New Delhi: Rainbow-coloured flags all around are the highlight of June, marked as Pride Month every year. On the last day of Pride Month, actor Neha Dhupia took to social media to lend her support to the LGBTQIA+ community in a rather eccentric way. Neha shared pictures from a photoshoot, in which she is seen wearing rainbow-coloured outfits, celebrating love, diversity and unity. She captioned them “rainbows everywhere” along with a rainbow emoticon, symbolising LGBTQ identity and pride.
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In the first look, Neha is seen wearing a graphic t-shirt with different faces printed on it along with a pride flag and the text “love is love”. She stands against a vibrant rainbow-painted wall.
In the second look, a rainbow saree, embodying the colors of the Pride flag, shines bright.
As reported by news agency ANI, speaking about the ensemble, Neha said,
I wanted to do a little something to celebrate love and pride. While this is not my lived experience, I have and always will support love above everything else. It truly should be love, rainbows and hearts everywhere. Love is a lifetime feeling and should continue being celebrated regardless of any time of the year and as Pride month comes to an end, I do hope everyone finds it in themselves to know that love is above all.
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June, marked as Pride Month commemorates the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community, in the fight for equal rights. It celebrates identities and allows people to come out and find their place and voice in a society.
The history of why June was chosen as Pride Month can be traced back to the Stonewall Uprising that took place in New York City in 1969. On June 28, 1969, police raided Stonewall Inn, the most popular gay bar in New York city, on the pretext of operating without a liquor license. The news of the Stonewall raid spread quickly throughout the city and by that evening (June 28), thousands of people including patrons of the Stonewall and other locals got involved and fought back the police brutality for six days.
The first Pride march was held on June 28, 1970, on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.
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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
