LGBT Pride Week begins here in Sandus today, XXIII Iunio (23 June). Pride Week lasts until XXIX Iunio (29 June) and will conclude this year with a gala at the Palace of State in Kremlum Sandus. First celebrated in MMXII (2012), LGBT Pride Week is a celebration of the LGBT community, the movement, and the people. LGBT Pride Week in Sandus is celebrated on the Gregorian week that falls on the anniversary of the Stonewall Revolution, the historic civil disobedience action taken by LGBT people on 28 June 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The Stonewall Riots, as they are known outside of Sandus, was the second and more impressive of such events where gay people stood up against institutionalised and policed homophobia, in addition to police brutality and police abuse. The Stonewall Revolution paved the way for the Gay Liberation Movement and the liberation of LGBTQ+ peoples throughout the world.
Pride is a holiday for LGBTQ+ people because it demonstrates a time when they can celebrate their love, their passions, and who they are openly — instead of being closeted for fear of rejection, unemployability, and aggression or abuse from others. As a micronation, Sandus is home to many LGBTQ+ people — whose identities as lesbians, gay, bi*, trans*, queer, and other monikers are respected here in Sandus. The same can not be said even of other micronations in the micronational world — some of whom refuse to grant recognition and respect to the most precarious segments of our community: bi* and trans* people, and the myriad of other acronyms (asexuals, intersex people, questioning, allies, etc.). In a world where people can be violently attacked or where mental health issues are the primary issue, Sandus and its micronational allies who support LGBTQ+ causes stand as a peaceful beacon for LGBTQ+ people around the world.
Sandus is home to several liaisons whose expertise focuses on trans* identities, asexuals, feminism, and LGBT-inclusion. Sandus has celebrated Pride since MMXII (2012), three years after its founding in 2009. The Sandum Sôgmô, as well, is an out bisexual who has taken leadership roles within bi* support groups at the University of Maryland, where he is a student, and within bi* advocacy through Sandus and other political and activist action organisations.
Glossary of specific terms:
- LGBT: traditionally stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people.
- LGBTQ+: the acronym above but inclusive of ‘queer’ and other identities.
- LGBTQIA: another acronym used to include ‘queer’, ‘questioning’, ‘intersex’, ‘asexuals’, and ‘allies’.
- Bi*: an inclusive term meant to denote bisexuals, pansexuals, queer people, ‘labelless’ people, and other sexual/romantic identities that fit into bisexuality.
- Trans*: an inclusive term meant to denote transgender, transexuals, intersex, genderqueer, bi-gender, agender, gender non-binary, two-spirit people, and other gender identities.
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