It’s June which means it’s PRIDE MONTH! Pride is when the world’s LGBTQIA communities come together to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising in New York City, 1969, to honor LGBTQIA activists and organizers, and to draw attention to issues still plaguing members of the community.
Pride really took off as a commemoration of the Stonewall uprising in New York, but even before 1969, members of the LGBTQIA community marched to draw awareness to the discrimination they faced. Starting in 1965, members of gay rights groups called the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis marched past Independence Hall as an “Annual Reminder” march. The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal” and the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis wanted to remind everyone of that.
The second police raid in one week of the gay bar the Stonewall Inn on June 28th, 1969, prompted the gay and lesbian residents of Greenwich Village to react. They were angry that the Stonewall, a place that they felt safe, had been raided and destroyed by the police. They reacted violently, throwing anything they could find at the police, resisting arrest, rocking police cars, slashing tires. The riots lasted for three days, but they became the catalyst for an emerging gay rights movement.
Pride has come a long way since 1969, along with LGBTQIA rights. June was officially recognized as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999 by President Bill Clinton and Pride marches and parades take place in many major cities in June.
To learn more about the history of Pride and LGBTQIA rights, check out:
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