June marks the start of a month-long celebration of LGBTQ+ pride and it's impossible to divorce Pride Month from political action.
Pride started as a riot. The first Pride in 1970 commemorated the Stonewall uprising in June 1969. It took 30 years for Pride as we know it now to become official, with former President Clinton signing the first proclamation that June was Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999.
Last year’s World Pride, hosted in D.C., put politics and Pride on a head-on collision. President Trump’s encroachment on the city’s local government, growing hostilities toward the LGBTQ+ community, and scrutiny toward companies with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, pushed 2025’s Pride into uncertain territory. Despite it all, World Pride still pulled an estimated 1.2 million attendees.
This year, Pride finds itself in a similar situation. Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is still pouring through statehouses across the country, Trump is still hammering anti-transgender messaging, Republicans are trying to create their own counterprogramming, and several Pride parades have already been canceled.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN 05) said in a since-deleted social media post earlier this week that “homosexuality has no place in America” and wished his followers a “Happy Nuclear Family Month.” Though Ogles later blamed the post on a member of his staff and was called out by several fellow Republicans like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY 17), the sentiment is not new.
While Pride is the culmination of decades of political work toward increasing rights and visibility, the country’s acceptance has waned.
At its peak in 2022, Gallup found that 71% of Americans felt that same-sex marriage was morally acceptable. Today that number sits at 62%. In 2021, Gallup found that 46% of Americans thought it was acceptable to change genders. Today, that number sits at 38%.
As a result, LGBTQ+ organizations are getting creative with how they get folks engaged.
Many LGBTQ+ organizations like the Trevor Project have partnered with corporations or businesses to hold fundraisers or one-night galas that donate a portion of proceeds to their cause. Some take the season to educate the community, like Capital Stonewall Democrats, who are throwing a ranked-choice voting drag night that aims to teach attendees how D.C.’s new ranked-choice voting system works by having them rank the drag performers of the night.
Since 1970, when the first Pride celebrations across the country took to the streets, the LGBTQ+ community has demanded to be seen and heard. This year will be no different.
— Hannah Thacker
