Not even halfway into world pride month and there is no avoiding rainbow flags. Make no mistake, it is not to celebrate the Tarxien Rainbows football team.
However, Malta is of course a different case since as a country we celebrate pride week between the 6th and 15th of September with the long awaited pride march scheduled for the 14th. Mark the dates as this year Malta pride made it to the top 5 of the must attend prides of 2019.
Note that this year is important to the LGBTIQ Community as it marks 50 years since Stonewall. For those of us who are not well versed in the history of pride month, the Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the LGBT community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. They are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the U.S.
Gay Americans in the 1950s and 1960s faced an anti-gay legal system. Early homophile groups in the U.S. sought to prove that gay people could be assimilated into society, and they favoured non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike.
The riot served the purpose of grabbing the attention of the world at the time and several years later, but in the long-run it was the non-confrontational tactics and the predominance of the movement in modern pop-culture. Say what you will about tv shows such as Glee, movies such as Call Me by your Name and Blue is the Warmest Colour, or Heroes such as Batwoman, NorthStar, Wiccan and Iceman. All these normalised the idea of being part of the LGBTIQ community and allowed the movement to make leaps and bounds in recent years.
On behalf of 1-Up Club here’s our thanks to Hollywood for the free marketing of a just cause for equality and the long awaited recognition of remarkable human beings such as Alexander Turing in The Imitation Game. Nonetheless, although things are much better around the world don’t lose sight of those still suffering in countries where being gay can get you thrown off a roof or being forced to endure the wicked torture of seeing Rocketman without the gay and drugs parts (Take a wild guess in which country – Russia).
