With June being Pride Month, it is important to understand appropriate terminologies and the history of how Pride Month came to be. It is celebrated in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Manhattan. The riots, which are also referred to as Stonewall Uprising, refer to an incident in June 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City. This sparked riots and protests that played a key role in progressing the gay rights movement. For more on Stonewall Uprising and how Pride Month came to be, read this History.com article.

In addition to the history of Pride Month, be sure to check out the writeups below and head to https://www.usaswimming.org/resource-center/diversity-equity-inclusion for additional resources. 

Gender: Perception of one’s identity in terms of masculinity, femininity or androgyny in use of words, characteristics or persons.

• Gender roles: Behaviors learned by a person that align with the perception of masculinity or femininity 
• Gender Identity: The internal perception of one’s gender and how they label themselves, based on how much they feel they align with what they understand their gender options to be
• Gender fluid: A gender description of a person who does not identify with a specific gender identity, but possess a flexible perception of their gender identity
• Cisgender: A gender description for one whose gender identity aligns with the assigned physical sex at birth

Assigned at birth: A medical label used to categorize a person based on their hormones, chromosomes and reproductive organs.

Heteronormativity: The institutional and/or societal assumption that heterosexuality is the preferred, normal and/or default sexual orientation. 

Non-binary: An umbrella term used to describe people who do not identify with a male or female gender identity, can be used to describe people who identify with some aspects of masculinity, femininity or reject them in their entirety

Ally: An individual who speaks out and/or stands up for a person or group that is being actively discriminated against, they work to end this discrimination or oppression by supporting and advocating for those being mistreated. 

He/him/his- Pronouns used to describe a person whose gender identity is male or identifies with masculinity.

She/her/hers: Pronouns used to describe a person whose gender identity is female or identifies with femininity.

They/them/theirs: Gender-neutral pronouns, often used by a person whose gender identity does not align as male or female

Ze/Zir(hir)/hirs: Alternative gender-neutral pronouns or all gender pronouns, used respectively as any other pronoun (pronounced zee/here/heres)