By Courtenay Scott-Hill - June is LBGT Pride Month! It’s a time to acknowledge, celebrate and stand alongside the rainbow people in our community.
“Look at the rainbow, it is made up of different colors, yet they do not split, because they know how beautiful they are when they stand together.” — Michael Bassey Johnson
Pride Month originated in 1969, to honour the Stonewall uprising in Manhattan. This pivotal event involved a series of spontaneous protests against the police raid at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. The Stonewall uprising was the turning point which catapulted the gay rights movement into action.
Since then, the LBGTQ+ community have made big strides, from same-sex marriage legalised in many countries, to gender pronouns now frequently included on many mainstream online platforms. Yeta significant number of LGBTQ+ people still say they experience bullying or disadvantage because of their sexual orientation or identity.
Here at The Good Registry, we believe that all people, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation deserve to be free from discrimination. Our whānau of charity partners includes two fantastic rainbow charities, InsideOUT and RainbowYOUTH which work to empower the queer, gender diverse, takatāpui and intersex people of Aotearoa.
InsideOUT provides LGBTQIA+ friendly resources to schools, workplaces and community organisations around Aotearoa. Their aim is to decrease and end gender and sexual identity-based bullying. A $10 donation to InsideOUT could cover the cost of transport for a volunteer to visit a local school, organisation or workplace in support of creating more rainbow inclusive environments, and a $25 donation could provide a set of rainbow resources for a school.
RainbowYOUTH’s aim is for all young people to thrive in Aotearoa. For nearly 10 years, RainbowYOUTH has been working with communities to raise awareness and decrease homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying, and provide safer spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth. A $10 donation to RainbowYOUTH funds a rainbow awareness raising kit to a school, $20 can send five "I'm Local" packs to services in regional areas and $40 could provide kai for a peer support group meeting.
If you’d like to support these charities during Pride Month you could create a birthday registry to fundraise for them through The Good Registry. Your birthday could make a big difference in raising awareness and creating a world where all people are free from sexual-orientation based discrimination.
Or if you’re stuck on the perfect gift to buy a friend, colleague or loved one, consider buying a Good Registry Gift Card. Your gift could support rainbow charities such as InsideOUT and RainbowYOUTH - and any of The Good Registry’s 65 other charity partners working to make the world a better place.
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