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Library Updates


Jun 11

[ARCHIVED] So you want to know more about Pride? by Andrea Lorenz

The original item was published from June 11, 2021 1:43 PM to June 11, 2021 2:26 PM

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:

What Was Stonewall?
by Nico Medina
973 MEDINA
Stonewall: Breaking Out
in the Fight for Gay Rights

by Ann Bausum
306.76 BAUSUM
Human Rights in Focus:
The LGBT Community

by Damon Karson
306.76 KARSON


For stories from LGBTQIA people:

How We Fight For Our Lives
by Saeed Jones
811.6 JONES
Who Was Harvey Milk?
by Corinne Grinapol
921 MILK
Officer Clemmons
by Dr. Francois S. Clemmons
791.4502 CLEMMONS
Prairie Silence
by Melanie Hoffert
306.76 HOFFERT


For novels featuring LGBTQIA characters:

Release
by Patrick Ness
Junior NESS
Red, White and Royal Blue
by Casey McQuiston
MCQUISTON
Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
by Becky Albertalli
Junior ALBERTALLI
Also in ebook
Memorial
by Bryan Washington
WASHINGTON
The Immortalists
by Chloe Benjamin
BENJAMIN
I'll Give You the Sun
by Jandy Nelson
Junior NELSON