How To Celebrate June Pride Month In Lansdale

LANSDALE, PA - Pride Month continues through June with several ways in Lansdale to participate in the celebration of LGBTQ culture, rights and identity.

Among them is the seventh annual Lansdale Pride Walk, set for June 11 with a kickoff at West Main and Madison streets at 11:30 a.m. A free Pride in the Park event will follow at 1 p.m. at Memorial Park, complete with food trucks, bounce houses, a Drag Storytime, a DJ and more.

“It’s important that we continue to stand together for Equality, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion for all members of our communities,” the Montgomery County LGBT Business Council wrote in the Facebook event description for both the walk and Pride In The Park. “Thank you for celebrating our differences and walking alongside friends, family, and new friends yet to be made!”

The LBGT Equality Alliance of Chest County will also be hosting its sixth annual PrideFest on Bridge Street in Phoenixville on June 10 at noon. You can RSVP for the event here.

Pride Month occurs during June in deference to the Stonewall Uprising, a tipping point in the struggle for equality among people who identify as LGBTQ. New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Such raids were common, but patrons fought back, resulting in days of violent clashes across Greenwich village.

The observance started as Gay Pride Day on the last Sunday in June, but soon grew to the point that June calendars are packed with pride parades, parties, workshops, symposiums and concerts across the nation and around the world.

In Pennsylvania, about 4.1 percent of the population — or 490,000 people — identify as LGBTQ, according to the Movement Advance Project, which tracks legislation targets. They represent five percent of Pennsylvania’s workforce, or 307,000 people.

The organization gives Pennsylvania 16.5 points out of a possible 43.5 points. Our state received 6.75 points out of a possible 20 for sexual orientation policy and 9.75 points out of a possible 23 for gender policy. The overall ranking was graded “FAIR.”

Pride Month 2023 occurs amid a historic surge in bills targeting LGBTQ rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nearly 500 pieces of legislation nationwide have been filed in state legislatures this year, according to the ACLU tracking.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 2 voted 102 to 98 to approve a bill calling for protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, marking the first time such legislation has passed in either the state House or Senate in the 47 years since similar bills have been introduced.

“LGBTQ people are under fire, unlike possibly ever before and across virtually every aspect of our lives,” Logan S. Casey, a senior researcher at Movement Advancement Project, told The Washington Post in April. “This is part of a very clear and identifiable national effort in state legislatures that is and has been going on for years — and it’s really culminating this year.”