With the start of June begins the hurricane of pleasurable rainbow flags and color splashes everywhere. A month that is recognized as “pride,” June is a month of support for many LGBTQ+ community members worldwide and a time to show allegiance and support for homosexuals of all sexuality.
Pride Month is a month of colorful flags and posters with parades and events and a significant time for many to understand gender. But many do not realize the beginning and the events that make pride month what it is recognized at present to be. Hence, here we are to provide you with 5 things that you might not know about LGBTQ+.
1. Pride month commemorates the Stonewall Riots
Stonewall riot was an uprising demonstration of the gay community against a police raid in Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, that started on June 28, 1969. The 1950s and 1960s were anti-gay mentality and an anti-gay legal system, a dark era for many homosexuals to be their true selves. There were few establishments, usually bars, that accepted gay people in an almost criminalistics illegal mannerism. Stonewall was run by the mafia. When the police raided the inn, the situation worsened between the community and the legal system. The Stonewall uprising is considered one of the most important even of gay liberation and a noticeable factor of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States.
2. There is a thing called ‘straight pride.’
After the Stonewall riots and many other events branching out the LQBTQ+ and their movements as a ripple effect, the 1980s ‘Straight Pride’ became an obstacle for the community. This term originally was used by conservatives as a backlash tactic to gay pride and a mockery to ridicule LGBTQ+ rights. This slogan was a way of religious revival to conservatism. The ‘straight pride’ slogans were often filled with racist and controversial slurs toward gay pride and were denounced by gay advocates.
3. Why the term pride?
The term “pride” stands for two things in the LGBTQ+ community; “Promote Respect, Inclusion, and Dignity for Everyone,” a self-explanatory acronym, and “Personal Rights in Defense and Education,” an organization formed in Los Angeles in 1966. Personal Rights in Defense and Education was a gay political organization that set the tone for many gay political groups and demonstrated its sexuality. The organization held its meetings called “Pride Nights” in a gay bar called the Hub in Los Angeles. It focused on the right to marry and access services by the community.
4. The Mother of Pride
Brenda Howard, a bisexual woman, is considered the “Mother of Pride.” She was an LGBTQ+ activist and a feminist who organized the first Pride parade. Brenda Howard was an active member of The Gay Liberation Front and actively involved in Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, successfully lobbying for LGBT rights laws in New York City.
5. First Homosexual Representation on Film.
LGBTQ+ was seldom used in the film industry, with many closeted actors never expressing themselves for fear of their career and backlashes. After 1964, when ‘The Best Man’ was released in the U.S.A., the term “homosexual” was even addressed in the industry.
Happy Pride Month!
The author of this article, Lujata Shrestha, writes for Officium.