Pride is a celebration of identity for those who fall within the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and a way for allies to show their support. Pride is celebrated in June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. On June 28, 1969, New York City Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. The raid quickly escalated into a riot as patrons of the bar decided to fight back against police. These actions set off six days of protests and conflict with law enforcement. The Stonewall Uprising (also called the Stonewall Riots) is widely-recognized as the start of the Gay Rights Movement in the United States. The very first Pride Parade in the U.S. was held one year after the Uprising on June 28, 1970.
This historical marker plaque is displayed at the Stonewall Inn. Attribution: Grace.Mahony / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. A 1969 police raid here led to the Stonewall Riots, one of the most important events in the history of LGBT rights (and the history of the United States). Attribution: Rhododendrites / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
The Stonewall Inn in 1969. Attribution: Diana Davies, copyright owned by New York Public Library / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Foster Gunnison, Jr. Papers. Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries.
Foster Gunnison, Jr. Papers. Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries.
An Archive of Hope by Same-sex marriage was not legal across the United States until June 26, 2015.
The decision by the United States Supreme Court was made with a 5-4 margin in favor of same-sex marriage legalization.
Quote from the SCOTUS decision:
"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered."