This month is Pride Month, the first since the historic Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality last June 26. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and as someone with many friends and family who also belong to the community, this is an important month to me. It’s a month during which our celebration of our identities and orientations is largely endorsed and recognized and a time during which we can find solidarity and support in our communities. This month is especially important, as it marks one year of marriage equality in the United States.

Though most people in the community are aware of the existence of Pride Month and the various parades, picnics, and parties it entails, much of the younger generation as well as those who are not familiar with LGBTQ+ issues are unaware of the cultural and legal history of Pride.

Pride is celebrated annually every June in honor of the June 28, 1969 Stonewall Riots. The Riots took place at the Stonewall Inn and was a violent response to police raids of gay and lesbian bars. The Riots was a pivotal event in LGBTQ+ history, and many historians state that it was the real beginning of the Gay Rights Movement. The Inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, was made a landmark by New York City in 2015, and is expected to become the first National Park monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights this month.

Originally, the last Sunday of June or the last weekend of June was celebrated by the LGBTQ+ community in memory of the Riots, with the first Pride Parade taking place in New York City on June 28, 1970, but over the decades, the celebrations have extended to encompass the whole month. June is now unofficially recognized within the community as Pride Month. On May 31^st, President Obama issued a national proclamation that declared June 2016 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

Today, Pride includes the “traditional” celebrations but has also expanded to include orientation- and identity-specific celebrations and days of recognition. In the 1990s, Black Prides emerged as a powerful and beautiful celebration of the LGBTQ+ communities of African descent. Many cities host even more unique and specific events for many sections of the LGBTQ+ community.

Historically, Pride celebrations have also included an activism component centering on gay rights, focusing on issues such as HIV/AIDS, violence against the community, and marriage equality. Since the Supreme Ruling on June 26, 2015, however, marriage equality has almost become a nonissue in the US. Additionally, legislation has been passed in many states that provides protection to LGBTQ+ individuals. Unfortunately, there are still many ways in which individuals and organizations can legally discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, the most controversial being the recent spread of “bathroom bills” that target transgender people.

Outside of the community, June is commonly known as the month during which Pride Parades take place. Parades are the most widely recognized celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and usually host a wide variety of people who both belong to the community and are allies to the community. The Parades, or Festivals, are characterized by ubiquitous rainbows, creative costumes, and celebrity appearances.

However, it is important to know more about Pride than just the colorful flags and fun parades. The first Pride Parades were organized in 1970, a time when being anything other than cisgender and heterosexual was widely considered immoral and sinful. For a long time, marchers were under a very real physical threat, just as many of them were in their everyday lives. The celebrations were born out of a desire for visibility, recognition, and equality when there was virtually no legal or societal protection for LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.

It is important to remember the origins and history of Pride so that we can maintain its legacy by continuing to fight for equality and visibility. It is important to remember where we as a community started and how far we’ve come, but it is also important to remember how far we still have to go.

So when you go out to celebrate Pride this month, couple your celebrations of our community and of our rights today with remembrance for all of our predecessors and with your eyes looking forward to an even brighter and more colorful future.

Happy Pride!!