How to Celebrate Pride Month and Support the LGBTQIA+ Community

It’s Pride Month; the time of year where we not only commemorate the history and achievements of the LGBTQIA+ community in celebration, but also take time to reflect on hardships, current issues, and make space to listen and share their stories, uplift their voices and support them.

We invite you to celebrate and support LGBTQIA+ folks with us; whether it be reading stories by the queer community and its allies, learning about how Pride is more than just a rainbow flag (do you know its history?), or donating to an impactful charity changing and saving the lives of LGBT+ youth (see below); it’s all incredibly important.

What’s more, we’re excited to showcase several Pride-related features you’ll love to read from IGN, Humble and other Ziff Davis sister sites, with more to come throughout June.

Jump to:

Read Queer Stories: LGBTQIA+ Reading List

IGN is excited to share reading lists and resources to support LGBTQIA+ voices in the industry and beyond. Here’s a shortlist to get you started. Our new piece is up, so take a look now:

8 Queer Comics to Read:

Check back throughout the month as we share more lists and exclusive content for Pride each week!

Support LGBTQIA+ by Donating to The Trevor Project

This year, we’re joining sister site, Humble Bundle to support The Trevor Project.

2 Ways You Can Support The Trevor Project:

1. You can donate directly here.

2. You can purchase a Humble Choice Membership or Bundle:

Humble selected The Trevor Project as their featured charity, where 5% of every June Humble Choice membership (available starting June 6) will go to support The Trevor Project until the end of the month. This month’s Humble Choice games include Ghostwire: Tokyo, Remnant: From the Ashes – Complete Edition, and six more.

Humble will be offering a number of bundles throughout the month that support The Trevor Project. Their Blender Animation & Games by Packt is available right now—so be sure to keep an eye out for more bundles supporting The Trevor Project in the days and weeks ahead.

“Last year, your support of The Trevor Project through Humble purchases helped them increase their base of volunteers by 315—that’s 315 trained and qualified people fielding an estimated total of 31,500 crisis contacts over the course of their first year. We’re proud to team up with them again this year and continue supporting their mission to help LGBTQ+ youth through times of crisis.” – Humble Bundle Team

Show Your Pride

You can now shop over 20 fun franchise Pride shirts, including IGN’s own designs made by our amazing designers:

History of Pride Month

Every year, Pride is recognized across the United States during the month of June. This is largely due to the Stonewall Uprising that took place in New York City in 1969. The Stonewall Uprising helped fuel the momentum of the gay rights movement, and following the event, activists began to organize Pride marches and parades throughout June. That tradition continues today, though there are many cities that hold their events at different times of the year.

Read more: 7 Facts About the Stonewall Riots and the Fight for LGBTQ Rights

More LGBTQIA+ Resources:

What Does LGBTQIA+ Stand For?

LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and the + symbol holds space for the diverse gender and sexual identities that continue to be explored and understood.

You may have seen a “2” included at times, which can be more or less common based on region. For example, as stated on Princeton’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center page; “within the Canadian Government, they use the acronym LGBTQ2, with “2” standing for Two-spirit; a term used by some indigenous communities to represent gender and sexual diversity, often regarded throughout the tribal history as different figures within the community”.

We use LGBTQIA+ to be inclusive while recognizing and understanding it may not include all identities as an acronym and continues to be expanded upon.

For allies:

For parents:

If you are someone who identifies as LGBTQIA+ and are thinking of harming yourself, get immediate support here from The Trevor Project, and know there is help available without judgment. You can also text ‘START’ to 678-678 or call 1-866-488-7386 to talk to someone now.

Lindsey (she/her) is the Senior Audience Development Manager for IGN since 2021. Find her on Twitter at @LindseySalzer.