Pride Month, the global celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights, begins Saturday with events around the world.
But this year’s celebrations in the US come against the backdrop of dozens of up-to-date state-level laws that target the rights of LGBTQ+ people, especially youthful transgender people.
Here you can learn more about the celebrations and the politics surrounding them.
WHY IS JUNE PRIDE MONTH?
The month-long worldwide celebration began with Gay Pride Week in slow June 1970, a public celebration marking the first anniversary of the violent police raid on New York City’s gay bar Stonewall Inn.
At a time when LGBTQ+ people largely kept their identity or orientation to themselves, the June 28, 1969 raid sparked a series of protests and catalyzed the movement for greater rights.
The first Pride Week included demonstrations in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and it has grown in importance since then. Some events also take place outside of June: Tokyo’s Rainbow Pride took place in April, and Rio de Janeiro hosts a major event in November.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.
WHAT IS BEEING CELEBRATED?
The rainbow-colored parades and festivals that are the hallmark of Pride celebrate the advances of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.
In the US, a federal appeals court ruled in April that North Carolina and West Virginia’s refusal to cover certain health care services for transgender people through state-sponsored insurance was discriminatory.
A compromise in March reached an agreement over legal challenges from a Florida law critic called Don’t Say Gay. It clarified that teachers can have pictures of their same-sex partners and books with LGBTQ+ themes on their desks. It also said that books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes can remain in campus libraries and that branches of the Gay-Straight Alliance at schools won’t have to be forced underground.
Greece became one of three dozen countries worldwide to legalize same-sex marriage this year, and a similar law passed in Estonia in June 2023 came into force this year.
WHAT IS BEING PROTESTED?
Rights have been lost around the world, including bulky prison sentences for gay and transgender people in Iraq and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” in Uganda. More than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws, activists say.
The tightening of these laws has contributed to increasing numbers of people from Africa and the Middle East flocking to Europe to seek asylum.
In recent years, Republican-dominated U.S. states have enacted policies that target LGBTQ+ people, and transgender people in particular, in various ways.
Twenty-five states now have laws prohibiting gender reassignment surgery for transgender minors. Some states have taken other measures, passing laws or policies that primarily keep transgender girls and women out of restrooms and sports competitions that correspond with their gender.
Republican state attorneys general have challenged a federal regulation set to take effect in August that would ban bathroom bans in schools. There have also been efforts to ban or regulate drag performances.
Most of these measures face legal challenges.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, leading to restrictive abortion laws in most GOP-controlled states, LGBTQ+ activists are also worried about losing ground, said Kevin Jennings, CEO of the civil rights nonprofit Lambda Legal. On the eve of Pride, the organization announced a fundraising goal of $180 million to find more lawyers willing to fight against LGBTQ+ laws.
Progress like the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide could be lost without political and legal vigilance, Jennings said.
“Our community looks at what happened to reproductive rights two years ago thanks to the Dobbs decision and is extremely concerned that there could be a massive rollback of what we have accomplished in the 55 years since Stonewall,” Jennings said.
WHAT ABOUT BUSINESSES?
While major companies from Apple to Wells Fargo are sponsoring events across the US, resistance from a huge discount retailer caused a stir last year.
Target sold Pride-themed items last June, but removed some from stores and moved the displays to the back of some locations after customers knocked them over and confronted employees. The company then faced further backlash from customers irate that the retailer had pandered to people who harbored prejudice against LGBTQ+ people.
This year, the store announced it will not carry the items in all of its locations. However, the company remains a major sponsor of NYC Pride.
ARE EVENTS SAFE?
Organizers said safety at the events was a top priority, but challenges could arise.
The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning in May that foreign terrorist organizations could target Pride-related events. That same month, the State Department renewed a security alert for Americans abroad, particularly LGBTQ+ individuals and events worldwide.
Police officials noted that IS sympathizers were arrested last year for planning an attack on a Pride parade in Vienna in June 2023. In addition, IS supporters issued messages calling for attacks on “soft targets” last year.
Authorities say people should always be on guard against threats made online, in person or through the mail. People should be alert if someone tries to enter a restricted area, bypass security or impersonate a police officer, and in an emergency, call 911 and report the threat to the FBI.
NYC Pride has a forceful security presence and works with city agencies outside of the grounds, said Sandra Perez, the event’s executive director. The group expects 50,000 participants and more than 1.5 million spectators at its June 30 parade.
“The struggle for liberation is not over,” Perez said. “We need to be visible and clear about what we need to do to ensure that future generations do not have to go through these struggles.”
