Afro-Queer Studies

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month (LGBTQI+) Pride Month, 2024

"Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The Stonewall Uprising was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as "Gay Pride Day," but the actual day was flexible. In major cities across the nation the "day" soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events."

From The Library of Congress Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month About Page

A Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month, 2024

"During Pride Month, we celebrate the extraordinary courage and contributions of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) community.  We reflect on the progress we have made so far in pursuit of equality, justice, and inclusion.  We recommit ourselves to do more to support LGBTQI+ rights at home and around the world. 

For generations, LGBTQI+ Americans have summoned the courage to live authentically and proudly — even when it meant putting their lives and livelihoods at risk.  In 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York, brave LGBTQI+ individuals protested the violence and marginalization they faced, boosting a civil rights movement for the liberation of LGBTQI+ people that has transformed our Nation.  Since then, courageous LGBTQI+ Americans continue to inspire and bring hope to all people seeking a life true to who they are.  LGBTQI+ people also continue to enrich every aspect of American life as educators, entertainers, entrepreneurs, athletes, actors, artists, scientists, scholars, diplomats, doctors, service members, veterans, and so much more.

America is the only Nation in the world founded on an idea:  We are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.  We have never fully lived up to that idea, but we have never fully walked away from it either.  This month, we recommit to realizing the promise of America for all Americans, to celebrating courageous LGBTQI+ people, and to taking pride in the example they set for our Nation and the world.  

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2024 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month.  I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the achievements of the LGBTQI+ community, to celebrate the great diversity of the American people, and to wave their flags of pride high.

     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth."

                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

From: The White House Please click link to read full "A Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month, 2024."