Pride Month is coming to an end, but let’s be real—Pride is all year. Many places also hold events in October, and celebrations happen throughout the summer. Pride is political; it is a vibrant celebration, a testament to our resilience, diversity of experience, and the unyielding pursuit of life. Pride is also the creation and remembrance of our many varied experiences. Joy, love, excitement, mourning, pain, struggle...a spectrum of moments all reflecting us.

While June is widely celebrated as Pride Month, the spirit of Pride continues throughout the year in various places. For instance, in Hawai’i, Pride extends into October with Honolulu Pride featuring a parade and many events throughout town. In Europe, many countries hold their Pride events in September, offering additional opportunities for solidarity, remembrance, and celebration.

There is this broadened sense of celebration in many places across the world. I want to also note that 92 countries do not hold Pride events due to hostile laws and attitudes. Across the globe, Pride remains a protest, a salient act of resistance uniting us. As socio-cultural and political contexts evolve, visibility events celebrate resilience, progress, and courage, and support liberation.

Outright International identified 101 UN member states worldwide where Pride and other LGBTQIA+ visibility events were held in 2023, with at least 61 of these holding Pride events both within and outside the capital city. These events aim at resisting state-sanctioned homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and intersexphobia, building public awareness through the reaffirmation of the existence and diversity, building community and collaboration, and celebrating each other loudly. Pride doesn’t always take the form of marches or parades; it has evolved to include festivals, performances, social events, press conferences, and more.

I wanted to give some ways you can engage with supporting LGBTQIA+ community all year long and that explore that extends into our lives in meaningful ways.

Finding Rest and Care

There are many ways we can engage in the community but I wanted to start off with recognizing rest and care for the community. It is vital to care not just for ourselves but learn ways to collectively hold care at the forefront of our community. I have found that personally, having rituals in my life like spending time with friends and engaging in LGBTQIA+ dedicated spaces of rest, like yoga or meditation, have allowed me to come back to my own center. We all hold different baselines and there are many paths to understanding what that care can look like.

I want to offer one of my favorite resources for exploring this more:
I really recommend exploring this site as well for tons of other information including monthly playlists, black liberation resources and many others.

Support Small Businesses and Creators

By supporting queer-owned businesses and artists, especially those that prioritize ethical practices and community reinvestment, we can support people directly rather than corporations. One of my current favorites is Rich Queer Aunties (https://www.richqueeraunties.com/shop).

Share and promote LGBTQIA+ creators on your social media platforms. It’s essential to amplify the voices of people in the community, especially with all that’s going on in the world. We should hold each other in care, and sometimes that looks like supporting expression in whatever forms we can. Here are some great creators to follow:

Milo Hartill 
Bay Davis 
Rainbow History Class 
Fat Fab Feminist
Queens for Palestine

Participate in local markets and events that highlight queer creators. Portland has so many, check out this page! But wherever you are, this is a great way to build community and support people directly while learning about what LGBTQIA+ spaces are in your community.

Engage in Education and Advocacy

Consider reads like Healing Justice Lineages by Erica Woodland and Cara Page, which explores trans and queer-led narratives on legacies of organizing, dreaming, and applying transformation in our own lives, or the documentary Swimming With Lesbians, which explores an upstate New York community's efforts to create an LGBT historic archive, led by the activist and artist Madeline Davis.

I also recommend checking out Queer Cinema Archive for an extensive list of great films throughout time. Another great short film and space to explore is Sins Invalid(https://www.sinsinvalid.org/documentary), which witnesses a performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists.

You can also check out attending workshops or webinars focused on LGBTQIA+ education.There is so much out there! One great space for webinars is the Woodhull Foundation.

Maintain the legacy of Pride through advocacy for the rights and livelihood of queer people in countries experiencing violence and discrimination. Take time to learn the histories of spaces and know what’s happening in your community and abroad. This can feel hard to access, but the best places I’ve found to get involved can start with looking up where to volunteer, finding local organizations, and discovering spaces that speak to your values.

Giving Back With Time and Resourcing

There are many ways to volunteer your time at local LGBTQIA+ centers or virtual volunteer opportunities you can locate once you engage in community spaces that align with your values. I think there is a lot of joy in building community through these spaces. Be mindful of your own capacity and take steps back when you need to.

Donate to organizations that support the community, like Lavender Rights Project , G.L.I.T.S and the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition. Sharing their information is a great way to show support as well.

Give to mutual aid initiatives how you are able to. Mutual aid supports folks directly and there are some great mutual aid projects that exist in Oregon. Mutual aid is not just financial, find what works best for you to contribute based on your personal circumstances that could be continuing to share posts or donating items that are needed. Here is a great list!

I wanted to end here and acknowledge that empowering, celebrating, and supporting the LGBTQIA+ community doesn’t end with Pride Month. There are many ways to continue recognizing Pride and while our particular engagement is individual, just remember that the community is vast. Explore what this time means for you. By supporting each other, we can help ensure that Pride’s spirit continues to thrive and offer us spaces of resistance.

Love,
Keke Walker