Alleyn's Blog: Why Pride?

Written by Scarlett Massie Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead (LGBTQ+). Published 27 June, 2024.

Last year, on the 1st of July I was fortunate enough to take a group of our pupils to attend London Pride. I woke up early, donned my rainbow wear and doused myself in enough glitter that the light reflecting off me could possibly have been seen from space -ready to go. We marched alongside pupils and staff from a collection of other South London Schools. We stood, we waved, we danced, and we topped up each other’s glitter, standing united in our pride and our belief that schools should be a safe place for LGBTQ+ pupils and educators. As we took in the atmosphere, one of our year 12 students turned to me and said “Miss, I wish I could just take the way that I feel right now and live in it forever”. Pride is so incredibly important for our young people. 

Pride month is celebrated in June to mark the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Inn Riots on the 28th June. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar run with involvement from the mafia – most gay bars were at that time as “gay behaviour” was considered “disorderly” making it a target for regular police raids, the bars used to pay off the mafia to try and keep law enforcement off their backs. During the raid on the 28th June however, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against the brutality of the police behaviour and the injustice of being constantly targeted. This reaction spurred on a crowd forming outside including homeless LGBT teens, trans women of colour, lesbians, drag queens, and gay men – as well as other residents of Greenwich Village. The crowd fought back against the patrons of the Stonewall Inn being violently arrested, starting an uprising which lasted several nights, spilling into the surrounding streets. It wasn’t the first riot of its kind, but it was the riot that sparked the movement for gay rights across the United States. One year later the Christopher Street Liberation Day March took place in New York, and this is what we recognise as the first Pride Parade. 

An important thing to take away from this is that the people facing the injustice at the Stonewall Inn weren’t the only people who stood up against it. There were the people in the community around Stonewall who stood up and got involved. The LGBTQ+ brothers, sisters and siblings who refused to let members of their community be treated this way. The members of the community of Greenwich Village who said, ‘no more’. Allyship isn’t just the responsibility of other LGBTQ+ community members, it isn’t just the responsibility of the parents, children, families and friends of LGBTQ+ community members, allyship is the responsibility of everyone in society who stands against injustice and in favour of diversity and vibrance. It is all of our responsibility. 

I have incredible privilege in my LGBTQ+ identity – I have supportive parents; a predominantly queer friendship group and I have come of age at a time where there are legal protections and media representation for me and my community. Homophobia & biphobia isn’t by any means gone, but we are living in a much safer time than many of the UK gays who came before me did. That is why it is so important that I use my privilege to be an ally to members of the LGBTQ+ community who don’t have those same freedoms & ease of identity as I do. 

It means being an ally to people who live in countries where being LGBTQ+ is still a criminal offense. QueerSoc’s chosen charity this year is Human Dignity Trust - an organisation which fights for legal protections for LGBTQ+ people in the 64 territories where consensual same sex relationships are still illegal. This week’s Rainbow Runway event and Rainbow Accessories Day will be raising funds for HDT. 

It also means being an ally to the members of society who are still at the heart of current polarised discourse.  This makes the world feel scary and unsafe for many trans people in the UK and beyond at the moment, including our LGBTQ+ youth. Regardless of individual beliefs, we should all be striving for a world where everyone feels safe to be who they are, a world with more love and less hate. We should all be striving for a world where our pupils can come to school and be their authentic selves. To me, that is why Pride is still so important.