For more than 55 years, a major event in the United States has been credited for galvanising the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) community as a collective, to demand political recognition and legal rights.
Fast forward to 1999, when US President Bill Clinton officially gave June the status of “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” to commemorate that event. Clinton had said, “Thirty years ago this month, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a courageous group of citizens resisted harassment and mistreatment, setting in motion a chain of events that would become known as the Stonewall Uprising and the birth of the modern gay and lesbian civil rights movement.”
In 2009, President Barack Obama declared June as LGBT Pride Month and on June 1, 2021, President Joe Biden declared June LGBTQ Pride Month.
As the curtains fall on Pride Month this year, we reflect on its origins and evolution from a 1969 protest.
What were the Stonewall riots?
Homosexuality was illegal in the 1960s and its solicitation was a criminally punishable offence in the US.
Young LGBTQ people, often marginalised from society and rejected by their families, looked to gay bars and gathering spaces for a sense of acceptance and community. One such place was the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. It was regarded as a place of refuge for the homeless and frequented by gay men, lesbians, transgender people and drag queens alike.
On June 28, 1969, New York police raided the bar and arrested employees for allegedly selling alcohol without a liquor license. Such instances were common and helped the cops secure bribes. This marked the third such raid within a brief period and stirred rage among the larger community gathered outside Stonewall.
As the police loaded the patrons into a van, the crowd jeered and pushed back, throwing bottles and other objects towards it. The police barricaded themselves in the bar and sought reinforcements, but the barricades were repeatedly breached and the riots ensued for six days. This is now regarded as a turning point for the community.
The role of Marsha P. Johnson
One of the activists at the forefront of the riots was the transgender sex worker and drag queen Marsha P. Johnson, who by some accounts threw the “first brick” at the police. But even beyond the riots, she is today regarded as a pivotal figure among the LGBTQ community.
Along with Sylvia Rivera, Johnson co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which provided housing for homeless LGBTQ youth and advocated for gay and transgender rights. She was also a staunch advocate for AIDS awareness during the epidemic in the 1980s and until her demise in 1992.
How Stonewall led to gay pride
A year after Stonewall, activists floated a march to commemorate its anniversary with the theme “gay pride”, to refer to the sense of pride and oneness members of the community felt in their sexual and gender identities. The procession, which came to be known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March to mark the street at the heart of the protests, grew from a few hundred to thousands of members and allies.
Similar events were staged in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and subsequently ‘Gay or LGBTQ Pride’ was understood to be celebrated on the last Sunday of June. Over the years, Pride became a month-long event and gained official recognition as well. It became a call for visibility and allowed the community to come together.
America’s celebration of Pride was adopted across the world, with regional variations celebrating unique cultures and individual activists to make the movement more inclusive.
Lasting impact of the riots
Sociologists and historians characterise the riots as a movement against police brutality, harassment and the discriminatory practices suffered by queer people for decades. At the cusp of completing half a century to the riots, the police commissioner of the New York Police Department released a formal apology, saying, “The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong — plain and simple.”
While impulses that identified beyond the conventional gender binaries and heterosexuality had been at work long before Stonewall, even beyond the US, the riots helped give it a public face. Against the societal attempts to make queer people feel ashamed, Pride Month has come to embody the sense of fearless identity and proud unity shown at Stonewall.