Did you know February was LGBTQ+ History Month? The acronym LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and ace. This year's theme was Activism and Social Change. This fantastic blog was written by a young person who completed work experience in our team to share why LGBTQ+ Pride is so important! Please note, the young person's experiences are recent.
The history of Pride
To begin this blog, I'd like to start with a brief history of Pride. Pride first began in New York City in the USA on June 28 1969 with the Stonewall Uprising. Patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a famous LGBTQ+ hotspot in the area, responded to police oppression and violence with a protest. There is often debate about who "threw the first brick", a term used to describe the actions of the person who started the protest. It is agreed that it was either the drag king Stormé DeLarverie, or a trans woman who later went on to become a major figurehead within Pride, Marsha P. Johnson. The first ever Pride march was then held exactly a year later to commemorate the uprising was a major force for the campaign for equal rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Here in the UK, the first Pride march was held in London on the 1 July 1972. Ever since then, Pride marches have been happening all around the world and all around the country, usually in the summer months, and our very own Surrey Pride happens in September every year. Pride Month is also celebrated every year in June as it was the month of the Stonewall Uprising.
Why we still need Pride
Some people wonder why there is still a need for Pride marches as they think that LGBTQ+ people already have equality. However, homophobia, transphobia and other forms of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred are sadly still common in today's society.
Hate crimes
According to Stonewall, one of the leading LGBTQ+ rights charities in the UK, hate crimes rose by 186% against transgender and non-binary people and 112% against people based on sexuality between 2018-2023 (Stonewall, 2023)
The increasing number of hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people show how important it is that there is more education about LGBTQ+ issues to encourage understanding and respect.
Education
At school, I wasn't taught about anything related to queer life until I was 14. At that point, I had been out of the closet for about 5 months, and the first thing that was related to being queer was being taught about religious homophobia and having to argue for and against it. It truly wasn't helped by classmates who would often make fun of me for being queer and would use this as an excuse to be homophobic without being challenged. After that, apart from a brief, more-inclusive presentation in Relationships, Health and Sex Education (RHSE), I wasn't really taught about it again until Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Economic Education (PSHCE) in Year 11 for one lesson giving an explanation on what each letter in the acronym stands for.
Stonewall and The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) teamed together to run a survey for UK college students about their experience in education. Here are some of the findings:
- 47% of college students who answered said they had a good experience of being LGBTQ+ in school
- 41% said they had a neutral experience of being LGBTQ+ in school
This is looking upward, but there won't be true equality until the 12% who said they had a bad experience becomes 0%.
Progress
It's important to recognise how far we've come to increase LGBTQ+ and push out homophobia, transphobia and other forms of anti-LGBTQ hatred.
In the past 50 years, we've seen a really positive change in laws which protect LGBTQ+ people, including same-sex marriage being made legal in the UK in 2014. Even though there are still a lot of people who don't agree with LGBTQ+ rights and equality, we are still moving onwards and upwards. This is why activism, Pride marches and awareness events like LGBTQ+ History Month and Pride Month are still very important. As a queer person who is part of the younger generation, we need to remember the people who fought for our rights and even gave their lives for LGBTQ+ equality. We need to remind ourselves of the very real fight for full LGBTQ+ equity.
Sources
Stonewall, 2023 New data: Rise in hate crime against LGBTQ+ people
Stonewall and UCAS, 2023 Next Steps - What is the experience of LGBT+ students in education
*Please note that this is the experience of one individual, and we recognise others may have different experiences.
Published on 14 March 2025
Category: CYA
