Pride Month, pride celebrations, and pride marches are how LGBTQ people and allies address the ongoing work for acceptance and equality, which ultimately brings us to the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in New York City. Fed up with being harassed and targeted, LGBTQ patrons of the Stonewall Inn, who were predominantly people of color, fought back against the police. ![]() “Before Stonewall, gay leaders had primarily promoted silent vigils and polite pickets, such as the ‘Annual Reminder’ in Philadelphia,” Fred Sargeant, one of the original organizers of the march, wrote in the Village Voice. ![]() “Since 1965, a small, polite group of gays and lesbians had been picketing outside Liberty Hall. Required dress on men was jackets and ties for women, only dresses. Stonewall, spurred by the frustration of being targeted and harassed, worked where polite and civil protests had failed. The first Pride march took place in 1970, a year later, to commemorate - loudly and without a dress code - those who fought for their rights. Thanks to those Stonewall patrons and generations of LGBTQ people who fought for the rights of the community, the world is now an easier place to live for LGBTQ people than it was 10, 15, or 20 years ago. Smith (left) and his mother, Norma Isaacs, 88, ride past the site of the original Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village during the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade on June 25, 1989.
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