Did you know that we have a bisexual woman to thank for pride as we celebrate it today?
Brenda Howard was a bisexual, Jewish and polyamorous feminist activist. She is also known as the Mother of Pride.
Friends with many inside the Stonewall Inn the night of the uprising, Howard created a one-month Stonewall anniversary rally in July 1969. Then, one year after Stonewall, she coordinated the one-year anniversary of the Christopher Street Liberation Day march.
She originated the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations now held worldwide.
Without her, pride as we know it wouldn't exist.
She also campaigned heavily for LGBTQ+ rights in general, as well as women’s rights, national healthcare, equal treatment for POC, rights for those affected by AIDS.
“She was an in-your-face activist,” Nelson said in 2014. “She fought for anyone who had their rights trampled on.”
Howard was arrested while participating in her activist work multiple times. Her friend Marla Stevens remembered one particular jail time fondly. In 1991, Howard was protesting with ACT-UP in Atlanta because a lesbian staffer in the state attorney general’s office was fired due to Georgia’s sodomy laws. Stevens and Howard were thrown in jail, later “reading steamy novels aloud to the assembled grrlz and being as much of a pain in the rear as possible so they'd not want to hold us any longer than absolutely necessary,” Stevens wrote.
While she was undoubtedly an accomplished activist, some of the work closest to her heart was in the bi community.
Howard was a constant champion for bi inclusion in early LGBTQ+ activism. She successfully lobbied for the inclusion of bisexuality in the 1993 March on Washington, at a time when the movement was focused primarily on gay men and lesbians.
The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Gay Pride Month is June tell them "A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be."
- Tom Limoncelli
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