Pride month celebrates equality

The LGBTQ+ community and its supporters have recognized June as the unofficial Pride Month since 1969 in commemoration of the Stonewall riots. Sophomore Jack Newman said that Pride provides an opportunity for members of the community to express themselves in a way that they otherwise couldn’t.
“[Pride month] means celebrating who I am and my identity,” Newman said. “Just showing that I’m visible in the world. People who are LGBT won’t go away. Going to Pride shows that we’re out there, that we’re visible, we’re unapologetic [and] we’re proud to be who we are.”
Expressing sexuality freely is a relief to junior Nicole Schmidt because she said she no longer has to hide from her parents.
“I didn’t have to lie to them anymore about where I was going out or why I was going out and who I was meeting up with,” Schmidt said. “I was able to be more open and honest with them and it made it so that they could trust me more and I could trust them more.”
For junior Valerie Villarreal, she said the decision to come out to her friends was easy, but she has some reservations about sharing her sexuality with her family because of her Catholic roots.
“To some parts of my family, I think it would be hard to [come out] because I did grow up in a Catholic house,” Villarreal said. “To some parts it might be a little bit harder but to others I feel like they would accept me.”
The decision to come out is stressful, but senior William Mulville said she encourages individuals still in the closet to be open about their sexuality and identity with at least one person in their lives.
“If you’re not in the best situation with your family, at least confide in your friends because you get stressed out the longer you hold it in,” Mulville said. “Tell someone that you are so that way someone can support you. You don’t have to do it alone.”
Villareal said she also supports closeted individuals to come out to someone once they have come to terms with their sexuality and identity.
“Find a group of people you feel comfortable with and when you really do feel like they would feel okay with it, and you feel okay with it, just open up to someone,” Villareal said. “You need one person at least to feel okay with.”