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Pride Week is associated with Pride Month which is celebrated in many areas of Canada and around the world in June as well as over the summer months.
Ottawa (15 June 2009) - The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is pleased to support and celebrate June as Pride Month for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people everywhere.
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NUPGE has produced a poster entitled One Good Idea Deserves Another - Full Human Rights for All. We invite our members and the public to download it and distribute it as widely as possible by clicking on the graphic in this article or the link below.
Pride Month is an annual celebration marked across Canada and beyond with parades, dances, festivals and other events sponsored by local charities and volunteer organizations.
Pride Week is celebrated in many areas during June or at other dates during the summer months. One of the largest festivals, nationally and internationally, is held in Toronto. This year the celebration begins June 19 in Toronto and ends June 28.
"NUPGE recognizes Pride Week for what it symbolizes in terms of freedom and equality," says NUPGE president James Clancy. "We encourage our members from coast to coast to recognize the value of diversity and to use the occasion as an opportunity to build greater solidarity in support of human rights for all."
NUPGE embraces a philosophy of full human rights for all in the belief that, to be meaningful, these rights must include:
- the right to organize and bargain collectively.
- a national network of community-based services that allow citizens to fully participate in society.
- an end to poverty and homelessness.
- elimination of discrimination in respect of employment.
Pride Month back to 1969
The origins of Pride Month can be traced back to a June weekend in New York City in 1969.
On the night of June 27 that year, a crowd gathered as usual at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village.
New York Beverage Control Board agents and city police officers raided the bar to enforce an alcohol control law that was seldom enforced anywhere else in the city. Raids on gay establishments, however, were common at the time.
Lesbians and gay men spontaneously fought back for the first time against police harassment. The crowd inside and outside the bar erupted in resistance as officers singled out patrons to load into waiting paddy wagons. More police reinforcements were called in as local gays and lesbians united in enraged confrontation. Word of the clash spread and crowds gathered on ensuing nights to protest the mistreatment historically inflicted on the gay community.
These protests came to be known as the Stonewall Rebellion, and the uprising was the catalyst for the modern political movement for gay and lesbian liberation.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE
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