June is a month of many celebrations and commemorations, but two are honored in this blog:
Pride month
Juneteenth
June is Pride Month, when the world’s LGBTQ communities come together and celebrate the freedom to be themselves. Pride gatherings are rooted in the arduous history of minority groups who have struggled for decades to overcome prejudice and be accepted for who they are. The original organizers chose this month to pay homage to the Stonewall uprising in June 1969 in New York City, which helped spark the modern gay rights movement. Most Pride events take place each year in June, although some cities hold their celebrations at other times of the year.
Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. Juneteenth inspires us to think of the importance of diversity and inclusion. Diversity is understanding that everyone is unique and that each of our individual differences share a purpose in society. Inclusion means including everyone no matter their race, religion, color, gender, and treating everyone the same.
Let’s spend this month of June appreciating the differences in all of us and being as inclusive as possible in our words and actions!
