Time: Even People Who Were There Still Don’t Agree on How Stonewall Started. Here’s What We Do Know (Incluso las personas que estaban allí todavía no se ponen de acuerdo en cómo Stonewall empezó. Aquí lo que sí sabemos) https://time.com/5598363/stonewall-beginnings-history/
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.
