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Pride in Everybody
ParaPride, an intersectional charity that focuses on supporting and building awareness and inclusion of and access for the disabled LGBTQIA+ community, has launched Intersectionality Awareness Week with a range of other intersectional partners and charities to raise the profile of intersectional communities, their challenges, and their unique and valuable diversity.
What is "intersectionality"?
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term
Kimberlé Crenshaw (1959-present) is one of the most influential feminist philosophers of our time. She is known for her advocacy for American civil rights, being a leading scholar of critical race theory, and pioneering what we now know as the third wave of feminism.
Crenshaw was born in Ohio, US in 1959. As a child, she grew up through the US civil rights and second wave feminist movements, both which occurred throughout the 1960s and 70s. This time of revolutionary movements towards equality influenced how Crenshaw was raised.
“My mom was a little bit more radical and confrontational and my father was a little bit more Martin Luther King and ‘find common ground’. Which is probably why there are strains of both of those in my work.”
Kimberlé is credited with coining the term "intersectionality" in 1989 to describe how different social categories, like race, gender, and class, intersect to create overlapping and unique experiences of discrimination. She highlighted how the legal system often failed to recognize the combined impact of these forms of discrimination, particularly on Black women.
Why do we need IAW?
In a world that often reduces identity to single labels, Intersectionality Awareness Week is essential to spotlight the overlapping experiences of those who exist at the crossroads of multiple marginalised identities.
Disabled LGBTQIA+ individuals, Black and POC communities, refugees, people seeking asylum, and others navigating systemic barriers face unique challenges that cannot be understood—or solved—through a one-size-fits-all approach to inclusion. The compounding effects of racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia create distinct experiences of discrimination and exclusion that require urgent attention.
This week is about amplifying those voices, advocating for equitable policies, and shifting the conversation from isolated struggles to collective empowerment. By recognising and addressing these layered injustices, we move beyond performative allyship towards real, tangible progress—because no one should have to fight for their humanity alone.
Increasingly, there is recognition from businesses, governments, educators, and community leaders that we must put in place frameworks in society that support and include people to bring their “full selves” into our workplaces, communities, social spaces, and cultures. However, as recent events show, intersectional communities are under more threat than ever, so this awareness week is essential to share the voices and experiences of the intersectional community.
How do I get involved in IAW?
This year’s Intersectionality Awareness Week is, we hope, the start of a global cultural shift from diversity and inclusion frameworks that focus on one aspect of a person’s experience and sense of self, to looking more holistically, compassionately, and openly at people who bring a wide diversity of experience and ability.
We hope that you will join us in spreading the message, supporting our cause, and sharing your intersectional experience in your own workplace, community, social space, and beyond and encouraging others to do so.
