Red states push conservative rebrands of Pride month in backlash to LGBTQ+ celebrations

Republican states rebrand June as ‘nuclear family month’ or ‘fidelity month’ in latest attack on LGBTQ+ communities

June is widely marked as gay Pride month – when LGBTQ+ communities march to protest discrimination and celebrate their identities in the month that the modern US gay liberation movement was born out of the 1969 uprising at New York’s Stonewall Inn – although not so much in certain Republican-led states this year.

Some Republican governors have suddenly come up with alternative labels for the month, which both supporters and opponents view as counterprogramming.

The governors of Indiana and Tennessee have rebranded June as “nuclear family month”, explicitly to celebrate units made up of “one husband, one wife and any biological, adopted or fostered children”.

In Alabama, it is now titled “strong families month”, apparently to promote Father’s Day, which falls in June in the US. However, despite the fact that millions of LGBTQ+ people are from and go on to create strong families, including households with two fathers, Republican governor Kay Ivey was nothing if not explicit, declaring: “Homes led by a father and mother provide children with the structure and discipline necessary to succeed throughout life.” She also proclaimed that the father is the head of such households.

The governors have not specified that these labels are meant to replace Pride month for LGBTQ+ communities, but the sociopolitical message is loud and clear to most.

Josh Coleman, president of Central Alabama Pride, which has 42 events planned over two weeks, said the months celebrations, which culminate with a parade on 13 June and festival 14 June, won’t be affected by the proclamation.

“It’s not lost upon LGBTQ people when elected leaders don’t recognize or value the visibility of the community,” he said. “That’s why Pride started in the first place – to make sure the community had a community.”

The governors of Utah and Arkansas have deemed it “fidelity month”, which emphasizes fidelity to faith, country and family, however, without comment on how those families might be comprised.

But last week, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s X account posted a link to an article about her proclamation that declared: “Another Red State is Counter-Programming Pride Month.”

She and the other governors haven’t answered questions from the Associated Press about why their proclamations are all set in June.

The second Trump administration has seen an escalation in conservative state and federal attacks on transgender rights , in particular, especially access to gender-affirming medical care, efforts to undermine the legality of same-sex marriage and bans on LGBTQ+ Pride flags.

Republican lawmakers in at least four other GOP-controlled states have introduced legislation this year calling for June to be “fidelity month”.

An organization pushing that concept was founded by Robert P George, a Princeton University professor of jurisprudence who has long been a leader on conservative thought. His group did not respond to interview requests.

He told the National Catholic Register about the idea in 2023, saying “nobody gets a monopoly on a particular day or a particular month”.

June Pride celebrations, which often include parades, festivals and performances, began in 1970 to mark the first anniversary of the violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a New York City LGBTQ+ bar, and have since expanded to cities worldwide.

“You can call it whatever you want, but one thing you’re not going to do is take away our pride or take away our joy,” said Jordan Braxton, co-president of USA Prides, an association of Pride celebration organizations.

Every Democratic president since Bill Clinton in 1999 has signed a Pride proclamation each year, while no Republican president has.

Last year, Donald Trump’s education department began declaring June to be “Title IX month” – and using it to open investigations into schools that allow transgender students to use the bathrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identities.

One of the few GOP governors who has proclaimed LGBTQ+ Pride in June is Utah’s Spencer Cox, who did so in 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2024, he deemed June a “month of bridge building” before switching to ”fidelity month” this year.

A poll released this week found that a two decade-long increase in acceptance of same-sex marriages and relationships has flattened, largely because more Republicans oppose them.

Last year, Illinois Republican congresswoman Mary Miller introduced a resolution to make June “family month” – and to derecognize Pride month, saying: “Americans are inundated with perverse Pride Month displays and events throughout the month of June that denigrate the nuclear family.” It never got a vote.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in an interview that it’s good to have the conservative recognitions because Pride celebrations “were going so far as to make it difficult to celebrate traditional marriage”.

The resolution approved by Tennessee’s legislature and governor does not mention Pride month specifically, while saying the “nuclear family is under attack in our beloved State and nation”.

But Lakie Derrick, a conservative activist who wrote the measure with a friend, said she did indeed target it to June to counter Pride month, which she said “goes against” American values.

“We’re just reclaiming the culture, and there’s no better month to do that than in a month where the culture says we’re gonna celebrate something so opposite to what we know to be right,” Derrick said.

Marina Lowe, who leads legal and legislative affairs for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Utah, rejected the zero-sum game, saying that Pride month is not the antithesis of other values-based recognitions. Many LGBTQ+ people also value faith and family, she said, so “I don’t think that these positions need to be in conflict with one another.”

Meanwhile, thousands of events celebrating LGBTQ+ pride and campaigning for equality are already going on as usual across the US in a drench of rainbow colors.

In New York City last Saturday, an “eve of Pride” event saw the cathedral of St John the Divine illuminated in the colors of the rainbow and the transgender Pride flag as the pews were packed.