Celebrating Pride 2021
Celebrating Pride
Pride originated as a protest and is still a protest. Just had to start with
that.
Recently, my sexuality has been at the forefront of a lot of things. Going for
new jobs , joining sports clubs and even volunteering require me to state my
gender and sexuality, and the majority of the time, it’s just tick boxes – and ticking
‘other’ can be, kind of weird. ‘Other’ what, exactly? ‘Other’ because I’m not straight,
or ‘Other’ being it doesn’t matter?
So I’ve been thinking about that a lot.
This is a post I have been working on since June. But yaknow, life. Either way,
I did spend a lot of time on this and am excited to finally get it out in the
world!
With most Pride celebrations cancelled this year, I wanted to think about other
ways to celebrate and commemorate pride this year! But of course, these actions
aren’t limited to just pride month and should Here is some suggestions -
1) Ensure you add your pronouns to your Instagram
bio, twitter, and buy a pronouns badge for your lanyard and add them to your
email signatures! I can’t even explain why this is so important, but here’s a
quote from www.mypronouns.org.uk
which explains perfectly -
it can be offensive or
harassing to guess at someone’s pronouns and refer to them using those pronouns
if that is not how that person wants to be known.’ Its pretty
common practice to default use they/them when speaking about someone who’s
pronouns you don’t know, but after you are aware of them be sure to apply them.
2) Buy from LGBT+ artists! If you’re having a
pride party, don’t purchase supplies from amazon or other big co-operations. It
isn’t hard to notice all these businesses changing their logos to include
rainbows or bringing out a ‘pride’ collection for the month of June, and then
as soon as July hits its nowhere to be seen. Rainbow capitalism, or pink
capitalism, is when these businesses profit off pride. Although some do donate
profits of the merch to charities, it is no way enough. For example, while Nike
has a pride collection, they are also a sponsor for the Russia world cup – a
country infamous for Anti-LGBT laws.
So, as tempting as Primark’s ‘pride merch’ is, do you really think that Primark
upholds the values of pride?
All that aside, of course there are places that actually care and do donate
100% of their profits (and it is worth it to go out of your way to find them!)
and if needed, find these pride items on second-hand shops, like Depop! And of
course, one of the best ways to celebrate pride is to buy directly from the
LGBT+ community! See below for some LGBT+ owned and inclusive brands:
https://stonewalluk.myshopify.com/
https://jlloyd.co.uk/
https://festivalglitter.co.uk/
Gay's The Word | Independent LGBT
Bookshop | England (gaystheword.co.uk)
Handmade
LGBTQ Jewellery Apparel & Accessories by PrideAsylum (etsy.com)
Making the
invisible visible by Sootmegs on Etsy
3) Educate! Pride has a long line of history all
over the world. Same sex relationships and genders outside the binary is not ‘new’,
such as Kahu in Hawaii and two sprit in Indigenous North American. ‘The concept of gender was introduced
by the West as a tool for domination that designates two binary oppositions and
hierarchical social categories.’ ( Coloniality
of Gender – GLOBAL SOCIAL THEORY )
Alongside this, there are many
documentaries to immerse yourself in, and even more books and podcasts to learn about LGBT+ history, such as ‘Making
Gay History’ and ‘Sounds Fake but Okay’ and ‘Dyking Out.'
Lastly, Pride wouldn’t exist without some notable figures, especially Marsha P
Johnson, pride wouldn’t exist, so be sure to educate yourself on those legends.
Stonewall | Acceptance without
exception
4) Support LGBT films, books and tv shows. It was
actually pretty hard to find a definitive list of queer films and tv shows
being written, produced or directed by LGBT+ people.
Alongside this, some of the more prominent LGBT+ films have been directed by
those not part of the LGBT+ community, such as ‘Pride (2014), which is a great
film! Terms such as ‘straight washing’, ‘queerbaiting’ and ‘gayface’ are made
for a reason. Nonetheless, this was quite the rabbit hole to dive down and it
got me thinking about LGBT+ characters and stories and the opinions surrounding
weather LGBT+ characters should only be played by LGBT+ actors and the same
with queer storylines…
Either way, by consuming media written and produced by LGBT+ people, LGBT books and art films, tv shows it shows
that this is the representation that what we want more of, and hopefully, the
studios will provide.
42
Queer Filmmakers Everyone Should Know (buzzfeed.com)
5) Donate to LGBT+ Charites! Instead of stopping off for that £3 coffee,
consider putting that towards an organisation that actively helps the LGBT+
communities, volunteer or fundraise!
6) Call it out! From homophobic jokes, using someones
incorrect pronouns or using derogatory terms, no matter how minor a comment may
be, make the person aware of their mistake. It can be tough, especially with
people you don’t know very well but its more than worth it.
How did you celebrate pride this year? Without the ‘traditional’ celebrations,
did you do any reflecting, or find any new LGBT+ media? Share it in the comments!
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