Pride Month begins today, which is why it is celebrated in June

Streets and cities are painted to celebrate the pride of the LGBTQIA+ community and to support their rights

ROME – Rainbow flags color the month of June, universally recognized as the Pride Month or the month of Gay Pride. Streets and cities are painted to celebrate the pride of the LGBTQIA+ community and to support their rights.

The acronym LGBTQIA+ is universally used to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Queer, Intersexual and Asexual people, while the + indicates all other gender identities and non-sexual orientations. included in the acronym.

WHY JUNE IS PRIDE MONTH

It was the night between 27 and 28 June 1969 when yet another police raid in the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greewich Village in New York, there was a rebellion. From then on, the “Stonewall riots” began which led to the birth of the homosexual movement with the aim of fighting for one’s rights. One year after the Stonewall riots, on June 28, 1970, there was the first parade through the streets of New York. A ‘street parade’ that still parades around the world today and sees the participation of associations and ordinary people, together, to defend the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.

THE RAINBOW FLAG

Also called the “freedom flag”, its use as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride dates back to the 1980s. Painted by Gilbert Baker it was waved for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Pride in 1978.

The American artist assigned a meaning to each of the eight colors, symbolizing an aspect dear to New Age symbolism. Pink sexuality, red life, orange health, yellow sunlight, green nature, turquoise magic and art, blue serenity, purple spirit.

Over the years there have been many variations of the flag used. Baker himself removed the pink stripe because pink fabric was not easy to find commercially. In June 2015, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York purchased the original eight-color flag, displaying it in the contemporary design gallery.

LA PROGRESS PRIDE FLAG

Among the most recent variations of the so-called rainbow flag is the “Progress Pride Flag”, which adds a lateral triangle on the left with the colors black (in memory of AIDS deaths), brown (for the protection of the rights of African-American people), blue and pink (plus white triangle) for trans and transgender people.

PRIDE IN ITALY

With an event that saw the participation of thousands of people, Rome hosted the first unitary Pride in 1994. The first World was held in the capital again in 2000 Pride‘s history and is a candidate to host it again in 2025. Gay Pride 2024 is instead scheduled for Saturday 15 June.