Category Archives: 1969

Pride is a Protest

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Pride is more than lip service. Remember the roots:

“In 1965, the gay rights protest movement was visible at the Annual Reminder pickets, organized by members of the lesbian group Daughters of Bilitis, and the gay men’s group Mattachine Society.[5] Mattachine members were also involved in demonstrations in support of homosexuals imprisoned in Cuban labor camps. All of these groups held protests at the United Nations and the White House, in 1965.[10] Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, LGBTQ people rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City.[1][11][12][8] The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar which catered to an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites, transgender people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth.”

Wikipedia

We’re not spilling out of the bars onto the streets once a year to show that we exist and have a parade that is thoroughly co-opted by corporations and other unsavory entities that see us as cash cows instead of human beings with human rights. We’re here to protest … all of that. We’re an army and and we have a bigger message and goal than just as purchasers of container ships full of crap with rainbows plastered all over.

The message is simple: Leave us alone to be who and what we are. Get your hands and your religion off our bodies. Respect us even if you don’t want to or are told, falsely, to actively hate us. Stop forcing your heterosexual imaging and messaging on us. Give us the equality we deserve as a basic human right. To paraphrase Nina Simone: “You don’t have to live next to me, just give me my equality.” (Mississippi Goddamn).

Our lives and our safety and our sanity depend on more than just waving a flag on the sidewalk once a year. We’ve made huge progress, but there are people actively working to roll the clock back to the 19th century. March, sure. But work.

The First Pride Was a Riot

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Indeed, it is expressed correctly. The very first real Pride was in fact the Stonewall Inn Revolution in 1969. From the Wikipedia entry:

“The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall, were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Although the demonstrations were not the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

…

“Following the Stonewall riots, sexual minorities in New York City faced gender, class, and generational obstacles to becoming a cohesive community. In the weeks and months after, they initiated politically active social organizations and launched publications that spoke openly about rights for gay people. The first anniversary of the riots was marked by peaceful demonstrations in several American cities that have since grown to become Gay Pride marches. The Stonewall National Monument was established at the site in 2016. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots.”

Wikipedia

Never forget our roots. You have to fight, and fight hard for your rights. They are never given to you freely.

[Photo: “Police force people back outside the Stonewall Inn as tensions escalate the morning of June 28, 1969. It illustrates the beginning of the riots. The value differences between riot participants and the police is reflected in this image, and directly led to the cause of the riots. It is the only published image of the riots during the first evening when they spontaneously began.” —Wikimedia Commons, Fair Use]