Do you know your Pride history? I didn’t. Here’s what I learned:
The first parade was in June 1970, marking a year after the Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Inn was a bar in Greenwich Village, NYC that catered to the LGBTQ+ community. In 1969 it was ILLEGAL to participate in “homosexual acts” in every state except Illinois. Gay bars were often raided by police. The police had actually raided Stonewall Inn twice that week in June. The second raid was the worst, they started violently arresting the staff of the Stonewall, drag queens, and trans folks specifically.
After seeing the violent arrests the crowd outside, led by two trans women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, started throwing bottles and shouting at the police. A full on battle ensued with police barricading themselves in the bar and protesters demanding they have the basic human rights to congregate, to love who they love, and be the people they were born to be without having to suffer violent police harassment. More police were called in, miraculously no one died that night.
The next day many people in the LGBTQ+ community gathered at Stonewall. The Inn’s liquor license had been revoked but they came to be together in community. Chants of “gay power!” started to rise and again they were shut down by police who violently beat and tear gassed the crowd. Over the next week LGBTQ+ folks showed incredible bravery and resiliency and continued to gather at Stonewall to be with one another and organize. Police were called again and again but thankfully the confrontations were more subdued relative to those first two nights.
Stonewall was a pivotal moment in gay rights history, it lit a fire of activism and organizing in the LGBTQ+ community (activism was already happening for sure, but it gained new momentum). Pride is a celebration of that activism and community and that celebration is just as important today as it was in 1970.
***It is important to note that I read several different accounts of these events and more than one mentioned that white gay men took over the movement and pushed out POC and others in the queer community, despite it being trans women and men of color who were at the forefront of the protests and whose lives were most in danger.
Other things we should all know...
* LGBTQIA folks are NOT included in the Civil Rights Act and republicans are currently doing all they can to stop the Equality Act which would be inclusive.
* Over half of our states don’t have any laws protecting folks from getting fired due to their sexual orientation (!!!)
* Trump has directly put trans prisoner’s lives in danger by demanding they be in the facility of their assigned gender
* Trump has asserted that businesses can refuse services to LGBTQ folks
* Trump has banned trans people from serving in the military. I’m no fan of the military but this is an issue of 1) equality, DUH; 2) access to jobs; 3) access to healthcare; 4) access to education. The military gives access to services and career advancement to millions of people who otherwise wouldn’t have that access, it is important!
* Trump’s admin rolled back agreements about protecting trans kids in schools and allowing students to use the bathrooms of their gender identity
* It wasn’t until 2003 that gay sex was legal nationwide
* Same sex marriage only became legal nationwide in 2015
* Same sex adoption only became legal nationwide in 2015
* There were Nazi’s at Pride in Detroit earlier this month. Nazi’s, who believe it’s ok to murder everyone who isn’t white, heterosexual, cis and Christian. And they were tolerated by the police.
* There is a big movement to get all police involvement out of Pride. Looking at the history and the present day situation of police killing black and brown folks with immunity, it’s easy to see why. Pride started as a resistance movement to police violence, specifically towards trans people of color, don’t forget that and don’t let it just be about white gay men and police waving rainbow flags.
It is dark right now, but we can not forget that those bigots in office are a very loud MINORITY. There are more of us who believe love is love and who celebrate diversity instead of fear it. We just need to be even louder, keep organizing, and VOTE them all out! Allies, have you checked in with your place of employment, school, kid’s school, etc about what they are doing to support the LGBTQ+ community? Now is the time! Use this month as motivation to work for change!
Please consider donating to Lambda Legal, GLAD, Transgender Law Center, and your local organizations working for LGBTQ+ rights. Feel free to tag other awesome orgs to support!
To the LGBTQ+ community, I love you, I support you, I will continue to fight by your side, always.