The international gay rights movement was born in the early hours of June 28, 1969, with a series of violent confrontations (later known as the Stonewall riots) between police and gay rights activists outside Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York City. Since then, June has been declared, ‘The Global Pride Month’, celebrated by the LGBTQ+ community every year, with pride parades, workshops, concerts, dance parties and fun challenges, that reflect the collective decision of the LGBTQ+ community and their straight supporters, to assert themselves in the global space. The celebration can also be viewed as a way to make amends for the long suffering of the LGBTQ+ community through yester years, when they were subjected to emotional and physical abuse, which included bullying, violence, intimidation, and shaming in societies all over the world. June 2020 is special, as it is the 50th anniversary of ‘The Global Pride Month.’ However, as the world struggles to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the celebrations have moved online and in the virtual space.
In the + sign of LGBTQ+ inter-racial love should be included. June 12, marks National Loving Day, celebrating love between couples with differing ethnicity/colour/race. It takes its name from the black and white couple Martha and Richard Loving, who approached the US Supreme Court after the American state of Virginia held their co-habitation was illegal under the then prevailing State laws (and in 15 other US States) criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races. In a landmark judgment in 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren’s court struck down all existing anti-miscegenation laws in the country writing in a 9-0 opinion that, “The freedom to marry or not to marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed upon by the state.”
Chidanand.Rajghatta’s reports (1) that, “Race, ethnicity, religion, caste etc., are not so much genetic traits but artificial later-life constructs, as simple social experiments show. In one home designed exercise, a young pre-schooler is shown a series of photographs of black and white children sharing various affectionate moments and asked what he sees. “They are playing together,” “They are hugging”, “They are kissing”, “They are holding hands,” he notes, Each time he is asked, WHAT ELSE do you see, he describes everything in the photos, the background the scenery, the clothes they are wearing etc., - everything except the race or colour of the children. Till at least the primary school stage, most children are impervious to race, religion, ethnicity and sundry divisive metrics that come to define people in later life.
How best to extend this stage of innocence while growing up to embrace the truth that all human beings are 99.9% identical in their genetic makeup – is what will determine the future of all countries. Countries and societies that unhesitatingly embrace the principles of diversity, pluralism and equality will race to the top.”
Dear Signatories, in this Pride Month, let’s celebrate the Shanti Sahyog vision of our common humanity and not have enemy images which lead to violence and war, by committing ourselves afresh to spreading our initiative #ChooseNonviolentDefence. Further, as a sign of resistance towards all form of violence, we request you to wear a T-shirt or put up a Sun Screen on your car, or use other products with #ChooseNonviolentDefence printed on them. Email Shanti Sahyog Centre for Peace & Conflict Resolution for these items: cpcr@shantisahyog.org
(1) Chidanand.Rajghatta’s article in Times of India, June 15, 2020, page 14.