Gill Celebrates LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
In honor of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, considered the tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States, each June Americans celebrate LGBTQIA Pride Month. Events are held across the country to raise awareness about the current state of LGBTQIA human rights and how organizations are working to protect and advocate for those rights.
Student leaders of Gill St. Bernard's School Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) including Mars Braemer '20 (graduating president) and Lauren Rossiter '23 (incoming president) find Pride Month an excellent time to highlight the work of important people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
According to Jared Ciocco, Club Co-Advisor, "One of the central purposes of the Gay Straight Alliance is to discuss the impact of LGBTQIA+ people and highlight their achievements in the fight for equality for people of all backgrounds. Marsha P. Johnson is an important person in LGBTQIA+ history as one of the prominent leaders of gay, transgender, and African American rights, as well as an activist for AIDS awareness. It is important for our students to learn about important leaders such as Marsha P. Johnson to see how anyone can make an impact to create a more equal, more inclusive society."
In determining which activists to highlight, Laura said, "Many people forget that the historic riots at stonewall that paved the way for LGBTQIA+ rights and it was started by Marsha P. Johnson. Marsha was a transgender African American woman and a hero. Not only did she fight for gay rights, she also worked to help and protect young transgender people. It is important now that we step back and honor those whose efforts changed the world. It’s important that students learn about such icons because normalizing LGBTQIA+ people will be a step towards the future that Marsha strove to create."
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Gill St. Bernard's School
Gill St. Bernard’s is a private, coeducational day school for students age three through grade 12, located in suburban New Jersey. Each of the three school divisions provides a rigorous, meaningful, and age-appropriate curriculum, and all students benefit from the environmental learning opportunities that exist on our 208-acre campus.