Here’s how to celebrate pride month amidst lockdown

Every year in June, the world is painted rainbow as pride month is celebrated worldwide with parades and events. It is an unspoken rule to go to a pride parade and bask in the glory of love, freedom and expression. But with the onset of a deadly pandemic and lockdown, pride stands halted for an infinite amount of time.

Every year in June, the world is painted rainbow as pride month is celebrated worldwide with parades and events. It is an unspoken rule to go to a pride parade and bask in the glory of love, freedom and expression. But with the onset of a deadly pandemic and lockdown, pride stands halted for an infinite amount of time.

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Covid not only limited us to our homes, but it also affected the celebrations of a month so special for many. While pride 2020 passed by in the hopes of change for next year, pride month 2021 is here and so is covid.

But, celebrating pride month is much more than just parades, it is learning the history of pride and paying respects to everyone who contributed to helping the LGBTQ+ community break out and grow.

Here are some ways you can celebrate pride month amidst the lockdown: — Attend online Pride Parades

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Many online communities are on their toes to not miss a moment of pride by organizing zoom parades and online events. All you have to do is get in touch with such communities and organizations and join the party.

These online parades may not be as extravagant as the real parades but they are just as fun and important for the LGBTQ+ communities.

If attending is not your thing, try organizing a pride parade online. Try gathering LGBTQ+ folks and also allies and help them understand the significance of the month.

• Join a Pride discussion/forum/event

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Lots of LGBTQ+ folks organize multiple events like panel talks, discussions, live streams, QnA sessions and discussions. Another great way to celebrate is by joining these.

Lead by the community, these are a great way to learn more about the community and ways to help them and be a good ally.

These events also including movie screenings and open mics where LGBTQ+ people share their own experiences with their identity among talking about how to uplift the community, how to help the community or anyone who is a part of it, harmful stereotypes against the community, how to manage queer identity-related anxiety, how to tackle issues queer folks face on a daily and much more.

• Watch LGBTQ+ movies, documentaries and shows

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LGBTQ+ representation in the media is limited but so important and necessary to put the spotlight on the community. Many shows, movies and documentaries across various platforms have a genre of LGBTQ+ content, helmed by LGBTQ+ creators and actors and is a great way to learn more about the community through the eyes of artistic fictional creations.

Shows like POSE, Empire, Euphoria and movies like Ride or Die, Moonlight, Love Simon and more depict beautiful queer characters and storylines that make a good watch and push to good queer content.

• Read up about the history of pride

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The stonewall riots years ago had a significant impact on pride and the LGBTQ+ community. Often people forget about the flag bearers of the community who brought a change and fought for the rights of queer people.

There are many books, articles and even events that talk about this and all the people especially Marsha P Johnson who have been significant contributors to the acceptance and freedom of the LGBTQ+ community.

Throughout pride, various talks and discussions also talk about its history to always maintain respect for those before us and celebrate their existence and contribution to the community.

• Donate to LGBTQ+ organizations

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LGBTQ+ people, especially children around the world, still don’t live in safe environments and are subjected to homophobia even while trying to make a living. LGBTQ+ organizations like The Trevor Project, Human Rights Campaign, The Okra Project, Lambda Legal and many more such establishments work actively to help LGBTQ+ communities around the world.

Any and every donation is used to uplift queer people, help them escape phobic and abusive households, help them get a job, a house or resources and help queer kids get a better environment to live in.

Donating to these organizations is the best one can do to celebrate pride and is a very noble way to add your own energy to the synergy of pride.

• Educate oneself and others about LGBTQ+ issues

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The LGBTQ+ community around the world suffers a lot and there are petitions and need for donations going around daily. Try signing and mailing for the voice of the community and encourage everyone around you to do so too.

Help people around you understand the significance of the month and the community and ways to become allies.

Calling out queerphobic behaviour and educating people about it is a great way to actually help bring change for the community.

Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.