As a UO community, June is an opportunity to celebrate our students as they graduate and move forward to achieve their next levels of success. June is also the month for celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride and Juneteenth.
In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton declared the month of June as “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month”. In 2016, President Barack H. Obama used a presidential declaration to announce June as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month”, and indeed as a way of being more inclusive to a broader constituency.
However, the roots of “Pride month”, which is a celebration of the achievements of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (or “Questioning”) community, date back to the 1968 Stonewall Rebellion. As a rebellion, which occurred at Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn, it was in response to ongoing mistreatment and discrimination against the LGBTQ community. A year later, in 1969, the community gathered to commemorate the 6-day rebellion, which led to several commemorative events in America and across the world for the celebration of the achievements, rights and contributions of the LGBTQ+ community.
While America has seen some progress in rights for the LGBTQ+ community, such rights are unfortunately at the center of political conflict and culture wars in America and abroad. A recent Washington Post article quoted U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, who “recently praised the work of LGBTQ+ activists ‘fighting to outlaw discrimination and secure equality before the law’ and also noted that ‘there is a worrying surge in the opposite direction.
In this context, the role of higher education is expected to include educating as well as holding space for a dialogue, an increased understanding and, above all, to model love, authenticity, courage, and empathy (or L.A.C.E). Furthermore, as we educate tomorrow’s leaders, we should do so from a variety of disciplinary, ideological, and global perspectives, while also centering on the humanity of all people to expect them to thrive.
Indeed, as we take time to celebrate LGBTQ+ month, we encourage all to support our UO community, including student organizations for LGBTQ+ students focused on everything from STEM to Law to Greek Life, the LGBTQ+ Faculty and Staff Strategy Group, UO Pride Alumni Group, Queer Studies, and the Dean of Students’ LGBT Education and Support Services. We also encourage you to visit the UO Libraries’ LGBTQ+ Archives to learn more about the ongoing work in the past, present and future in order to ensure that any barriers which undermine requisite achievement are dismantled for members of our LGBTQ+ community to experience a deep sense of belonging to the beloved University of Oregon community.
Juneteenth 2024:
It is also Juneteenth! In 1979, former Texas Representative Albert Ely Edwards spelled out the following statement about Juneteenth, when he served as a co-sponsor of Texas House Bill 1016 (1979) to make Emancipation Day or Juneteenth a paid statewide holiday in Texas:
“Every year, we must remind successive generations that this event triggered a series of events that one by one define the challenges and responsibilities of successive generations. That’s why we need this holiday.”
Most certainly, those words are as true today as they were in 1979, especially now that our country seems to be on the brink of allowing a divisive internal conflict to separate our United States into a map of very destructive Red and Blue States. In recognition of that truth, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden, on June 17, 2021, signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Act, which established June 19th as a federal holiday.
Without question, Juneteenth celebrations have always been grassroots’ events but, in order to continue to survive, volunteers must step forward with open hearts, hands and their minds. For more information about the Eugene celebration of Juneteenth, please visit: https://eugenejuneteenth.com/contact/. They are also in need of volunteers and support for the 2025 Juneteenth Celebration. For the Portland Juneteenth celebration, please visit: https://juneteenthor.com/.