When many people think of the annual Pride parade, they think of bright colors, music and dancing and LGBTQIA+ people of every background being out and proud. They often don't, however, think of the rich pride history, a history steeped in social and political revolution.

The Stonewall Riots

By the late 1960s, police were still serially harassing, beating and arresting gay and transgender people who would gather regularly to socialize safely and responsibly in places like the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in NYC's Greenwich Village.

On June 28, 1969, however, as the police conducted one of their routine raids, one black transgender woman, Marsha P. Johnson, decided she'd had enough, and resisted. She threw the first stone, both metaphorically and literally, setting off what became one of the most pivotal moments in LGBTQIA history: the Stonewall Riots.

Gay and transgender patrons resisted arrest and battled police, and while they ultimately lost the battle, they triggered a war that would not end until the polices' secretive discrimination and harassment of gay and transgender people finally saw the light of day and ultimately came to an end.

The First Gay Pride Parade

Originally called the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, the first Gay Pride Parade took place on June 28, 1970, almost one year to the day after the Stonewall Riots. To know more about pride history, visit this website.

The event was planned starting five months after the riots by organizers of an annual silent vigil for LGBTQIA rights in Philadelphia called "The Annual Reminder" along with activists at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO.) Concurrent events were planned in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles at that time as well.

Five thousand people showed up to that first Gay Pride Parade in NYC, five times greater than the expected amount, and the rest, as they say, is pride history.

The annual Pride parade, formerly the Pride march, is now several years past its 50th anniversary, and the fight for LGBTQIA equal rights, protections and acceptance rages on. But so does the celebration for all we and our predecessors have accomplished so far to date, and our gratitude for all we and they have given and sacrificed along the way.

Read a similar blog about LGBTQ assistance here at this page.