Pride is Joy

This June, as we mark Pride Month, we in Alphatax's DEI committee want to extend our warmest wishes and unwavering support to the LGBTQ+ community. Pride is a time of celebration, expression of identity, and a vital reminder of the progress made through decades of courage and activism. It is a moment to honour the rich diversity and immense contributions of LGBTQ+ people to every facet of our society.

But as much as Pride represents joy and celebration, it is also a refusal to be pushed back into silence.

Around the world, LGBTQ+ people are still facing violence, harassment, discrimination, hostile laws, and the slow erosion of rights that were fought for over generations. LGBTQ+ people are still being asked to fight for things that should never be in question: safety, dignity, healthcare, family, privacy, and the right to live openly. For some, Pride cannot happen safely without protection. For others, simply living openly remains an act of courage.

That is why Pride still matters.

It matters because rights can never be taken for granted; because visibility changes hearts and minds; and because no one should have to hide who they are to be safe, accepted, or treated with dignity.

Pride gives people something powerful: the chance to take up space, to find one another, and to remember that they are not alone. It asks us to stand together, especially when parts of our community are being targeted. It asks us to protect trans and non-binary people, young LGBTQ+ people, queer people of colour, disabled LGBTQ+ people, and everyone whose safety and dignity are too often debated by others. Pride cannot only be a flag for one month. It must be a commitment we carry all year.

But just as we take the time to acknowledge these challenges, it's equally important to celebrate the LGBTQ+ people who have helped shape the world in extraordinary ways. We have contributed to art, literature, music, science, medicine, technology, civil rights, education, sport, culture, and public life. We have built movements, cared for communities, challenged unjust laws, created chosen families, and widened the world's understanding of love, identity, courage, and belonging.

If you want to know more about historical LGBTQ+ contributions, look up figures such as Alan Turing, Audre Lorde, Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and James Baldwin.

So, this Pride, we honour those who marched before us, stand with those still fighting, and celebrate everything this community continues to give.

Pride is protest. Pride is protection. Pride is remembrance. Pride is joy.

And above all, Pride is a promise: that every person deserves to live openly, safely, and fully as themselves.