Pride Month starts this weekend. Here's what to expect
It's an annual series of parades and other gatherings to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and rights.
At its heart, Pride is both a party and a protest.
In the U.S. this year, that means speaking out against a slew of policies that impose restrictions on transgender people and that try to end diversity, equity and inclusion programming in government, education and businesses.
Here's a look at the event's roots and this year's events and themes.
When Pride Month began
The monthlong global celebration began with Gay Pride Week in late June 1970, a year after the violent police raid at New York's
Stonewall Inn,
a gay bar.
At a time when many LGBTQ+ people kept their identities private, the June 28, 1969, raid sparked a series of public protests and
catalyzed the gay rights movement
.
The first pride week featured marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and it has since grown to other cities. On the calendar are events in Philadelphia this weekend; New Orleans on June 14; Chicago on June 21 and 22; and New York over the weekend of June 28 and 29. Many other events in big cities and small towns are also planned.
There are pride celebrations around the world, including in Tokyo on June 8; Toronto on June 27-29; Sao Paolo on June 22; and Paris on June 28.
Some events fall outside of June, too.
World Pride
, a biannual event held this year in Washington, D.C., began in May and goes through June 8. Pride in London is in July; a big celebration in Rio de Janeiro is in November and Atlanta's is in October.
Former President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999, marking the first time a U.S. president did so.
How Trump is targeting trans people and DEI policies
When President Donald Trump returned to office in January, he quickly attempted to roll back LGBTQ+ rights.
He's especially targeted transgender people with policies that halted allowing people to change the sex listed
on their passport
, removed
transgender military troops
and sought to stop using federal insurance programs to pay for
gender-affirming care for transgender people
under age 19, and keep transgender athletes out of
girls and women's sports competitions
.
All of those changes are being challenged in court.
His actions follow years of policies in Republican-controlled states that bar gender-affirming care for transgender minors and dictate which sports transgender people can play and which school and other public bathrooms they are allowed to use. The U.S.
Supreme Court is expected to rule
this month on whether Tennessee's ban on medical treatment is constitutional.
One of Trump's orders called for removing references to what he and some other conservatives call 'gender ideology' from government publications and websites.
A result of that:
References to transgender people
have been removed from government websites, including the one for the Stonewall National Monument, site of the event that inspired Pride.
About
half of U.S. adults
approve of how Trump is handling transgender issues, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found last month. About 4 in 10 voters approve of his job as president overall.
But support for his individual policies on transgender people is not uniformly strong, with a clearer consensus against policies that affect youth.
This year's celebrations in the U.S.
Organizers of Milwaukee's PrideFest are prepared for close to 50,000 people at the event scheduled for June 5-7.
'We're feeling that people will be showing up, and that's their protest,' said Wes Shaver, the president and CEO of Milwaukee Pride, Inc.
The event's theme is 'Celebrating the Power of Pride' and for the first time, one of the entertainment stages one night will feature only transgender performers. Shaver said that's an intentional move in response to Trump's policies. Another night, the stage will feature only performers of color.
Jeremy Williams, the executive producer of Philly Pride 365 in Philadelphia, said he didn't expect more protest than in the past there.
'Everybody's just there to be together,' he said.
The 10th anniversary of same-sex marriage legalized nationwide
One milestone that's likely to be celebrated: This month marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which recognized same-sex marriage nationwide. It was a watershed event in establishing rights for LGBTQ+ people across the country.
About two-thirds of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. said the case made the nation more accepting of same-sex couples, according to a
Pew Research Center poll
released last week.
The poll found that LGBTQ+ people don't always feel accepted, though. About 6 in 10 said they see 'a great deal' or 'a fair amount' of social acceptance for those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual. But only about 1 in 10 said the same is true for nonbinary and transgender people.
Which companies are backing off on sponsorships
Several big companies have pulled back on sponsorships for Pride events this year.
Among them: Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based brewer, declined to sponsor PrideFest in its home city after three decades of support, leaving organizers $150,000 short of last year's budget, they told The Associated Press.
NYC Pride said about 20% of its corporate sponsors dropped or reduced support, including PepsiCo and Nissan. The carmaker said it was reviewing all its marketing costs.
In other cities, such as Kansas City, Missouri, pride events lost about half their budgets.
Several companies that have pulled back have not explained why to the AP. But some experts see the change as part of a broader retreat from brand activism.
Still, the groups behind many Pride events say some companies have kept contributing but have asked not to be listed publicly as sponsors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Oil slips as Russia supply concerns ease after Trump-Putin meet
By Florence Tan SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade on Monday as the United States did not exert more pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine war by implementing further measures to disrupt Moscow's oil exports after presidents from both countries met on Friday. Brent crude futures dropped 32 cents, or 0.49%, to $65.53 a barrel by 2213 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $62.57 a barrel, down 23 cents. U.S. President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first. Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders on Monday to strike a quick peace deal to end Europe's deadliest war in 80 years. "What was primarily in play were the secondary tariffs targeting the key importers of Russian energy, and President Trump has indeed indicated that he will pause pursuing incremental action on this front, at least for China," RBC Capital analyst Helima Croft said in a note. "The status quo remains largely intact for now," she said, adding that Moscow will not walk back on territorial demands while Ukraine and some European leaders will balk at the land-for-peace deal. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBS News
19 minutes ago
- CBS News
Ukrainians in Boston not optimistic about President Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy; "It makes me mad"
As President Donald Trump prepares for the high stakes meeting on Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, back home in Boston, Ukrainians don't feel optimistic. Since the war started three years ago, Yelena Cannata has been volunteering and employing every resource she has for the children of Ukraine to be introduced to early intervention services. "It makes me mad. I have zero trust in President Trump in regulating this war," said Cannata. She hopes Zelenskyy avoids a repeat of that infamous February meeting he had with the president in the Oval Office. "I do hope that out of tomorrow's meeting that lots of the European leaders will come in, there won't be that bullying like the last meeting in the Oval Office and there will be no nonsense about the suit. It should be concrete, normal adult conversation." On Friday, President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The summit ended early and with the two leaders making remarks without taking any questions. Vsevolod Petriv is head of the Boston chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, an organization that looks out for the interest of Ukrainians in America, providing assistance as it relates to community service and politics. He said the president's recent meeting with Putin was disappointing and a peace deal would come at too much of a cost. "I don't see anything good coming out of it, given the current announcements. And it sounds like he's trading what they are saying is land," said Petriv. "The people in the area of Donbas that they haven't been able to take, they've been fighting hard for at least three years and so you are going to say to all those people we are going to give you to the aggressor that you've been fighting for peace that we know is meaningless because Putin will be back." Both Cannata and Petriv said they'll be looking to see what the next steps will be. "If you are going to give up the lands, which were just occupied without any rights, any rights, how would you consider this peace deal?" said Cannata.
Boston Globe
20 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Ukrainians fleeing Russia's attacks say the Alaska summit was an insult
'This is insane,' she said. 'Here there is war, rivers of blood, and they are making some kind of deal.' Advertisement While the much-ballyhooed summit appeared to be more a show of amiable backslapping than tough negotiating, by Saturday it had become clear that Putin and Trump had discussed proposals that would be very hard for Ukraine to swallow. In a post on social media, Trump reversed his support of Ukraine's position that a cease-fire must precede any peace negotiations. And in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, he said that he and Putin had largely agreed to a territorial swap and security guarantees to end the war. European officials said that Putin was demanding all of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, including land still held by Ukrainian forces. Half a world away, people who had recently fled the fighting in that region for a shelter near the city of Pavlohrad said the whole summit felt like an insult. The fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was not invited. That Trump had treated Putin like a friend instead of a man under US sanctions, who is a wanted war criminal in Europe. That the world was now talking about Ukraine permanently giving up land to Russia for peace. Advertisement It was all too much. 'I hate Putin,' said Kateryna Chernenko, 65, who has been bedridden since a stroke about four years ago paralyzed her left side. She had been rescued Thursday, carried down from her second-floor apartment in the city of Dobropillia, which had been battered by the new Russian offensive, and brought to the shelter with her son and family friends. 'How can he do this for so long?' she said. 'Killing civilians while they sleep. This isn't war — it's murder. Trump doesn't understand — it hasn't touched him. If he had lived through this, he wouldn't say what he says.' Any land swap could involve the homes of both Chernenko and Shevchenko, who, like most people at the shelter, had fled from the Donetsk region, which makes up a large part of the Donbas. Russia now occupies almost 20 percent of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk, almost all of the adjacent Luhansk region, and the entire Crimean Peninsula. Chernenko moved to Dobropillia when she was about 22. She was given an apartment there under the Soviet regime because of her work at a sparkling-water factory. She learned to do basic home repairs and repeatedly revamped her apartment, which stands in the shadow of a large walnut tree, most recently putting up pink wallpaper dotted with blue flowers. Advertisement She raised three sons there. Her oldest died of a brain tumor. She rarely talks to her youngest son, who moved to Russia to be near her former husband. Her middle son, Serhii Khalturin, 40, came home to care for his mother after her stroke. He bought her a modern stove, a washing machine, a TV, and a refrigerator as tall as the ceiling. Both said they would never give up their land. When asked how it felt to leave home, Khalturin gestured as if tears were rolling down his face. 'That's where my childhood was, that's where my school is. I don't want to leave,' he said. 'Everything's still there — my mother's photos, my brother's photos — old ones from the 1980s, with my mother young and beautiful.' Shevchenko had seen her life whittled away. She used to be an accountant, before moving to a village called Oleksandrivka in Donetsk. She lived in the servants' quarters of a rich professor's weekend home, taking care of the garden and the house and writing children's books. Her boyfriend — he refused to marry her, because he said she was too troublesome — owned his own ramshackle house nearby. Often, they stayed together. The professor died of natural causes. His family moved to France. The main house was bombed. Her boyfriend's house was split in two. The servants' house was destroyed. The couple moved into the summer terrace of the ruined main house, basically a covered porch, patching up holes from shrapnel. A missile hit nearby last fall, setting the forest and a nearby village aflame. The village once had 300 people. After she and her boyfriend fled, Shevchenko said, nine people remained. Advertisement If Putin wanted this land so much, and other regions such as Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, why did he destroy everything in his path, Shevchenko wondered. Maybe for mineral resources. Maybe to prove a point. Regardless, she said, Putin did not want peace. 'This is our land,' Shevchenko said. 'Not an inch of it can be given away. Give him just a slice and he'll say, 'I want Kharkiv, I'll take the Zaporizhzhia region.' He wants all of Ukraine and won't stop. We must not agree. We will fight to the end, because we are Ukrainians. That's the only way. We have no other choice.' This article originally appeared in
