*This is the first half of a two-part feature covering the nuances of celebrating Pride Month, which focuses on its global origins.*
By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
Halfway through the year, June rolls around along with the celebration of gender diversity epitomized by a flag brandishing all seven colors of the rainbow.
Pride Month, an annual global event that champions inclusivity among individuals representing every spectrum of the LGBTQIA+ community, has a long and storied history that dates back to the early 1900s.
Down the ‘rainbow’ memory lane
In those early days, a handful of so-called ‘pioneers’ in North America and Europe created gay and lesbian organizations that advocated for their recognition as having an important role in society, such as the Society of Human Rights established by Henry Gerber in Chicago in 1924.
These voices grew louder after World War II, wherein outspoken groups like the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis poured their grievances and calls against discrimination of gays and lesbians into newsletters of general circulation.
In 1966, members of the former held a sip-in protest at a bar in New York City, where they demanded drinks after announcing that they were gay—a defiance against local laws that prohibit serving alcohol to non-binary customers.
Around the same time, Philadelphia activists also staged protests outside Independence Hall as “annual reminders” that gays and lesbians were being denied basic rights of citizenship, with the caveat of not being able to broadcast their gender identity, expression, and public displays of affection.
Breaking point
Tensions came to a boil in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, when New York Police Department operatives raided the Stonewall Inn along Christopher Street—a sanctuary for young members of the LGBTQ community.
During the operation, the walls of the Manhattan establishment stood as a silent witness to the arrest of its employees for dispensing liquor without a license and the ensuing police harassment against gay and lesbian patrons.
People outside the bar who witnessed the horrific sight of the patrons being escorted into police vans were agitated by the scene, hurling bottles and debris at the cops, prompting the latter to call for reinforcements and shield themselves from the mob.
This confrontation escalated into a series of protests and violent clashes throughout the Greenwich Village neighborhood, which ended on July 2, 1969.
The four-day saga, eventually dubbed as the Stonewall Riots, served as the catalyst for the gay rights movement to earn the attention of politicians and the media as the advocacy reached national and global popularity.
Liberation
A year after the Stonewall uprising, the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) and the Christopher Street Liberation Day Umbrella Committee organized the Christopher Street Liberation Day.
The march, held on June 28, 1970, brought together approximately 3,000 to 5,000 participants that stretched 51 blocks from Greenwich Village to Central Park, with slogans such as “Say it clear, say it loud. Gay is good, gay is proud.” echoing through the throngs of people who participated in the event.
Earlier, other small-scale marches and parades also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, which underscored the national scale of the gay and lesbian rights movement.
The Gay Pride Parade set the precedent for the expansion of the advocacy from a single-day affair into a monthlong event, where then-U.S. President Bill Clinton declared June 1999 as the “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.”
His successors, former President Barrack Obama and former President Joe Biden proclaimed June to be the “LGBT Pride Month” and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month, respectively.
Although many cities celebrate this observance in June, other parts of the world celebrate Pride Month at different times of the year.
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