Kampala Uganda: Pride Uganda; a Uganda-led story of visibility and the story of Pride -Part 1
PRIDE
Ugandan LGBTIQQ Community is a collective at the interface of normalized patriarchy, matriarchy and gender expansiveness. It is a community of women and men who are negotiating pro-actively how to productively live their lives.
It is the repository of women whose bodies cannot limit the inner gender-self. It is a repository of men whose bodies cannot contain the inner gender-self who defies assigned gender and normativity. They are a collective who have turned potential biases into useful community mobilization markers and change initiators.
They dismiss attributive bias and are now engaging in activities that contribute to their community welfare. Pride Uganda is a series of activities marked in June or July every year. The activities range from paying for a venue (they contribute large sums of money to venue proprietors), buying refreshments (they pay money for food and beverages which means the LGBTIQQ community indirectly pays salaries of employed people at the different venues), pay for security detail as well as transport to and fro a given venue.
There are others who prefer to engage in philanthropic or charitable community activities like visiting inmates; visiting orphanages and providing food; and mobilizing communities for comprehensive HIV Prevention Awareness to name but a few of the activities. Pride Uganda is taking on an expansive definition and through it many are allowed to remember what happened at StoneWall, New York in 1970. But, for the Ugandan community it is also a means to adapt Pride to fit into a Ugandan context.
Abraham Lincoln, said “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
In these series we shall be bringing you articles under one theme we have termed: PRIDE
We begin with a story titled: The History of LGBT Pride, from 1970 to Now by HRC staff that run on 27th June 2014
As June and LGBT Pride Month comes to a close, there isn’t a better time to reflect on the history of Pride, Stonewall, and the amazing accomplishments that have been achieved by LGBT activists since the first pride march 44 years ago.
New York was the birthplace of Pride in 1970, one year after the famous Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. The riots, which spanned over three days, were some of the most prominent instances in which LGBT people resisted against police discrimination. It was a watershed moment in LGBT history – it is often credited as the start of the modern gay liberation movement, which later expanded into the larger LGBT rights movement.
Since Stonewall, Pride has seen a great number of changes and transformations. Originally, Pride was solely a political demonstration to voice LGBT demands for equal rights and protections. More and more parades and demonstrations appeared in New York and across the U.S., including parades by PFLAG and ACT UP during the AIDS epidemic. It was not until 1991 that Pride began to resemble what it is today: a celebration of queer life and sexuality in addition to a political and social demonstration.
But as Pride grows and becomes celebrated world wide, it is important to remember its origin. Stonewall was a turning point in LGBT history because of the activism that it inspired, but it still serves as a reminder of the discrimination, violence, and brutality that LGBT people faced less than 50 years ago. As we continue to celebrate Pride, HRC remembers LGBT history and the need for full equality for all LGBT people.
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