What is Pride Month?
Pride Month, celebrated each June, recognizes the past, current and future fight for equity and liberation for the LGBTQIA+ community. It was created to commemorate the Stonewall Inn Uprising, which is often pointed to as the spark of the modern gay rights movement. On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a gay club that was frequented by drag queens and kings, trans people of color, sex workers, gay men, lesbians, and others within the queer and trans community. This was not an atypical occurrence; police often raided gay bars and areas where LGBTQ folx would gather to enforce anti-Queer and anti-Trans laws. On the night of the Stonewall Uprising, the community of drag queens, trans women of color, and dykes decided enough was enough and fought back. The protests and rioting that occurred over the next week caught national attention and lit a spark for future queer rights movements and activism.
The first Pride Parade was hosted in 1970 on the year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn Uprising, and similar parades, parties, protests, marches, and resource fairs continue every year throughout the summer to carry on the tradition. While much of what occurred that night at Stonewall has fallen to myth and story, what is clear and needs to be centered is the integral role and weight carried by Black and Latinx Trans Women, Drag Queens, Lesbians, and Sex Workers, such as LGBTQ+ rights activists Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, who are often credited with "throwing the first brick" to initiate the uprising.
You can learn more about Stonewall through the blog, them.
“THE FIRST GAY PRIDE WAS A RIOT,” Heritage of Pride, New York City, June 25, 1989. Photo/copyright by James McHugh
Celebrate Pride Season 2022 With Us!
Check out the schedule below for Pride events happening across the state and locally through June & July!
Tuesday, June 7 | City of Fort Collins Pride Month Proclamation
Audience: Open to All | Time: 5:00 PM | Location: City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave, Fort Collins
Join Mayor Jeni Arndt & NoCo SafeSpace for the inaugural Pride Month Proclamation for Fort Collins.
Saturday, June 11 | CSU LGBTQIA Employee Network Happy Hour
Audience: CSU Employees & Guests | Time: 4:30 - 6:30 PM | Location: New Belgium Brewery
Join the LGBTQIA Employee Network for our Pride Month kick-off social event! Learn more about the LGBTQIA Employee Network.
Saturday, June 11 | Longmont Pride Festival
Learn more about Longmont Pride Festival and more for Boulder County.
Saturday June 11 & Sunday June 12 | SPENGA Pride Rides
Audience: Registration Required | Location: SPENGA Fort Collins
Join SPENGA Fort Collins and a CSU Alum as they host 2 Pride Rides. Saturday June 11 at 2 PM and Sunday June 12 at 9 AM. 45 minute rides with donations benefiting the Pride Resource Center. This is open to the community and our SPENGA members, so come support the LGBTQIA+ community and allies with your colorful workout gear. Email kcgolaube@gmail.com to register!
Sunday, June 12 | Boulder Pride Festival
Learn more about Boulder Pride Festival and more for Boulder County.
Sunday, June 12 | Place Them on the Altar
Audience: Open to All | Time: 7:30 PM | Location: Lory Student Center Theater at CSU
Join us for a night of music, poetry, and ritual exploring nonbinary identity, all by composer Silen Wellington (they/he). Purchase tickets & learn more.
Tessa Romano (they/them) will perform nonbinary cabaret songs about coming out, expression through hair, and gender affirming language. Playground Ensemble will perform with Silen’s poetry exploring the paradox of being both de-sexualized and hyper-sexualized as a transgender person, divulging and releasing the harassment they’ve experienced from cisgender men on dating apps. Following, we will open the stage to other poets and spoken word artists to express and share with the option of musical improvisation over their words. The Fort Collins show is sponsored by Bohemian Foundation’s Music Event Fund in partnership with SPLASH NoCo Youth, with additional support from CSU’s Pride Resource Center.
Wednesday, June 15 | Safe Zone Training
Audience: CSU Employees & Alumni | Time: 1:00 - 4:30 PM | Location: Zoom
The Pride Resource Center’s Safe Zone Training is a 3.5-hour training program with the objective of reducing homophobia, transphobia and cisheterosexism at CSU and in our surrounding community, thereby making CSU and Northern Colorado a safer environment for all members of our community across sexual orientations, romantic orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and intersections of identities. Register for this Safe Zone training.
Wednesday, June 15 | LGBTQ+ Community Hike
Audience: Open to All, 12+ | Time: 5:00 - 7:00 PM | Host: City of Fort Collins' Natural Areas
Explore natural areas and their importance to our local ecosystems and our own mental health and wellness. Topics will vary. Hikes are intended to be a safe and inclusive space for members of the LGBTQ+ community to gather. Allies are welcome, please be mindful of the safe space. 2-3 miles; easy-moderate. 13+. Register ahead of time and see the full event calendar.
June 15 - June 26 | Black Pride Colorado Pride Events
Host: Black Pride Colorado
See the full schedule of events for Black Pride Colorado, June 15-26 - including a happy hour, gala, family celebration, main stage event at Denver Pride, and more.
Thursday, June 16 | Don't Say Gay Night
Audience: Open to All | Time: 6 - 8 PM | Host: Old Firehouse Books
Old Firehouse Books is hosting a pride event night ("Don't Say Gay Night") on June 16th! The event is welcome to everyone and will host free book giveaways, 25% off books by queer authors, and a cash prize at the end of the night! Along with the giveaways, we will have free tea from the wonderful, Happy Lucky's Teahouse!
Saturday, June 18 | Pride at the Market
Audience: Open to All | Time: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Location: County Courthouse Parking Lot | Host: Larimer County
Join Larimer County for Pride at the Market - a special farmers market day highlighting the LGBTQIA community and celebrating Pride Month. Find our CSU table!
Sunday, June 19 | Juneteenth
Juneteenth celebrates & commemorates the ending of enslavement in the United States, marking the day that word got to Galveston, Texas to announce that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Check out Juneteenth Music Festival in Denver, Black Pride Colorado , and more for events and more information.
Tuesday, June 21 | R Story Time
Audience: Open to All, 21+ | Time: 7:00 PM | Location: R Bar, Fort Collins
Join for R Story Time, an open mic event hosted at R Bar, Fort Collin's LGBTQIA bar/club. Come share & hype up personal 5-minute stories, poetry, or slam centered around a monthly LGBTQ theme. June's theme is It's a Riot, Not a Party.
Friday, June 24 | LGBTQIA Employee Network: Queer Brunch
Audience: CSU Employees | Time: 9:00 - 10:30 AM | Location: Office of Inclusive Excellence (Corner of Shields & Laurel)
Join the LGBTQIA Employee Network for our Pride Month version of Queer Coffee; casual community building time for LGBTQIA faculty & staff held on the last Friday of every month. Learn more about the LGBTQIA Employee Network.
June 25 & 26 | Denver PrideFest
Audience: Open to All | Time: All Day | Location: Denver Civic Center Park | Host: The Center on Colfax
Pride will be tabling at Denver PrideFest on Saturday and Sunday. Stop by to connect with us and pick up some CSU Rainbow Ram items! Interested in volunteering to table with us? Email pride_rc@mail.colostate.edu.
July 10 - 14 | SPLASH Youth Pride Week
Learn more about SPLASH Youth of Northern Colorado.
Friday. July 15 | NoCo Pride March
Audience: Open to All | Time: 5:30 PM | Location: Old Town Square Fort Collins | Host: NoCo SafeS[ace
Join NoCo SafeSpace for their 4th annual NoCo Pride March! Find CSU with our Rainbow Ram flag and join us for the march!
Saturday, July 16 | NoCo Pride in the Park
Audience: Open to All | Location: Civic Center Park, Fort Collins | Host: NoCo Equality
Northern Colorado Equality will be hosting our local Pride events this July! More information to come soon.
More Ways to Show Your Pride This Summer
Support our LGBTQIA+ CSU Students
Donate to our LGBTQIA+ Scholarship and Leah Memorial emergency fund. Celebrate Pride by investing in our students' ability to stay and thrive at CSU. Support our scholarship funds & students today.
Volunteer with us Denver Pride & NoCo Pride
We are looking for volunteers to table with us & promote CSU and our programs at Denver Pride (June 25-26) and NoCo Pride (July 16). Sign up to volunteer at Pride.
Download a Pride Month Virtual Background
Show your Pride throughout meetings & virtual events! We have a wide selection of various pride flags and pronouns available to download. Download a CSU Pride Virtual Background.
Follow us On Instagram at @CSUPrideRC to Learn & Celebrate with us!
#CSUPrideMonth #CSURainbowRams
We'll be posting and sharing content all month long to help spread awareness and learning about Pride Month, LGBTQ History, and local Pride events.
Get your Rainbow Ram Gear in the CSU Bookstore!
Purchase a CSU Progressive Pride Flag, coffee mug, tumblr, magnet, lanyard and more to show your Pride!
