This month, the IDEAs Council reflects on LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Juneteenth. Pride Month is celebrated each June to remember the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan and honor progress made for the LGBTQ+ community. In 1999, President Bill Clinton first declared June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.” Pride month has evolved over the years to what we know today as “LGBTQ+ Pride Month.”
To fully understand the meaning of Pride month we should begin by defining LGBTQ+ and understanding what this term means to the LGBTQ+ community. L – Lesbian, G – Gay, B – Bisexual, T – Transgender, Q – Queer, and the + incorporates all other terms, including gender fluid, asexual, pansexual and many others.
A few terms that are also worth defining are, transsexual, transvestite, and transgender. A transexual is an individual who alters their body through surgery or hormones to align with their gender identity. Transvestite, a widely dated term, was used to describe people who would dress as the opposite sex. Transgender is a term used to identify the population of people whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.
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On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday. This year CMC recognized Juneteenth as a paid holiday with all offices closed. Juneteenth, short for “June Nineteenth,” marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed. Recognizing Juneteenth is part of a broader education of the practices, impacts and effects of slavery that speaks to Black history in this country and, therefore, American history overall.
The IDEAs Council is looking for two new members! If you are interested, please reach out to either Hailey Lavoie at HLavoie@cmcenergy.com or ideascouncil@cmcenergy.com. You will be sent a form to fill out and have a follow-up from the council.
IDEAs Council topics for the coming months:
August – International Non-Binary People’s Day
September – Hijri New Year
October – Hispanic Heritage Month
If any of these topics inspire you to share your story or the story of a friend or loved one, please reach out to the IDEAs Council at ideascouncil@cmcenergy.com.