Pride Month is here — and it’s time to break out the rainbow flags, crank up the music, and celebrate the incredible strength, history, and joy of the LGBTQ community all month long! Here are some great ideas of how to celebrate Pride Month: Support, Celebrate, & Speak Up.
This post gives some great How to Celebrate Pride Month ideas to teach & inspire – designed to give you some great information and ideas to celebrate this great day in June!
When Is Pride Month?
Pride Month is celebrated every June across the United States and around the world, and it’s become one of the largest events honoring the LGBTQ community.
But why June?
It all goes back to a turning point in history — the Stonewall Uprising in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay club, sparked several days of protests led by members of the community, including drag queens, transgender individuals, and gay rights activists.
The one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots was marked by the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, considered one of the first pride marches. Since then, Pride Month celebrations have grown into annual events in major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and São Paulo — and yes, there’s even a national monument commemorating the Stonewall events.
Now, Pride Month serves as a great opportunity to create a safe space for members of the LGBTQ community and allies to celebrate accomplishments of LGBTQ individuals, promote inclusive practices, and continue the ongoing pursuit of equal justice.
Quick note: You might’ve heard about LGBT History Month celebrated in October. That’s a different time of the year, created to honor national coming out day and other historic moments. But Pride Month in June is all about honoring Stonewall, hitting the streets for pride parades, and waving the rainbow pride flag high.
Slowestuff Seasonal Blog
This is a seasonal focused blog, so we love all the amazing things about each season!
This post is focused on how to celebrate Pride month, but we added in celebrations you can do ever season! To be inspired, you can check out more on each seasonal section of the blog – Winter, Spring, Summer. & Fall.
Celebrate Pride Month: History & Impact
Why is celebrating Pride Month important?
Pride Month isn’t just a fun way to dress up and party — it’s rooted in the gay rights movement and the fight against police harassment and discrimination. Presidential proclamations by President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and President Joe Biden have formally recognized LGBTQ Pride Month events as a time to reflect on the civil rights struggles that members of the LGBTQ community have faced.
It’s also a time to remember the AIDS crisis, the bravery of those who came out during the toughest times, and the positive impact of visibility in TV shows, movies, and pop culture. Groups like the Human Rights Campaign keep the momentum going, fighting for transgender individuals, same-sex couples, and everyone whose sexual orientation or gender identity makes them a target in this tough political climate.
The purpose of the commemorative month is simple but powerful — to celebrate great pride in who you are, remember where we’ve been, and push forward together. Whether you’re at a local LGBTQ event, cheering at a local pride parade, or just learning through primary sources from the Library of Congress or the New York Times, June is all about showing up, being seen, and supporting each other.
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How People Celebrate Pride Month
Now that we’ve covered the history, let’s talk about how people celebrate! While Pride Month is a way to recognize those fighting for equality, it’s also a day filled with celebration & community!
Pride Month Porch Decor Ideas: Fun, Colorful, and Totally Festive
This is kind of random, but I just love a decorated porch, and I love the way pride porches look. So I am going to feature some porch inspiration!
*All creators are linked – please go visit their pages! There is a mix of Instagram, Etsy, Tiktok and websites all linked. We love to support other creators!
If you’re decorating for Pride Month this year, let’s talk about making that porch pop with color, pride, and all the good vibes.
Seriously, there’s no such thing as “too much rainbow” when it comes to Pride. Whether you’re hosting friends or just want to brighten up your space, your front porch is the perfect spot to start showing off your pride.
Look at this absolutely perfect porch!
First things first — grab that rainbow flag. The classic six-color flag designed by Gilbert Baker is always a go-to, but if you’re feeling extra, the original eight-color version with hot pink is a total vibe.
Drape those flags across your porch railing, hang them from your windows, or even use one as a fun photo backdrop if you’re throwing a party.
We found a few porches that were so unique that we had to feature them here:
Love this one from New Orleans
This amazing porch is in Chicago.
Special Shout Out to some Pride Wreaths:
I confess, I have a thing for wreaths. They go along so well with porches too, so perfect to feature here. I love them, and pride wreaths are no exception!
While there is nothing too over the top for me personally, that may not be for everyone. There are a lot of different wreaths for all different types of aesthetics!
Look at these three for example – minimalistic, structured and orderly, and whimsical!
This natural, realistic looking wreath in all the Pride signature colors is right up our alley.
Want to take it up a notch? Layer in safe space signs, string lights, and colorful balloons. Add a few framed quotes about love and equality, or get creative with pride parade souvenirs if you’ve been collecting over the years. Little nods to LGBTQ history — like the Stonewall Uprising — or even references to favorite shows and iconic moments are fun touches that make it personal.
Pride-Themed Food and Drinks: A Colorful Celebration
What’s a celebration without food? Pride Month is the perfect excuse to throw a fun way to eat, drink, and be merry — all with a rainbow twist. Think rainbow cupcakes, colorful cocktails, or even themed dinners honoring members of the community.
Serve up rainbow pride flag fruit trays, brightly colored drinks, and sweets inspired by gay rights activists and accomplishments of LGBTQ individuals. You can also create signature cocktails named after historic moments like the Stonewall Uprising or National Coming Out Day.
Bonus points if your Pride Month party supports local LGBTQ businesses or global partners doing the work year-round. It’s all about celebration — but also about honoring the history, impact, and tipping points that got us here.
Where to Find Some of the Biggest Pride Month Celebrations
In cities across the United States, Pride Month is celebrated all June long with pride parades, festivals, and community events that bring people together to honor the LGBTQ community. From colorful pride parades to concerts, drag shows, and panel discussions featuring LGBTQ leaders, activists, and artists — Pride is truly a vibe.
Some of the biggest Juneteenth celebrations take place in:
- New York City – Home to the Christopher Street Liberation Day March and the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. NYC’s Pride Parade is one of the largest in the world, honoring the Stonewall Uprising and filling the city with pride events all month long.
- San Francisco, California – Known for its rich LGBTQ history, San Francisco throws one of the largest Pride celebrations, complete with a huge parade, performances, and pride events throughout the city and surrounding areas.
- Los Angeles, California – LA Pride is legendary, with massive parades, concerts, drag shows, and local pride month celebrations that light up the city with rainbow flags and incredible energy.
Of course, major cities all across the country — from Chicago to São Paulo (yes, global partners show up!) — join in the fun, making Pride Month a truly nationwide (and worldwide) celebration of love, visibility, and the ongoing pursuit of equal justice.
Book Recommendations
Y’all know we love books, since we have a whole section of the blog dedicated to them, so a few recommendations are in order:
The Stonewall Reader is perfect for the reader who wants background on the history of the gay liberation movement and the event that sparked Pride.
June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Jason Baumann, the NYPL coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections, has edited and introduced the volume to coincide with the NYPL exhibition he has curated on the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation movement of 1969.
Have a ball reading The Queer Bible – a collection of essays about all the gay icons out there. Super hilarious and fun read.
In 2016, model and queer activist Jack Guinness decided that the LGBTQ+ community desperately needed to be reminded of its long and glorious history of stardom—and he was spurred to action. The following year, QueerBible.com was born, an online community devoted to celebrating queer heroes, both past and present. “So much queer history is hidden or erased,” says Guinness. “The Queer Bible is a home for all those personal stories and histories.”
In this book, contemporary queer heroes pay homage to those who helped pave their paths. Contributors include Vogue columnist Paris Lees (writing on Edward Enninful), singer and songwriter Elton John (writing on Divine), comedian Mae Martin (writing on Tim Curry), author Joseph Cassara (writing on Pedro Almodóvar), and many others, honoring timeless queer icons such as Susan Sontag, David Bowie, Sylvester, RuPaul, and George Michael through illuminating essays paired with stunning illustrations. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Now we praise their names.
If non-fiction or essays aren’t your thing, here are a few queer fiction recommendations:
Young adult:
Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny.
But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair and square. Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe―probably not, but maybe―more to Shara, too. Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston's I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.
Adult Fiction:
With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that. This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her parent’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows. In New York, she’s able to ignore all the constant questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.
Booktok Creators
If you are on Booktok, definitely check out these creators – @bartolomew_reads, @bradboughtabook, @tyff_de_lafore, and @nat.thewitch to find soooo many great queer book recommendations!
Pride Journaling & Scrapbook
We also have a whole scrapbooking section of the blog, so we are thrilled to recommend some wonderful people we have met in that community, if you like scrapbooking, junk journaling, or any other type of creative outlet!
We love to see gorgeous bullet journals and this one with a pride theme is incredible!
Another one of our favorite creators is @bekahwithakayy! As she says, she is out here junk journaling for the culture. LOL! Go check her out on all the socials!
How to Celebrate Pride Month: Support, Celebrate, & Speak Up
Whether you’re marching in a local pride parade, hanging the rainbow flag from your porch, or reading up on primary sources from the New York Times, Pride Month celebrations are about love, visibility, and the human rights campaign we’re still fighting for.
Happy Pride Month! May this entire month of June be a colorful, joyful, and inclusive time to honor the LGBTQ community and the incredible journey — from the police raid of the Stonewall Inn to the largest events in cities around the world.
If you are looking for more seasonal content, check out the seasonal section of the blog.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Slowestuff newsletter for year-round content! We love to talk about seasonal topics, and keep an ongoing discussion about books and scrapbooking all year long!
We hope this post on how to Celebrate Pride Month: Support, Celebrate, & Speak Up has been helpful!
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Happy Pride!
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