June is the month that is full of the pride of LGBTQIA+. June first starts Pride month and it is full of celebration for the LGBTQIA+ community. Everyone in the community and fellow allies rally together to celebrate them being who they are. Most places in the world Pride month is celebrated but on different days in June. The Pride Parade is a big celebration for the LGBTQIA+ community. The first Parade was on June 28, 1970, in New York. In 1969 it was not common for people to celebrate their sexual orientation. The big movement for this was the Stonewall movement for gay liberation.

Stonewall Riot

The Stonewall Inn was purchased in 1969 by the Genovese Crime family. They cheaply renovated it and reopened it the next year as a gay bar. It was registered as a private “bottle bar” which doesn’t require a liquor license. The people that attended the club signed their name to maintain the fake exclusivity. The Genovese family bribed the police to ignore the activities of the club. Without the police’s interference the club lacked a few things like a fire escape, running water to clean the glasses and clean toilets. The owners reportedly blackmailed the wealthier people to keep their sexuality hidden. The bar was large but cheap to enter. It welcomed drag queens and is a nightly home for homeless gay youth that may have panhandled or shoplifted. It was one of the few gay bars that allowed dancing. The morning of June 28 the police raided the club and found bootlegged alcohol and arrested 13 people from violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statues. The female officers would take suspected cross-dressers into the bathroom to check their gender. Fed up with the persistent police discrimination and harassment some neighbors and patrons hung around the bar instead of leaving. There was a point when an officer hit a lesbian over the head to get her into a police car. After that it became a full blown riot. Police, a few prisoners and a Village Voice writer barricaded inside the bar. The owners attempted to set fire to the building after they breached the barricade. The Stonewall Riot didn’t start any gay rights movement. When it’s the anniversary of this riot they have a parade and they chant “Say It Loud, Gay Is Proud.” The Stonewall inn was sold in 2006 to Kurt Kelly and Stacy Lentz.

Gay Rights

Harvey Milk was a former member board of supervisor. He proposed a bill to ban discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, it’s one of the strongest gay-right measures in the nation to date. The bill passed with only one dissenting vote—it was voted by Dan White. The mayor signed it into law on March 21, 1978. On November 27, 1978, Dan White snuck into the mayor’s office with a .38 revolver. He went into the mayor’s office and shot him then went across the building to Milk’s office and murdered him with five shots.

Movement

The Gene Compton’s Cafeteria was a 24-hour restaurant and a refuge for sex working trans-women who often faced violence from clients and police. In 1966, one day a cop placed his hand on a trans-woman and she responded by throwing a cup of coffee in his face. Patrons started throwing cups, saucers and other diner items at the police. A riot started trans people, drag queens and gay men started to fight the police. They broke windows and set fires to newsstands and destroyed a police car. Drag queens hit police with their purses. It ended with the women being arrested.

Flag History

The colors of the flag stand for different things: the hot pink, which represents sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow signifying sunlight, green for nature, turquoise to represent art, indigo for harmony, and finally violet at the bottom for spirit. In 1979 the hot pink was taken out of the flag because they couldn’t get it for fabric then they took the turquoise out because it created an uneven number of stripes.