BALDWINSVILLE — June is the beginning of summer when flowers and trees come alive, we have our vegetable gardens planted (hopefully!) and live festivals begin. One such festival tops off LGBTQ Pride Month, a month-long celebration of the diversity of humans in all shapes and colors. The CNY Pride Festival will be at the Inner Harbor in Syracuse on Saturday, June 25, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

So often we shy away from the discussion of the changing views of gender, but a more positive action would be to really listen to someone who is struggling with their identity even if it is very different from your own expectations or ideals. Listening with an open mind and heart will show the respect and love you have for that person and maybe you can begin to understand the difficulties they face. When you love someone, you must love even those aspects you don’t understand yet.

During this month, people strive to recognize all the ways to describe themselves. Whether we have a certain skin color, or drive a Ford or like to knit, each interest and feeling puts us in categories that are supposed to help the rest of society relate to us. For many who take pride in celebrating Pride Month, we applaud their struggles to comprehend who they are and how they can be a positive part of the world.

Flags are only one symbol, but just as our American flag or any country flag identifies the country one lives in, so too does each pride flag help people find a community.

During Pride Month, the library is displaying the varied colors with which people identify themselves. There are many flags related to pride; some overlap and might seem the same to a person that doesn’t identify with them, but each one can reveal a nuanced idea.

Stop in and view the flags posted on the librarians’ doors. We’ve attempted to describe as well as we can what each one represents to help others understand not only how each individual views themselves but the struggle to articulate that view to others.

Each one has an identifying title and, to the best of our ability, a description of what each flag represents. Grab one of our informative activity pages and match the flag with its title and description.

Have a rainbow kind of day!