Honoring and Celebrating Pride Month

Dear members of the Emerson community,

As June begins, we write to wish all of you a happy Pride Month! We value our many LGBTQ+ families, alumni, students, faculty, and staff, and we celebrate you and the joy this month brings. Our community would not be the same without you.

Pride Month began as an annual celebration in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots. And while many people today associate Pride Month with the Pride parades that have existed since 1970, its significance is much greater. 

Pride Month honors LGBTQ+ people. It is a time to celebrate and revel in their many accomplishments and contributions. And, as we recognize this month of Pride, we also acknowledge and support the LGBQT+ community’s ongoing pursuit for equal rights.  

As an institution, we are steadfastly committed to supporting and maintaining an LGBTQ+ inclusive community and hope you too will strive to expand LGBTQ+ rights, joy, and personhood every month. We encourage individual and collective learning about the LGBQT+ Rights Movement and the many identities that comprise the LGBTQ+ community. There is always more to learn and ways to meaningfully demonstrate allyship.

There are also many Pride events occurring across the world in which you can participate:

●      You can find information about the Los Angeles Pride Parade here.

●      You can find information about the Boston Pride Parade here.

●      You can find information about the Amsterdam Pride Parade here. (Note: festivities occur in August 2023.)

If there is more that the College can do to make our LGBTQ+ community feel supported or affirmed, please email the Social Justice Collaborative (sjc@emerson.edu).

In celebration,

Jay M. Bernhardt, President
Shaya Gregory Poku, Vice President for Equity & Social Justice