember that there is no hierarchy of equalities and that we remember our Great British Values of individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance.
