Happy Pride Month, y’all!
LGBTQ+ Pride, Gay Pride, Queer Pride Month is celebrated each year in June to commemorate the Stonewall uprising/rebellion that took place June 28, 1969.
The early versions of this event were protests as compared to the parades we’ve come to know in the last decade or so.
While the Stonewall rebellion is often considered the beginning of the gay liberation movement, there were several other big events that took place around the United States over the previous decade, notably at the Black Cat Tavern, Los Angeles, 1967 and New Year’s Ball, San Francisco, 1965.
It is important, too, not to whitewash this movement for LGBTQ+ equality. We must recognize that the Stonewall Rebellion was led by transwomen of color who were also sex workers, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie, who was a butch lesbian. The picture of the “Gay Liberation” movement, sparked at Stonewall, became very white, much more heavily gay male, and largely leaving out transgender folks. To this day, trans folks have been disadvantaged by this de-centering, fighting for basic human rights, fighting to not be horribly and viciously murdered simply for existing.
We also should not forget that many of the protests were simultaneously speaking out against police brutality, among other wider issues.
Trans rights are human rights. Black trans lives matter.
Take a look at another post debunking the myth that Pride began at Stonewall.