To Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
June 28th is Pride Day, marking the date when the first Pride march took place in New York City in 1970. However, different communities celebrate Pride Day on different days throughout the month.
With Pride Month 2021 just a couple of days away, here are some important facts and figures about the fight for diversity around the world.
Why is it called "Pride" day or month?
The term might be more closely related to the English word, "Pride," which makes sense as the intrinsic dignity of every human being that should not be affected by sexual behavior or orientation.
And the basic notion of "LGBT Pride" is that no one should be ashamed of who they are, whatever their gender, sexual orientation or sexual identity. Wow, we're talking about LGBT dignity.
History of Pride Month. The Gay Club that broke down walls
Yes, it was June 28, 1969. The U.S. National Weather Service called that summer night especially hot. It was. The NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, prompting bar patrons, staff and neighborhood residents to riot on Christopher Street.
There were many who witnessed such acts among them a black, trans and bisexual woman, Marsha P. Johnson, who led the movement to continue for six days with protests and confrontations.
The message was clear: the protesters demanded the establishment of places where LGBT+ people could go and be open about their sexual orientation without fear of arrest.
However, much of the beginnings of Pride Month are credited to bisexual activist Brenda Howard. Known as "The Mother of Pride," Brenda organized Gay Pride Week and the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade a year after the Stonewall Riots. This eventually morphed into what we now know as the New York City Pride March and was the catalyst for the formation of similar parades and marches around the world.
A long way to "Oz".
During the 1950s and 60s, gays and lesbians in the United States faced a hostile legal system.
Every state in the country, with the exception of Illinois, criminalized homosexual sex between consenting adults in the private sphere.
In 1961, an adult charged with the crime of having consensual sex with another adult in the privacy of his or her home could face a light fine or up to five, ten, or twenty years, even life in prison.
By 1971 twenty states maintained "psychopathic sex" laws that permitted the detention of homosexuals for that reason alone. In Pennsylvania and California sex offenders could be locked up in mental institutions for life, and in seven states they could be castrated.
Castration, emetic therapy, hypnosis, electroshock therapy and lobotomies were used by psychiatrists to try to "cure" homosexuality during the 1950s and 1960s.
Early homophile groups in the United States sought to demonstrate that homosexual people could fit into society, and fostered a culture of non-confrontation between homosexuals and heterosexuals.
Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to officially recognize Pride Month in 1999 and 2000. Then, from 2009 to 2016, Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month. In May 2019, Donald Trump recognized Pride Month with a tweet announcing that his administration had launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality, though critics have pointed out that actions speak louder than words.
President Joseph Biden declared, like his Democratic predecessor, June as LGBT Pride month.
About the rainbow. A flag to cover everyone
It was gay politician Harvey Milk who asked a talented designer friend, Gilbert Baker, to design an all-encompassing symbol to wear at the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade.
Baker's design is said to be inspired by Judy Garland's song "Over the Rainbow," which, rumor has it, was played when the cops raided the Stonewall Inn.
The original version of the flag had eight stripes. Soon after the pink and light blue colors were suppressed due to the difficulty of production. Each shade has a meaning: pink, sex; red, life; orange, healing; yellow, sunlight; green, nature; blue, art; light blue, harmony; and violet, human spirit.
Today there is a large and diverse amount of information and literature that allows us to learn more about the movement, the history and the struggle for human and sexual rights of the LGBT community.
There is even material suitable for talking to children and teenagers about sexual diversity, such is the case of the YouTube channel Kids That's nice, which has a series of videos aimed at young people and children over the age of seven and explores different aspects of human sexuality.
While it is true that several countries and cities have declared June as the month of Pride as a tribute to those who were involved in the Stonewall riots, June 28th is celebrated as International LGBT Pride Day -lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-, also known as Gay Pride Day or simply Gay Pride.
