Pride
Pride has a couple of different definitions; pride is a celebration for those belonging to marginalised identities, particularly where these individuals have had a number of adverse experiences, challenges and struggle relating to their marginalised identity. Pride is also a term used to describe a feeling of deep satisfaction from your own achievements. qualities or possessions, or the achievements, qualities or possessions of people close to you.
Pride as a celebration originally began with the LGBTQIA+ community as a time of rememberance of the community’s beginnings and history (associated with the LGBTQIA+ rights movement) and in celebration of the community themselves and their continued progress toward full equality and inclusion.
As a feeling, pride often has negative connotations, such as it’s inclusion as one of the supposed ‘seven deadly sins'. But, pride isn’t necessarily ‘bad’. Pride can be super important in acting as something of an antidote to the impacts living in a world not always inclusive or built for you, can have. Going by those definitions, pride may be applicable to almost any marginalised community. In fact, some have taken it up already;
LGBTQIA+ pride is generally celebrated in June
disability pride is generally celebrated in July
Pride is about recognising, honouring and celebrating our achievements and progress. For those of us belonging to marginalised identities, it’s also about acknowledging and celebrating those things in the context of extra struggles we face as a result of living in environment not always built for, accessible to, inclusive of or safe for us- extra barriers we shouldn’t necessarily have had to navigate or overcome, but did anyway. Pride is important, because, in both senses of the word, it can act as a reminder of our capabilities and our worth, where sometimes we have learned to believe the opposite.
None of this, however, is to say that pride is easy, nor that it will be strongly felt every day. But it’s still important to look for moments to be proud of, even if it’s just the fact that you’ve survived.