This year, Pride festivals around the world are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a milestone in the history of the LGBT+ movement. The events following the police raid in New York's Stonewall Inn gay club in 1969 brought the fight for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people into the streets – queer people have gained a strong voice that begun to be heard. The Prague Pride Festival, which will happen between 5 and 11 August this year, will also dip into these important historical moments.

Under the Iron Curtain, the Czech Republic moved at a different pace. Even though homosexuality has been decriminalized here in 1962, the Stonewall Riots still hold an important message for us: to publicly join the queer community that is very diverse and contrasted.

Mutual support and collaboration across the community is the leitmotif of this year's festival. Only the visibility of a close-knitted crowd has the power to attract the attention of both the public and political elites and bring change. A number of transgender people and lesbians, alongside the gays, also played an important role during the events at the Stonewall Inn, but these people were soon forgotten. This must not happen again.

Therefore, during the festival week, individual queer sub-communities will be given more space – i.e. not only gays and lesbians, but also transgender and non-binary people, bisexual, asexual and for the first time, this year intersex people as well.” An Italian actress, politician and trans activist Vladimir Luxuria, a British model and asexual activist Yasmin Benoit will both appear at the festival. Czech audience can also expect a Skype discussion with intersex activist Pidgeon Pagonis.

Intergenerational encounters are an important link between past and present. Although LGBT+ activism has fully developed in our country only after the Velvet Revolution, there are several generations of queer people that are unfortunately living in relatively separate worlds.

We believe that older LGBT+ people have so much to share with the younger generation and that their personal stories can be of benefit to the youngest queers, who’s experience is usually different – with earlier coming out and the possibility of finding any information online.

That is the main reason behind launching Pride Life, a multi-day program, which will take place at the headquarters of Life 90 organization providing support to seniors and will be open to participants of all ages. Visitors can look forward to experiencing a recollection on the Stonewall protests with Robert Vano, who himself took a part in the riot, a retro disco, an intergenerational brunch, and a discussion of the current situation of older LGBT+ people.

The history, present and the expectations of the future are intertwined within the Prague Pride 2019 campaign. The hands of two women or two men are reaching out to touch each other, but there is still some distance kept between them.

The headline Together Within Reach refers to the fact that even today, 57 years after the abolition of the homosexuality's punishment in Czechoslovakia, many of the same-sex couples still prefer to refrain from public display of affection, like holding hands. It's time to change that.

This would require for the LGBT+ people to not only be present and visible in the public space, but also to be supported by their allies from the heterosexual majority. They too should grab their queer friend's hand and publicly express their support.