Fact: The first Pride was a riot. On June 28, 1969, the police were raiding a gay bar in New York called the Stonewall Inn. They were harassing people, arresting them, humiliating them and invading their space to be a community. They raided gay bars and made arrests regularly. But June 28 was different.
People were gathering outside to watch the arrests. Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman, was at the Stonewall Inn celebrating her birthday. And I guess she must have had enough, because when they came for her, she said, “I got my civil rights!” and threw a shot glass against the mirror. Others joined her. They shouted, they threw bottles and bricks, and they drove the harassing cops out. They rioted for six days and the police failed to stop them. There were drag queens, QPOC, butch lesbians, sex workers, feminine gay men, queer people and gender nonconforming people of every description. All unified in a wider community of people who were marginalized by straight and cis society, people who were resisting those who kept them down.
And the next year, activists organized a remembrance on the one year anniversary. They came back together again and again, year after year. Forty-eight years later we are still coming back together. It is a celebration of what we have fought for and accomplished, both individually and collectively. But it is also a reminder of the diverse community we belong to, the people we must uplift and support and fight alongside all year long.
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