Sunday marked the first day of Pride Month, but despite being in 2025, progress of the rights of queer and trans people in the U.S. has faced a wall: The Trump Administration.
That means the celebratory month of Pride Month is important and now more necessary than ever, especially in an era where queer and trans people are endangered of losing their rights every day not only just in America but worldwide.
But what is Pride Month? Pride Month, observed in June, is a month-long celebration of the LGBTQ+ community originating from the first Pride Month in New York City on June 28, 1970, on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Since then, people across the U.S. and the world have gathered in parades and other forms of celebration to uplift queer voices.
Pride Month celebrates queer people worldwide by bringing awareness to the community and by showcasing their resilience despite the opposition they face, but their culture and history too through remembrance of what the community overcame, important figures and more.
In President Donald Trump’s America, attacks on the rights and lives of queer and trans people are becoming more prominent not just on the state level but federal as well. In the name of “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government” as told from the White House, Trump has made executive orders such as a military ban on transgender service members, directing agencies to take action against gender-affirming care from being provided to people under the age of 19 and much more.
As of May 23, there are 588 bills targeting the rights of LGBTQ+ people according to the American Civil Liberties Union, and while not all of them might pass, they are all the antithesis of what America should stand for as a melting pot of cultures and identities that treats people with respect.
The Trump administration would like to make you believe that queer people are deviants and they are the enemy when simply queer and trans people just want the right to live and exist. This kind of legislation and rhetoric is just cruel. We are just alienating these marginalized groups, treating them like second-class citizens.
The very reason Pride Month exists is the same reason why it is important. To bring awareness, education and to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its many identities.
As long as queer people are discriminated against in any corner of the world, Pride Month is here to stay. And even once queer people get the rights they deserve, Pride Month will still exist and will always be important.
