Celebrate Pride & Your Own Twist Link Up #45
Every year in the United States as well as many other countries in the world, the month of June is recognized as Pride Month, a celebration of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community in honor of the Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan on June 28, 1969, when a police bust on a gay bar became violent and the gay patrons as well as neighborhood residents fought back. This event is considered the transformation point for the gay liberation movement with the first gay pride marches taking place in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco on June 28, 1970, to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
As we celebrate the 52nd Pride Month in our history, you can find events and celebrations all around the world that include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and other specific LGBTQ Pride Month events. There are also memorials during the month of June for members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of celebrating Pride Month is to recognize the historical impact that people in the LGBTQ community have had on a worldwide level.
It is estimated that approximately 3,000-5,000 people marched in the 1970 inaugural Pride Parade in New York City. Today, the NYC Pride March draws millions of people to it in support of equal rights for all members of this community. (Source)
As a member of the LGBTQ community myself, Pride Month is kind of a big deal for me. But for some reason, I have never attended a Pride event in my life. I had never even considered the NYC Pride Parade because there are just too many people for my anxiety to handle. In fact, when I lived near and worked in NYC, I made it a point to stay far away from the city during huge events like the Pride March.
But I did just find out that my small little town holds an annual pride event in the local park every year. Watertown Pride actually was just started in 2019 and with a two year pandemic on the books, it never even came to my attention until this year when my best goddess friend invited me to attend with her.
I was absolutely on board to go check out some of our local Pride events, but it is happening this weekend while we will be camping at Smoked Country Jam in Pennsylvania. But these music festivals are giant lovefests so we can celebrate Pride while we are there!
When I was choosing themes for Your Own Twist, I was surprised that we had never celebrated Pride in this series. I did create a Pride outfit for the Fab 40s way back in 2019 featuring rainbow tights! So Monica and I decided now was the time to bring our own twist to Pride.
When it comes to styling an outfit to celebrate Pride, rainbow colors are the first thing to come to mind. So I pulled out this rainbow striped duster that I last styled for another Fab 40s post on creative ways to style a shirt dress. I created an easy summer outfit with light wash denim, a black tee, and bright pink sandals. My rainbow beaded necklace was a birthday gift from my boys and it is absolutely perfect for this outfit and for celebrating Pride. And hats are always necessary for me at any outdoor event as sun protection. The only thing missing to make this outfit all about Pride and the love it celebrates is a hug ring which wraps around your finger in a loving embrace as a constant reminder that love is love and that you are loved.
Monica also went with a rainbow striped dress which got me wondering how rainbows came to represent the LGBTQ community. In 1978, an artist by the name of Gilbert Baker, an openly gay drag queen, designed the first rainbow flag. Baker later revealed that Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected U.S. officials, had urged him to create a symbol of pride for the gay community. Viewing flags as a powerful symbol of pride, Baker decided on a rainbow flag because he considered rainbows as natural flags from the sky. He is quoted as saying, “Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’” He used eight different colors for the stripes with each color carrying its own individual meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit).
The first versions of rainbow flag were made by hand by Baker and a team of volunteers and were flown at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade on June 25, 1978. Due to production issues, the pink and turquoise stripes had to be removed and the indigo stripe was replaced with basic blue resulting in the contemporary flag that features red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet stripes. The various rainbow colors have come to represent both the diversity and the unity of the LGBTQ community.
The rainbow flag was truly cemented as the symbol of LGBTQ Pride in 1994 when Baker created a mile-long version to honor the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Today, the rainbow flag is an international symbol for LGBTQ pride and can be seen flying proudly all around the world. (Source)
And while my rainbow dress does not have the traditional colors of the Pride flag, it does contain six of Baker’s first meaningful colors including hot pink (for sex), orange (for healing), yellow (for sunlight), green (for nature), turquoise (for art), and violet (for spirit). I also really like that there is black and white in my outfit to reflect the all the good and the bad that has this community faced.
Have you ever attended a Pride event? What would you wear to celebrate this important month? Be sure to hop on over to Monica’s post to read about her Pride outfit.
About Your Own Twist
Your Own Twist is a monthly link party hosted by Monica of Jersey Girl, Texan Heart and me on the third Thursday of every month with the goal of inspiring some of our friends to get creative with personal style.
The idea behind this collaboration is to take one common piece or theme and style it our own way with our own twist…Monica and I have both taken a lot of fashion inspiration from one another over the past few years even though we have totally different styles. It is always fun to see how we can interpret similar items in unique ways or what kind of twist we will each bring to the chosen theme.
We will let you know the themes well in advance in the event that you would like to use the theme for your own post and add it to the link party. However, any fashion posts are welcome regardless of whether you used the theme or not. Check out the graphic below which has some of our upcoming style prompts.
Featured Favorite from Star Wars
Jennifer of Curated by Jennifer
Keeping it on the edge,
Shelbee
Joining these Fabulous Link Parties.
Outfit Details: Duster, Tee Shirt, and Sandals-Torrid / Jeans-Charlotte Russe / Necklace-Rainbow Zen / Earrings-Michal Golan / Hat-Old
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.
30 Comments
Nancy
There is a Gay Pride in Amsterdam every summer, you would love it! It’s a fabulous feast.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Oh fun, Nancy! Maybe we will try to coordinate our trip there with the Pride events there. That would be amazing to attend a Pride event in Amsterdam!
xoxo
Shelbee
Jacqui Berry
Hi Shelbee, I’ve linked up my Father’s Day post with David as model, hope that’s okay lovely. Nice and interesting post. Jacqui x
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Yes, of course, that is fabulous! It is such a great post!
xoxo
Shelbee
Jennifer
Detroit’s was last weekend. My friend Adam has been so busy with Pride this month. He’s going to Toronto, Guelph, Binbrook and so many other towns to perform.
Jennifer
Curated by Jennifer
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Oh fun, Jennifer! What kind of performances does Adam do? I wonder if he ever travels as far east as me for performances!
xoxo
Shelbee
Tamar Strauss-Benjamin
All about being proud and love being love! Cute look!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Yay, Tamar! Thanks so much!
xoxo
Shelbee
Ruth
Such a beautiful, colourful outfit and I love the hot pink slides.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Ruth! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
xoxo
Shelbee
Michelle
Oh, I love your outfit, Shelbee! Your striped duster / dress is perfect for the challenge. Pride month celebrations are so important to keeping awareness going. While a lot of people don’t find the celebrations necessary since marriage equality passed as long as there are elements in our society looking to take away rights from the LGBTQ community, it needs to stay.
And I’m so disappointed that I couldn’t participate in this challenge! Our interior painting job got moved up by a month, and having my house in disarray with people here (very nice people) for 8 hours a day every day is taking all my energy to just stay chill and roll with it. I’m exhausted.
Michelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Michelle! I honestly didn’t even realize there were people who find Pride celebrations unnecessary. If that’s the case, then it would seem any ethnic celebration should stop as well from Italian Day parades to Spanish Heritage celebrations. And since we also have freedom of religion, all religious celebrations would be unnecessary as well under that logic. But if everyone just focused on celebrating love, all the other debates would likely stop!
You still have some time to put together a Pride outfit before the month is over! If your painting job is finished! I do appreciate when the people who work on my house are lovely folks, but I would get exhausted as well! I feel your struggle on that one. I had a puking bug when the guys were working on my squirrel and roof issue. That was unpleasant! At least they were working outside of my house.
xoxo
Shelbee
Joanne
I love your outfit! A perfect nod to pride month.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Joanne!
xoxo
Shelbee
Your True Self
Hi, Shelbee – This is a very informative post and I support the subject wholeheartedly. The rainbow-colored clothes are an inspiring choice for creating outfits during Pride Month. I have an Equality t-shirt I always wear for the occasion that says “United Against Hate” with the colors on it in the shape of a heart. But it’s nice to have other, more creative ways to celebrate pride. Thanks! – Angie, http://www.yourtrueselfblog.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Angie! I love that slogan on your tee shirt! I will have to look for some cute graphic tees to show my Pride. I don’t think I have any at all. I don’t even have a lot of rainbow stuff in my closet. I need to fix that!
xoxo
Shelbee
Carol
I love that multi-color, striped maxi-vest. It’s an outstanding third piece with your jeans and black top. I think PRIDE month is a joyour celebration of everyone’s right to live openly as their true, authentic selves. It’s fun to see what people wear to the parades and gatherings, too.
Thank you for hosting the link-up.
Carol
http://www.scribblingboomer.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Carol, thank you so very much! Pride month really is a celebration of love and authentic living! Honestly, ever since I started living my truth out loud, I have never been happier. I could never understand how anyone, governments or religions or employers, could think it acceptable to put limits and regulations on love. Clearly, those boundaries don’t work though because love always prevail! I think my favorite part of any big public event is seeing what the people wear!
xoxo
Shelbee
Marsha Banks
I haven’t ever attended a Pride event, but I used to go to drag shows all of the time. At one of the shows, I needed to go to the restroom and couldn’t find it because the venue was new to me. A woman in the lobby pointed out where it was. When I came out, I thanked her and told her she was a lifesaver! She smiled sadly and said, “I just wish I could use it.” And, that is one of the problems politicians don’t get…a trans woman IS a woman. A trans man IS a man. Later that evening, this same woman approached me and asked me if I wanted to sit with her and her friends. I explained I was there with my son who was working the door and would be sitting with me soon. I wish I’d taken her up on her invitation…I might have made a new friend!
Your look is lovely, Shelbee, and you are radiant in it! Thank you for the history lesson, and thank goodness for people like Marsha P. Johnson as well as Harvey Milk and so many others. I remember when HIV/AIDS first began to get headlines and was classed a gay disease. Nothing opened my eyes to governmental misdeeds as the willingness to let people die just because of who they loved. Think of the lives lost, the creators gone, the loves destroyed. It didn’t have to be that way.
Thank you, my friend, for the link party!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Marsha, thank you so much for this wonderful comment and sharing that experience with me. The bathroom issue is one that really triggers me. Why can’t we all just go use the toilet without sexualizing it at all? We all have to go and nobody needs to be watching anyone do it. So why not just have all gender neutral facilities with doors that lock and that you can’t see through, under, or over? It seems like a simple solution…just go to the damn bathroom!
As for the rest of what you said, I couldn’t agree more! Love is love and life is hard enough. Why do we have to put restrictions on the love?
xoxo
Shelbee
Lucy Bertoldi
Great post and I love that fabulous maxi vest!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Aw, thanks so much, Lucy!
xoxo
Shelbee
Tricia
Perfect outfit with the rainbow duster! Really enjoyed reading history of pride month and why the rainbow flag. Going to buy a few pride related items this month. Happy Father’s Day weekend!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Tricia! I enjoyed sharing the history in the post! My kids are starting to really get into Pride celebrations so I will need to get them some things soon!
xoxo
Shelbee
Patrick Weseman
I will be going to the Pride celebration in San Francisco next Saturday. It should be interesting.
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Oh, that sounds so fun, Patrick! I look forward to hearing about it!
xoxo
Shelbee
Suzette K.
Thanks for the explanation/history of Pride Month. I never knew the background, certainly not that it goes back 52 years. And I love the duster!
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks so much, Suzette! I do enjoy exploring and sharing the history of major historical events that have shaped the direction our culture is going. While we are not where we need to be yet with regard to the freedom of loving whomever and however many we’d like, we have definitely made progress! And progress forges more progress. Which is a really good thing. I hope you have a fabulous week!
xoxo
Shelbee
Carol
Hi! I’m just circling back to say:
Thank you for participating in Talent-Sharing Tuesdays Link-Up 23.
Carol
http://www.scribblingboomer.com
shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com
Thanks, Carol!
xoxo
Shelbee