What is Pride (LGBTQIA+)?

Hey there,

Nice to see that you are reading this! Today, I'll be talking about Pride, what it means and why it's important. I will also tell what does it have to do with me.

PRIDE:

LGBTQIA+ pride is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual (LGBTQIA) and other people (+) as a social group. Pride, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBT rights movements.

Usually June (6th month) is a pride month and it is celebrated as parades and protests claiming to get better (and normal) human rights for LGBTQIA+ people. It is seen that in MANY countries for i.e translaws are really bad, if they even exist in the country. As Pride, people want to be seen as people and normal, no matter what gender or sexuality.

Why is it important?

It has been seen too many times that people that are a part of LGBTQIA+ community experience discrimination everywhere around the globe.

Even though I have a lot to say, I want to give credit to other people, rather than to myself. This is why I hold up a questionnaire and asked others why this topic is important.

AND HERE ARE THE RESULTS:

(Answers are from age-range 15 to19 and anonymous)

• "Important because it gives attention to minority people, because society is mostly colored with heterosexuals that might not understand or respect queer people. Pride month is mind opening time for many people because it shows that different people exist and they aren't ashamed about being different."

• "Pride is important bc being queer is stigmatized and even illegal in some countries. Hate crimes towards the LGBTQ+ community are still happening, which is one reason why activism is still needed. LGBTQ+ people are humans, thus making them inherently important. (Human rights are for humans <3)"

• "I think that pride month is beyond important to remind people that in modern world there is nothing wrong about being who you are and loving who you fell like loving, even though pride is the main goal of money hungry companies in June and some of them use this event for more clout, I think that overall it is indeed a great celebration of love and diversity!!!"

• "...people in the lgbtq community have not always had rights and STILL to this day they don't. There are still countries where we are killed just for being ourselves, for something as simple as loving someone??... And if you're trying to look for representation in the media... Good luck. Because there is barely any, and when there is, it's sometimes done very badly... There is still homophobia and transphobia that people face on the streets from regular people..."

• "I think it's important because although in some countries do have laws in favor of of queer folk, they still carry stigma from "strangeness" and other stuff... Acknowledging that there is the community and that they are visible and proud is important in order to bring awareness and showing the victory of the past which some had to go through to be valid in law and society... It stops us from being just in the background and being in center stage and showing that we matter."

• "I think that pride and the lgbtqia+ are important because its kind of like a celebration of identity and like embracing who you are, and I think that that might be important especially for those who have faced discrimination or might be scared of facing discrimination just for (for example) liking someone of the same gender, and I think that the representation and awareness that pride brings kind of helps to reduce these feelings because they show that you are valid as you are..."

I want to thank you so much for answering. I couldn't have said it better!

What does this have to do with me?

You might see many discussions about this topic on social media and news. This is important because of the reasons stated above and it also holds a personal meaning to me. You see that I'm also part of this.

I'm part of this because I am an asexual biromantic person. And I want to remind that asexuality is included into Pride, even though many asexuals don't feel like it sometimes. WE ARE VALID AND OKAY!

I think I realized that I had something off with my sexuality at age between 14 and 15. I didn't know that it was, until I searched out information about other sexualities and realized that asexuality is what I'm experiencing. At first I thought something was off with me, but then I understood, that I am valid as a person, no matter do I feel sexual attraction towards people or not!

After accepting myself as an asexual, I started understanding myself more. Of course it was due to teenage and self-discovery, but this was a big part of it.

Later on, I realized that I'm bi-romantic, which means in my case that I have romantic, platonic and aesthetic attraction towards guys, girls and maybe non-binary people. It might sound confusing, but I have learned to live with it, so I think, you can too!

If you are a straight person, I know that it might be hard to understand all this. However, you still can learn to do it! You can be friends with people and talk with them about all this (only if they personally want to), or do simple google research about this.

It doesn't mean that you have to be a part of all this, but rather that you respect people, no matter of their gender or sexuality. You can always be an ally, and support the rights for i.e. trans people deserve.

And remember to be nice to other people in general too! And this is a note to everyone. If someone doesn't understand you, you do NOT have to start shouting your points and blame the other. You can either, calmly explain the situation or then just let the person and conversation be if it looks pointless.

Have a nice day and remember to be nice to others,

~Catnip Karvonen.