- Jun 10, 2025
Pride Month Matters
- Maya Xian
- 0 comments
Pride Month supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex and ace (LGBTQIA+) people, celebrating their lives and supporting their rights to a free life. Stonewall is a charity in the UK that is part of the global movement, striving for freedom and for rights. Commemorating the 1969 Stonewall Riots in the US, a pivotal moment that helped place the systemic and legal discrimination towards LGBTQIA+ people in the global spotlight through challenging police acts of violence, oppression and social control. In England and Wales, being a gay man could cost you life imprisonment all the way up to 1967 and it wasn’t until 1980 and 1982 that this became decriminalised in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Stonewall, the charity in the UK, was established in 1989, a year after Section 28 was enacted. Section 28 is a discriminatory legislation that prohibited teachers from talking about same-sex relationships in schools and forced LGBTQIA+ teachers out of their jobs. This law was purposefully designed to prevent the acceptance of homosexuality, both systemically and legislatively stigmatising LGBTQIA+ identities. This act was not abolished until 2003 and only for England and Wales, not Scotland or Northern Ireland helping shape the mindsets and attitudes for generations.
Schools are important for young people's formative understanding of values and mindsets and during school, young people ask foundational questions in relation to their identity development. In 2024, studies showed that LGBTQIA+ students are 4 times more likely to be bullied in school and have a youth suicide rate 4 times higher than their peers. Through excluding LGBTQIA+ topics, schools are actively marginalising those who have been made to feel like they don't fit in. Therefore the importance of normalising LGBTQIA+ people and their identities is not about pushing an agenda but counteracting long-standing harmful biases and showing young people that they are acknowledged, respected and valued, no matter how they identify.
Within the UK itself, in 2025, up to 47% of LGBTQIA+ school aged children report being bullied or discriminated against in school settings due to their identity and amongst LGBTQIA+ students, trans and bisexual girls face high levels of verbal, physical and sexual harassment. Furthermore, 25% of LGBTQIA+ school aged children face family rejection, causing a greater risk of homelessness.
In response to these challenges, several charities are making life-saving impacts.
The Naz and Matt Foundation supports LGBTQIA+ individuals, particularly from religious or culturally conservative backgrounds, working to end culture and religion-based homophobia and providing education and community support for young people facing honour-based abuse and familial rejection.
In addition, The African Rainbow Family supports LGBTQIA+ people of African heritage and the wider Black and global majority communities, many of whom are asylum seekers and refugees dealing with compounded discrimination and trauma.
Mermaids, one of the UK’s leading trans youth charities, supports gender-diverse children, young people, and their families by offering helplines, local group support, and advocacy to ensure trans voices are heard in education and healthcare.
Other youth LGBTQIA+ initiatives in the UK include JustLikeUs, Hidayah LGBT, and the Gay Indian Network London.
Celebrating Pride is only the beginning as we start to challenge a culture of shame, silence and exclusion. Educational inclusivity and normalised representation is a building block to protect LGBTQIA+ youth from harm and erasure.
References
Our history. Stonewall. Available at: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/our-history (Accessed: 09 June 2025).
Wallace, E.R., O’Neill, S. and Lagdon, S. (2024) ‘Risk and protective factors for suicidality among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) young people, from countries with a high global acceptance index (GAI), within the context of the socio‐ecological model: A scoping review’, Journal of Adolescence, 96(5), pp. 897–924. doi:10.1002/jad.12308. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jad.12308
Fox, A. (2024) Almost half of LGBT+ youth have felt bullied in education, survey suggests, The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/lgbt-lgbtq-schools-lgbtq-rights-yougov-b2569619.html (Accessed: 09 June 2025).
Sexual offences act 1967 - UK parliament. Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/sexual-offences-act-1967/sexual-offences-act-1967/ (Accessed: 09 June 2025).
Day, H. (2019) Section 28: What was it and how did it affect LGBT+ people?, BBC Three. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/cacc0b40-c3a4-473b-86cc-11863c0b3f30 (Accessed: 09 June 2025).