Pride is defined as "a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements" and "consciousness of one's own dignity." In the LBGT community, pride means being proud of yourself and your identities — acting as a positive counterpoint to the attitude of shame historically aimed at LGBT people. Pride promotes self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and visibility of the LBGT community.

Pride Month is celebrated in June around the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion on June 28, 1969. The Stonewall Rebellion is considered a pivotal point in LGBT history. At the time, police raids on bars catering to LGBT patrons were common, but that night the Stonewall Inn patrons in New York fought back. This ignited a national wave of activism, bringing new visibility to the LGBT community and the struggle for LBGT equality. Pride has an incredibly rich history rooted in queer activism and uprisings around the country which were primarily led by trans and gender non-conforming folks of color.

Today, pride is celebrated in many different ways around the country and the world, emblematic of the diversity of the LBGT community. In recent years, pride has become more commercialized with rainbow merchandise popping up everywhere during the month of June and major corporate sponsors tied to festivals and parades. Even so, pride remains rooted in its history of protest and uprising, recognizing that the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights is far from over. As them. describes: "Since its beginning, Pride has been a political event. And although it may feel like a party today, protests have always been embedded in its very reason for existing. Pride has always been a protest against unjust systems, even when it's lighthearted and fun." During pride month, we take extra time to recognize the history of the LGBT movement, take stock of the setbacks and advances in the last year, and for the LGBTQIA+ community to come together and celebrate.

Learn more:

What Is Pride Month and the History of Pride? (them, June 2020)
Pride Is and Always Was About Rebellion, This Year More Than Ever (them, June 2020)
How the Pride March Made History (New York Times, June 2020)
An Archivist Explains The Deeply Radical Origins Of Pride (Bustle, 2020)

Check back soon for Pride Month events!

Ellen McCallum

Ellen McCallum is a Professor in the Department of English. Her work centers around critical theory, film studies, queer theory, feminist and LGBTQ studies, and American literature.

McCallum has published numerous books on queer and feminist theory. Most recently, she published Unmaking the Making of Americans: Toward an Aesthetic Ontology with SUNY Press in 2018 and co-edited After Queer Studies: Literature, Theory and Sexuality in the 21st Century with Oxford University Press.

Hillery Glasby

Hillery Glasby is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. Her research interests include: queer rhetoric, visual, digital, and DIY/craft rhetorics, and queer and feminist pedagogies.

Glasby just recently co-published Storying in Queer Appalachia: Imagining and Writing the Unspeakable Other with West Virginia University Press. In addition, she published a book chapter in Re/Orienting Writing Studies in 2019 entitled "Making it Queer, Not Clear: Embracing Ambivalence and Failure and Queer Methodologies," and an article in Humanities entitled "A Dialogue on the Constructions of GLBT and Queer Ethos: "I Belong to a Culture That Includes..."."

Jae Puckett

Jae Puckett is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Their research focuses on the experiences of stigma and marginalization that LGBTQ individuals face and the negative health outcomes of prejudice. They have a particular focus on the transgender and gender diverse individuals. They are also the Director of Trans-ilence: The Transgender Stress and Resilience Research Team.

In 2020, Puckett has published 3 academic journal articles including: "Perspectives from Transgenderf and Gender Diverse People on How to Ask about Gender," in LGBT Health; "Coping with discrimination: The insidious effects of gender minority stigma on depression and anxiety in transgender individuals," in the Journal of Clinical Psychology; and "The Association between Social Dominance Orientation, Critical Consciousness, and Gender Minority Stigma," in the Journal of Homosexuality.

stef schuster

stef schuster is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Lyman Briggs College. Their broad research interests include medical sociology, gender, inequality, and social movements.

schuster's upcoming book, Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender, is in press with NYU Press and set to release in June 2021. Additionally, in 2020 schuster published a book chapter entitled "Becoming a legal proxy: the unintended consequences of informed consent in US transgender medicine," in Research Handbook on Gender, Sexuality and the Law published by Elgar and 4 articles in journals such as Sex Roles, The American Journal of Sociology, Educational Research, and Contemporary Sociology.

The Trevor Project — Resources

The Trevor Project is is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. This page provides resources for LBGTQ+ youth and allies on topics from anxiety during the pandemic to suicide prevention to coming out.

Quest: Building Capacity for LGBTQA+ Inclusion

Quest is the LBGT Resource Center’s core curriculum and is designed to encourage the growth and development of ally skills and practices over time. Quest I: Foundations - Introduction to LGBTQA+ Identities and Inclusion Online is currently available as a six-module web-course through D2L for MSU . Learn more about the Quest Program and how to enroll on the LBGTRC Website.

LBGT Resource Center Glossary

This page provides carefully researched and thoughtfully discussed definitions of key gender and sexuality terms. Language around identities and gender and sexuality is important and understanding evolving definitions and terms is one piece of that.

Pride Flags 101: Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Gay, Trans, and Other Pride Flags

You may be able to recognize some pride flags, but did you know that there are dozens? This article explores the history of pride flags and their meanings.