The month of June commemorates LGBTQI+ Pride Month. During this month, we reflect on the struggles and successes of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex communities as they strive to live more openly and authentically, with joy and pride. The NEA is proud to support projects that create opportunities for all people to live artful lives that celebrate our full humanity and the range of diversity within our nation.

Contributing to our rich cultural mosaic and helping to ensure that all can benefit from the power of art, in 2024, the NEA has provided grants to organizations across the country that lift up the histories and voices of the LGBTQI+ community through the arts. Ridgelines Language Arts in Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania, creates space for queer youth writers to tell their stories by hosting multiple poetry workshops every month. In San Francisco, Voice of Witness runs a fellowship program through which fellows develop and capture oral histories in their communities with trauma-informed practices that can promote healing. This program is focused on highlighting the experiences of LGBTQI+ Black, and Indigenous people of color. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus is working to build the value and skill of empathy in Bay Area middle and high schools through the power of song. An NEA award supports RHYTHM (Reaching Youth Through Music), a music education program created to help increase inclusivity, reduce bullying, and enhance the mental health and well-being of LGBTQI+ youth.  

Other organizations like Scottsdale Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Stonewall National Museum and Archives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are hosting exhibits and programs to continue exploring the past and present trials and triumphs of the LGBTQI+ community, featuring local and national artists, comedy, curatorial discussions, and more. 

Through these programs and work like this across the nation, we are able to witness an artistic and cultural legacy unfolding in real-time, drawing us closer toward our aspirations as a nation of justice and a more inclusive society. The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to celebrate Pride month and carry its ideals forward throughout the year.