Celebrating Pride Month 2023: A Time for Reflection, Progress, and Unity

Pride Month is an annual celebration that holds immense significance for the LGBTIQA2+ community globally. While New Zealand recognises Pride in February, June is dedicated globally to commemorating and honouring the diverse experiences and identities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals. With Pride Month 2023 getting underway, it is essential to reflect on the historical struggles faced by the community, acknowledge the challenges that persist worldwide, and celebrate the social and legislative accomplishments achieved over the past year.

Pride Month is a time to celebrate and affirm the rights, visibility, and acceptance of LGBTIQA2+ individuals. It serves as a platform to promote understanding and inclusivity, and challenge prejudice. By highlighting the rich diversity of experiences within the queer community, Pride Month helps raise awareness and encourages dialogue, ultimately fostering a more inclusive society for all.

While progress has been made over the years, the LGBTIQA2+ community continues to face numerous challenges. Discrimination, violence, and societal prejudice remain persistent issues. In many countries, same-sex relationships are still criminalized, and transgender individuals face obstacles in accessing appropriate healthcare and legal recognition. Mental health disparities and bullying disproportionately affect queer youth, making it crucial to address these challenges and work towards a more inclusive future.

As well as being a month-long celebration, Pride month is also an opportunity for activism, in order to promote awareness of current issues facing the community. Parades, street parties, community events, festivals and educational sessions attract the mainstream media, and millions of participants.

Over the past few years, New Zealand has made notable strides towards achieving LGBTIQA2+ equality. In 2021, the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act was passed, making it illegal to perform conversion practices on anyone in New Zealand. This landmark legislation serves to protect individuals from harmful and discredited attempts to change or suppress their sexual orientation or gender identity. Moreover, New Zealand has continued to foster inclusivity and representation within its institutions. Efforts to promote LGBTIQA2+ inclusivity in schools and workplaces have been prioritised, aiming to create safe and accepting environments for all.

While New Zealand's accomplishments are commendable, it is vital to recognize that the struggle for LGBTIQA2+ rights extends beyond our borders. Many countries still have a long way to go in terms of recognizing and protecting the rights of queer individuals. By celebrating Pride Month and supporting global movements for equality, New Zealand demonstrates its commitment to standing in solidarity with the global LGBTIQA2+ community.

In all of modern history, there are few minorities so tiny in proportion to the overall population that have become the centre of so much controversy, so much misinterpretation, so much reduction to caricature, and become such a locus for people’s identity politics and culture war hang-ups, as the Trans Community.

Sadly, one of the communities most susceptible to negative mental health, and most vulnerable to slights and indignities socially, are too often cast into the spotlight and asked to account for themselves, when what they would much prefer to do is focus on self-affirmation, integration and getting on with thriving as best they can as their ideal selves. 

Recently, in Florida, with its new legislation, a teacher was ‘reviewed’ for letting her class watch the Disney animated feature Strange World, which features a tender crush between two teen boys. That a teacher, in the modern age, could be considered to have transgressed against prevailing norms and standards by playing a Disney film for her class is dispiritingly indicative of the rise of reactionary attitudes in parts of the West.

Companies face a backlash if a commercial tie-in includes a LGBTIQA2+ influencer. Reactionary eco-systems lurk online, rallying and coordinating and affirming tropes, in anticipation of, or in response to some new flare up; as was witnessed during the brief visit to these shores of activist Posey Parker.

With Pride Month 2023 here, New Zealand can show solidarity with the progress made in fostering more inclusive societies. While acknowledging the historical struggles and ongoing challenges faced by the LGBTIQA2+ community, it is imperative to also celebrate the milestones achieved over the past year. By continuing to prioritise legislation that protects queer individuals, promoting inclusivity, and fostering dialogue, New Zealand serves as an example to the world, showing that progress towards equality is possible, and reminding us all of the importance of Pride Month in building a more just and accepting world, both within Aotearoa, and beyond its shores.