Celebrating Queer & Trans Youth: Why Adults Should Attend Pride

Photo by Brett Sayles.

Related to the open celebration discussed in the page on choosing celebration over tolerance, don't forget the most important LGBTQA+/SGL annual holiday: Pride!

Probably all major cities in the US have Pride celebrations. And many small cities and towns do as well.

Some locations even have multiple Prides — a "regular" Pride, a Pride for BIPOC folx, a Pride for trans people, and suchlike.

Many places also have both a Pride parade and a Pride festival, as well as other Pride-related events like poetry slams, religious services, potlucks, dances, educational events, and dozens of other things.

It's a rainbow-licious experience!

Those multiple Prides mentioned above speak to both the size of a local community and the biases that LGBTQA+/SGL people encounter within their own community. Because, yes, oppressed people can oppress other people. ☹️

"My parents send me a rainbow package every June."

"There is often a lot of intersectionality in the identities of queer/trans youth like myself I am a disabled power wheelchair user and I often feel left out in queer spaces in the past because they haven't been accessible like the pride in [my Southern city] has been VERY inaccessible for me and this is not uncommon occurrence at pride and queer events. Also we are still in a pandemic and immune-compromised people like myself often are left out of queer spaces bc people have stopped taking pandemic precautions."

First and foremost, it's a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
It's also
- A protest against the ongoing discrimination, marginalization, and violence that LGBTQA+/SGL people face, in local communities, in states, in the US as a whole, and globally.
- A celebration of how far we’ve come, of our resilience, of queer and trans joy, and of how very many of us (and our allies/accomplices) there are.
- A chance to see and be seen, especially for LGBTQA+/SGL people who live in areas without a large, visible LGBTQA+/SGL community.

A whole lot of rainbows and colorful clothing (and, yes, rainbow clothing).
Some of the very many LGBTQA+/SGL pride flags.
Drag queens and other fabulous performers.
Rainbows.
Pets dressed in rainbows.
Probably a lot of sun and heat. Pride is often held in the summer since the Stonewall riots were in late June and early July. (Bring sunblock and lots of water.)
Speakers to get the crowd pumped up and DJs to make you dance.
More rainbows.
A lot of really happy people, from babies and small children all the way up to seniors.
Tables staffed by folx from local service organizations, booths to buy food and drinks, corporations hoping to be seen as LGBTQA+/SGL-friendly so you’ll give them your money, and vendors selling everything from books to gym memberships.
Still more rainbows.
Your child, looking very, very happy and possibly kind of overwhelmed to see all of these LGBTQA+/SGL people and our allies/accomplices (you might be feeling that way, too).
You may also see folx in various stages of undress and/or in leather gear. If this concerns you, see if your Pride celebration has a “family-friendly” area and activities.
Did i mention you’d see rainbows?

All tongue-in-cheek joking about rainbows aside, taking your young person to Pride is a huge way of showing how much you support them and that you want to learn more about them and their community.

If your child is old enough to go with friends and/or is too embarrassed to be seen with you in public, go by yourself. You can talk with them afterwards about it — what you saw, what surprised you, what you liked the most, if you talked to any cool organizations, the most interesting thing you learned….

So do it! Add Pride to your list of annual events.