It’s Pride, Baby!

LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month, occurring each June, commemorates the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. During this pivotal moment, eight officers from the “Public Morals Division” of the police department raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York.At that time, raids on gay bars—all LGBTQIA2S+ bars were “gay” bars then—and other LGBTQIA2S+ establishments were not uncommon, given the illegal status of homosexuality, cross-dressing, and serving alcohol to homosexuals. Many gay bars had connections to the mob and mafia, making them frequent targets. However, on this particular evening, the patrons decided to resist. It’s not known exactly who started the uprising, but clashes between bar patrons, onlookers and the police ignited riots and protests that continued over subsequent nights.There had been plenty of uprisings before Stonewall. In May 1959—a full decade before Stonewall—police attempted to arrest an agitated crowd of gay men, trans women, drag queens and male sex workers at the late-night coffee shop Cooper Do-nuts in Los Angeles, to which the crowd retaliated by pelting the police with coffee and doughnuts. Across the USA, there were sit-ins at various establishments, including Dewey’s Lunch Counter in Philadelphia in 1965 and the bar known as Julius’ in New York City in 1966. While these events were significant, what followed Stonewall may have contributed to its historical importance.In 1970, a year after the Stonewall uprising, a parade was organized to commemorate the anniversary. Originally named Christopher Street Liberation Day, after the street in New York City where the Stonewall Inn was located, the parade took place simultaneously with parallel demonstrations across the USA. Brenda Howard, the feminist bisexual rights activist who orchestrated this march, initially conceived the idea for a week-long series of celebrations around Pride Day. She is credited with popularising the term “Pride” to refer to these celebrations and is known by some as “The Mother of Pride”.