The Importance of Pride Month at RASS

Every year in June without fail, the colours of the LGBTQ+ community burst forth in a proud display throughout the city in a celebration known as Pride Month. You can find the flags of diverse gender identities and sexual orientation in windows and on t-shirts, and sometimes in more unexpected places like a wrist tattoo or a cereal box. But why do we celebrate Pride Month? What is the purpose of allyship with the LGBTQ+ community? And why is it important for RASS to acknowledge and recognize Pride as part of our work?

First, let’s take a brief look at the history of Pride Month. On June 28 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The people rioted in response to the unjust use of force and cried out for gay liberation. The following years saw a series of marches and parades to further push for justice and the liberation of LGBTQ+ people. What began as riots and protests for queer people’s rights has since turned into a yearly celebration of LGBTQ+ identity, inclusion, and culture.

Today, Pride Month continues as a month-long acknowledgement and celebration of people’s diverse identities and preferences. It is an opportunity for LGBTQ+ people to be open and proud of who they are, and an opportunity for non-LGBTQ+ allies to gain awareness about this historically oppressed community.

What can allies get out of Pride Month? Well, it is an opportunity to be shown a new perspective, to learn new things about other people, and be exposed to the idea that gender identity and sexual identity exists across a spectrum, rather than a binary. It is also a great time to show our LGTBQ+ loved ones that we support who they are as a human being, although that is something that can be done all year round! By listening openly and empathetically, anyone can become an ally for someone who identifies as queer. In a world where sometimes being different is ostracized or persecuted, it is important for our LGBTQ+ friends to know that they have people around them that accept and support them for who they are.

In the RASS philosophy on the 5 Life Areas, we believe that addiction prevention is about identifying the aspects of our health that are causing us to turn to coping methods that may or may not be healthy for us in the long run. By taking a look at our physical, mental, social, spiritual, and environmental life areas, we can gain a further understanding of ourselves and our unique needs. Our environmental life area specifically encompasses our ability to navigate our world accessibly and safely. How well we can thrive in our environments can depend on a lot of things, such as physical aspects like elevators or clear signage, or contextual aspects like being in a place that recognizes non-binary pronouns.

When our environment is insistent on denying a part of our identity that is intrinsic to us, it can significantly impact all our other life areas as well. This can be a reason why people feel isolated from their community, even if they are surrounded by people. That isolation and loneliness can cause some to turn to substances or harmful behaviours to cope with their pain.

RASS understands how important it is for our environment to be a place to thrive in, rather than simply survive in. Acknowledging and celebrating LGTBQ+ lives is an important part of our work, and so even as June is about to wrap up, we will continue to celebrate Pride every year, for all days of the year.