- June was chosen as Pride Month to commemorate the stonewall riots (which happened in June 1969).
- The stonewall riots were demonstrations by lgbt+ people against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn. They led the way to the modern lgbt+ movement/fight for lgbt+ rights. (Here’s the Wikipedia article)
- Brenda Howard, a bisexual and polyamorous activist, is known as the “Mother of Pride” for her role in coordinating the first lgbt+ Pride March.
- The first president who officially declared June Pride Month was Bill Clinton (Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, 2000).
- Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month each year from 2009 to 2016.
- The world’s biggest Pride event (by attendance) was a parade in São Paulo (Brazil) in 2006.
3000000 people attended.
- There were lgbt+ events before “Pride” was a thing (before the stonewall riots happened). Some examples are the “Annual reminders” in the 1950s where lgbt+ activists carried signs with pro-lgbt+ slogans and information.
- One of the slogans was “Gay is good” by Frank Kameny, a gay activist who, among other things, worked to get the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness removed. He was also the first openly gay candidate for the United States congress.
- The first rainbow flags (a widely known symbol for Pride) were hand-dyed and stitched. Gilbert Baker (gay activist who came up with the idea) assigned a meaning to each color:
With all my love,
Your Tumblr Mom
(PS: Just a note to avoid confusion: As “lgbt+” is a relatively new term, other terms may be been used when the events took place and the mentioned people may have not used the term to describe themselves. I use “lgbt+” in this post to make it easier to read/understand, not as a statement which term is the “right” one to use).
