PRIDE MONTH

The designation

First of all, I believe it is important to clarify the acronyms of the group LGTBI+

L: Lesbians

G: Gay

T: Transgender/ Transexual

Transgender people undergo sex reassignment surgery, while transsexual people do not.

B: Bisexual

I: intersexual

The plus includes categories such as queer, asexual or no-binary.

The flag

Origin: 1978

The California Pride March asked Gilbert Baker to design a flag that would represent the LGTBI+ community in the United States.

It is believed that the American artist was inspired by the song Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland from the film The Wizard of Oz.

The original flag had eight colors. Each color represented something:

• Pink: sexuality
• Red: life
• Orange: health
• Yellow: sun light
• Green: nature
• Turquoise: magic
• Blue: Serenity
• Violet: the soul

Years later, it was decided to erase the pink and turquoise leaving six colors.

On 16th june 2017 the city of Philadelphia celebrated the Pride March beside the More color, more Pride event in which it was decided to add two new colors: black and coffee, regarding the black and latin population.

History of the Pride Day, March and Month

Firstly, we must know the historic and social context when the Pride movement arises. In the 1950s – 60s, the hippie movement, the fight for the rights of the black community and the homosexual community as well as the pacifist groups against the Vietnam war (1955-1975) are risen.   

In the Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan (bohemian neighborhood where there were several clubs for the gay community), the most well-known club was the Stonewall Inn.

In 1969, the Stonewall Inn was one of the most famous gay clubs in New York City. IN the state of New York, serving alcohol to a homosexual person had been illegal until 1966 and, in 1969, being homosexual was still considered a criminal offense. [It wasn’t until 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association would remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders]. For this reason, some gay-run establishments operated without the license to sell alcohol, which encouraged raids and policy brutality. The Stonewall Inn was owned by the mafia, who only cared about the economic benefit of the club not about the safety of their clientele.

The night of the 28th June 1969 some riots took place between the police and the gay community. The tension lasted more than six days. It was not the first time the police raided a gay-run club neither the first time the people reacted against the police but this time the events made a difference in the American LGTBI+ ’s activism.

During the early morning on 28th June 1969, plainclothes police from the New York Police Department arrived at the Stonewall Inn. The police justified the raid with a search warrant, allowing them to investigate the illegal sale of alcohol. The raid was routine in a bar like Stonewall Inn, but this time the LGTBI+ community decided it was enough. Word of the Stonewall Inn being raided again spread quickly through the city and thousands of protesters gather at the bar and in the surrounding area.  Two drag queens stand out of the crowd: Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.

Marsha P. Johnson

Sylvia Rivera

People arrested were lesbians, drag queens, queer youth, transgender and gender non-conforming people. This people were often arrested by the police because, in New York, in 1969, it was illegal to wear fewer than three items of “gender-appropriate” clothing, i.e. clothes normatively designed for their biological sex. Newspapers of the time confirm that at least two darg queens were arrested.

The events of that night and the following days have been interpreted as the origin of the gay liberation movement and the birth of the gay pride of a massive scale.

In 1970 to commemorate that night it was held the first Pride march in New York. The event was organized by a bisexual, feminist and pacifist woman named Brenda Howard.

Brenda Howard

Primary sources available at the Library of Congress provide information about how this first Pride march was planned and the reasons why activists felt it should exist. Lili Vincenz and Frank Kameny wrote that the first American Gay Pride Week and March was meant to give an opportunity to the LGBT community to come together to “commemorate the Stonewall Inn riots in which thousands of homosexuals went to the streets to demonstrate against centuries of abuse....from government hostility to employment and housing discrimination, Mafia control of Gay bars, and anti-Homosexual laws". The idea behind the initial Pride march came from the members of the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (E.R.C.H.O.) who had been organizing an annual July 4th Demonstration (between 1965 and 1969) known as the Reminder Day Pickets at the Independence Hall in Philadelphia. At the E.R.C.H.O. Conference in 1969, the 13 homophile organizations voted to pass a resolution to organize a National Annual Demonstration to be called Christopher Street Liberation Day.

As members of the Mattachine Society of Washington, Frank Kameny and Lili Vincenz participated in the discussion, planification and promotion of the first Pride month besides other activist of the city of New York and other homophile groups belonging to E.R.C.H.O.

Note: the homophile movement was a movement whose objective was to address the discrimination gays and lesbians faced by authorities. It started in the early 1950s in the United States, after the Second World War. It promoted the word “homophile” instead of “homosexual” in order to emphasize their sense of community and the love (filia) instead of the sexual aspect of their identity.

Upwards 3-5000 people participated in the inaugural Pride march in New York City.

Today, the Stonewall Inn is National Historical Landmark.

In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially chosen to be the Pride Day, but the actual day was flexible. The “day” soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. The celebration includes pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts. Also, memorials are held to honor those members of the LGTBI+  community who have been lost to hate crime or HIV/ AIDS.

The celebration is now global.

In 1994, a coalition of education-based organizations in the United States designed October as LGTBI+ History Month. In 1995, a resolution by the General Assembly of the National Education Association included LGTBI+ History Month within a list of commemorative months. National Coming Out Day is celebrated on 11st October, during LGBT History Month.

In 2020

Pride Month has turned into a series of events that want to promote the visibility of the LGTBI+ community and reclaim the group is worthy of respect, acceptation and the same rights as any other people.

Moreover, in June 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride March in New York City.
Due to the global pandemic, events are virtual this year. 

Sources:
About  |  Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month  |  Library of Congress
¿Por qué se celebra el Mes del Orgullo LGBT en junio? Zona Pop te lo dice… | CNN
Today in History - June 28 | Library of Congress
Reflections On What Makes This Pride Month So Significant : NPR
Bisexual Pioneer Brenda Howard Is the Mother of Pride
Philadelphia’s new, inclusive gay pride flag is making gay white men angry - Vox