Pride month can be a time for family celebrations. Families celebrating with their LGBTQ+ members and friends is also a good way to say no to a new movement that harms LGBTQ+ persons through false claims that they are a threat to family life.
This year two states, Indiana and Tennessee, declared June to be Nuclear Family Month, instead of Pride Month. A family is defined as one male, one female, and their biological or adopted children. Two states, Utah and Arkansas, declared June Fidelity Month instead of Pride month, to celebrate “faith, family, community, and country.” These are state responses to an organized movement to reverse the almost universal support for Pride month across North America.
Say no the a new movement that harms LGBTQ+ persons through false claims that they are a threat to family life.
Pride is not the antithesis of family. LGBTQ+ persons are members of families. Most value family life as much as heterosexual people do. Fear of losing family is one of the factors that contributes to increased mental health issues for LGBTQ+ persons. Stoking fear with messages that portray them as a threat to families does harm to them, while family celebrations that include them contribute to positive mental health. Healthy family life can take many different forms and is not determined exclusively or primarily by the sexual orientation or gender identity of the persons living together as family.
Pride is not a threat to family life. There are valid concerns about family life in North America. If one is concerned about family well-being, it would be better to spend energy on matters like access to family housing at reasonable prices, more child care options, food security, support networks for family emergencies, and prevention of intimate partner violence and domestic violence. While none of these are even mentioned in the state declarations, I can guarantee that addressing any one of them will do more for families than attacking and harming LGBTQ+ persons.
It is a sad reality that these negative campaigns come from and find support in faith-based communities. That is how they spread, also into Canada, where they may take more subtle but equally harmful forms. For this reason, it is important for LGBTQ+ people to see families in faith communities who practice full acceptance, publicly celebrate it, and support public spaces and public policies that explicitly include LGBTQ+ persons in healthy family life, such as Pride month.
Pride is NOT the antithesis of family. Pride is NOT a threat to family life. It is a sad reality that these negative campaigns come from and find support in faith-based communities.
– Kathy Vandergrift Kathy brings years of experience in children’s rights and abuse prevention to her analysis. In 2008 she received the UNICEF Aldo Farina Award for international education and advocacy about children’s rights. In 2024 she received the King Charles Coronation Medal for her advocacy for children’s rights in Canada.
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