In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was to be legal throughout the United States. This happened on June 26, which is also the same month that the Stonewall Riots took place in 1969, which is why the LGBT+ community has deemed this month the month of pride. It is a month dedicated to celebrating your sexuality and embracing who you are in a community that is open and supportive. There have been many people who identify as heterosexual who don't understand the meaning of having an entire month dedicated to the LGBT+ community.

There is a conversation that started on Twitter after the LGBT community deemed June pride month, and it was talking about why people who are straight don't get to have a pride month. Some people were saying that "straight pride" deserved to be a thing, but let's talk about why that doesn't add up.

LGBT+ history

In 1969, the Stonewall Riots were a series of violent demonstrations by LGBT+ members against a police raid that took place in Manhattan, New York. Police raids of gay bars were common in the 1960s, as the thought was that homosexuality could be "cured." Though things spiraled out of control when the police went to raid the Stonewall Inn. The raid attracted a crowd which quickly turned into a riot and protests followed the night after and for more to come.

Something that is often lost when talking about these riots, is that they were started by African-American transgender women. This happened in the time that the African-American community was fighting for their equal rights, so that was a huge risk for them to take. It paid off though and is a very important part of the LGBT+ history in the United States.

Before the Stonewall Riots occurred, the Nazi concentration camps forced homosexuals to wear a pink triangle to signify that they were gay to members of the camp as well as the officers working there. They were also used to shame the prisoners, not only by the Nazi officers but for their fellow prisoners to shame them as well for being like this.

Up until 1987, the American Classification for Mental Disorders considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder that was curable by therapy and treatment. Such "treatment" like conversion therapy was often turned to, to "cure" homosexual thoughts from someone. The therapy was found to be inhumane and it didn't work, yet not everywhere has it outlawed. There are 13 states that have some sort of legislation that bans conversion therapy for minors, but there is still a lot of work to be done so that all 50 states are safe for young LGBT+ members.

This June

According to an article on The Blaze, a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Indiana replaced their five military flags with a pride flag for a day in honor of LGBT+ service men and women.

This proved to be too much for one person, as they lowered the flag and drove off with it. The department said that because they had limited flagpoles, they decided to lower all of the flags and only fly the pride flag so that they weren't just taking down one military branch flag.

Netflix has done its part by announcing the launch of "First Time I Saw Me" which is a documentary that shows transgender celebrities according to Indie Wire. As well as a new show starring Jennifer Anniston as the first female President of the United States who also happens to be married to a woman. It is not yet confirmed when this show will air.

Lastly, shows like "The Bold Type" are back on the air and featuring LGBT+ positive relationships that are also showing diversity by having different races represented on the screen.

The movie "Love, Simon" also was just released on DVD this month, which is a movie about a high school boy who is gay and in the closet, but finds someone he loves and things get a little crazy from there.

Let's talk

The LGBT+ community has been marginalized, killed, outlawed, and so much more by the world. Them having a month where they celebrate how far they've come as a community and being able to be out and proud is not a lot to ask for in the grand scheme of things. There have been many people saying that every other day of the year is "straight pride" because being straight is the most accepted orientation.

Straight doesn't need to be the default for sexuality, and you shouldn't need to have a special pride month when your sexual orientation hasn't lead to your oppression.
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