Women’s Wednesdays: LGBT Pride Month
LGBT+ pride parades started gaining worldwide popularity following the 1969 stonewall riots in New York City. This year, pride parades are scheduled to happen across the globe, following recent landmark victories in LGBT+ rights legislation in Botswana, Angola, Bhutan, Ecuador, Taiwan, and Austria. Jamaica had its first annual public pride event in 2015, and in July 2018, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago held the first public pride events in their nation’s history. These victories followed an attempt at organizing a pride event in Freeport in 2014 that had to be cancelled due to security threats. Times are changing for LGBT+ communities in the region, but there are still many barriers, both political and cultural, impeding progress.
Join us this pride month at the NAGB to discuss the following:
-What is the purpose of Pride?
-What should Pride look like in The Bahamas? What do we need to make it happen?
-How can we be in solidarity with LGBT+ Bahamians?
-What have the challenges and victories been for Pride demonstrations in other Caribbean countries?
-What barriers face LGBT+ Bahamians today?
-In what ways can we support and celebrate Pride this month?
-What should Pride look like in The Bahamas? What do we need to make it happen?
-How can we be in solidarity with LGBT+ Bahamians?
-What have the challenges and victories been for Pride demonstrations in other Caribbean countries?
-What barriers face LGBT+ Bahamians today?
-In what ways can we support and celebrate Pride this month?
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Women’s Wednesdays was founded by Equality Bahamas as a response to community members’ requests for a space to access resources, experts, and practitioners, share knowledge, and engage in conversation with one another. Officially started in May 2017, Women’s Wednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
Women’s Wednesdays was founded by Equality Bahamas as a response to community members’ requests for a space to access resources, experts, and practitioners, share knowledge, and engage in conversation with one another. Officially started in May 2017, Women’s Wednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WW242 intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. With the support of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, we create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
Inspired by Equality Bahamas’ Women’s Wednesdays, there is now a similar initiative in Guyana, and other countries in the Caribbean are expected to follow.