Pride Assembly
At Assembly on Tuesday, the Seniors were reminded about the origins of PRIDE week, its symbols and the shared importance to many people.
The acronym P.R.I.D.E., stands for Promote, Respect, Inclusion, and Dignity for Everyone. This is a reasonable acronym that everyone would want and expect to have extended to them. But, it’s not - especially towards the LGBTQ+ community for whom it is a rallying cry.
We remember 1969 for the Apollo 11 landing, for Neil Armstrong’s immortal words “It is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. But 1969 should also be remembered for an event that happened a month before the moon landing. It began a movement that revolutionised people’s lives throughout the world.
The Stonewall Riots were six nights of protest against the discrimination of the gay community in New York. Its commemoration a year later began the Gay Pride Parades. This uniting of the Lesbain and Gay communities ignited a movement and way of thinking that would allow people around the world to be who they were openly. This event led to, in 1978, the creation of the Pride Flag and the rainbow community was born. As a biblical symbol, the rainbow is one of hope and a promise. Some might argue at the appropriateness of the link, but it is totally fitting that the association of hope and the promise of better times to come stands with this PRIDE symbol, its ideas of inclusion and a promise that who you are should not inhibit you in any way.
Māori society was known for its acceptance of sexuality and sexual diversity. Waitata, stories and carvings exist that celebrate and acknowledge same sex relations. Transgender people were revered often as holders of ancestral knowledge. These Takatāpui were, as scholar Elizabeth Kerekere notes, “ Part of the whanau, they were not separate, they were not put down, they were not vilified for just being who they were." Māori are not alone in revering transgender people in their community. Other Polynesian cultures have similar concepts for non-binary people, such as the fa'afafine of Samoa, māhū of Hawaii, and the fakaleiti of Tonga.
New Zealand de-criminalised homosexuality in 1985 and our ‘rainbowness’ has grown. We now have a Select Committee room - the Rainbow Room - dedicated to the nation’s gay, lesbian, and trans-gender community and their contribution to New Zealand society. Jacinda Arden walked in a Pride March in 2018 with Grant Robertson and Louise Hall. New Zealand is the most rainbow Parliament in the world, with 10% of its elected members identifying as LGBTQ+.
Films, TV shows, companies and organisations are all now expected to and also want to have a diverse cast, crew, team and employees. Diversity breeds creativity, innovation, and community. It gives PRIDE to everything and everyone.
So this month, it is Pride Month, and it has been a hard fought month to get. It should be celebrated, loud and proud but also a reminder of all that went before. The riots, the imprisonments, the bullying, the stigma, the discrimination. We need to be reminded that this should never ever be again.
We are a rainbow community, we are all different and unique. We should respect and care for each other just because, we are better together.
It is not a utopia. There will still be those who hate, accuse, dismiss, ridicule, discriminate and abuse, because they do not accept those who do not conform to their idea of normal.
But remember at the heart of it, from the very start, with the early Maori, to the Stonewall Riots in America, the right to legally marry; all anyone wants is to be seen for who they are, be accepted for who they are and to be loved unconditionally. Because after all, we are who we are and love is love.
