At Healthworks Group, we firming believe in equality for ALL and that love is love, no ifs, ands or buts. June is dedicated as Pride Month internationally, dating back to the first Pride Parade in 1970, marked by the anniversary of Stonewall Uprising.
We celebrate, preach and educate the importance of equality and LGBTQ+ rights all the months and June for Pride month, we’re shouting it from the roof tops!
Boston Pride for the People: June 8
We’re thrilled that to marching in and celebrating the return of the Boston Pride for the People Festival & Parade on Saturday, June 8. We invite all to join us as we meet at Healthworks Back Bay (441 Stuart Street) in the morning (time TBD) and we’ll head over and get in place as a community, united in LGBTQ+ Pride, support and allyship. The Parade starts in Copley Square at 11am.
We’ll have a limited number of complimentary Healthworks Group Pride t-shirts for anyone joining us. If you’re planning to join us and would like a t-shirt, please fill out this form by May 10. Extra t-shirts will be available for sale.
Important Figures in the LGBTQ+ Community:
Barbara Gittings – Regarded as the mother of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, Barbara Gittings was one of the earliest gay activists. In 1958, Barbara co-founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first U.S. lesbian civil rights organization. Her work was also pivotal in getting the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
Cecilia Chung – Cecilia Chung is a longtime advocate for the transgender community and those living with HIV/AIDS, working to end the discrimination and violence that her communities face. Her life story also inspired a character on the ABC miniseries When We Rise (2017), which documented the history of the LGBTQ+ movement from the 1970s-2010s.
Janelle Monáe – Since the early 2010s, Grammy-nominated, singer-songwriter, Janelle Monáe has had their music create a safe space and liberate and empower the LGBTQ+ community. But it wasn’t until an interview with Rolling Stone in 2018 that they felt powerful enough to come out to the world as non-binary (She/They) and pansexual. Their radical and critically acclaimed 2018 album, “Dirty Computer” was dedicated to “young girls, young boys, nonbinary, gay, straight, [and] queer people who are having a hard time dealing with their sexuality.”
Marsha P. Johnson – Marsha P. Johnson, a drag queen and prominent gay liberation activist, is one of the most well-known participants in the June 28, 1969 Stonewall Uprising. That night, after growing tension, police stormed the gay bar, arresting multiple people. Patrons resisted and riots broke out, lasting six days. After Stonewall, her activism continued—she joined the Gay Liberation Front, ACT UP, and cofounded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
Madonna –Madonna is widely recognized as a gay icon and pioneering ally for the LGBTQ+ community. She was an early advocate of transgender awareness and rights, AIDS and HIV awareness and more. Celebrities, including Anderson Cooper, Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell have all credited Madonna’s influence on their own coming out journeys.
Maura Healey – Maura Healey is currently serving as the 73rd governor of Massachusetts and the state’s first female governor. Governor Healey is also the nation’s first openly lesbian governor and she remains committed to fighting and speaking out against anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers in other states across the country.
Megan Rapinoe – Megan Rapinoe was one of the first openly gay players on the U.S. Women’s National Team, which put her in the spotlight as an LGBTQ+ activist. She’s fought for equal pay in women’s soccer and was part of a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation and is an outspoken advocate for trans inclusion in sports. In 2022, President Biden awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to LGBTQ+ equality and equality in women’s sports.
Stormé DeLarverie – Rumored to have thrown the first punch at Stonewall Uprising, Stormé DeLarverie spent her life fighting “ugliness” – her word for discrimination of any kind. Dubbing herself the “guardian of the lesbians in The Village,” DeLarverie would patrol the streets of Greenwich Village, ensuring the safety of lesbians and kids at night.
Watch, Listen and Read:
Conversations With People Who Hate Me
Girls Can Kiss Now
L.A.: A Queer History
Making Gay History
Rainbow Rainbow
Plus, find more suggestions from the Boston Public Library here
Educational Resources:
ADL
History.com: Stonewall Riots
Human Rights Campaign
Library of Congress
The Trevor Project
