For those who struggle with their sexuality or gender, it shows them they are not alone, they are not “wrong” or “a sin,” but simply people who want to be accepted and loved for themselves. So many individuals have fought for the rights that many in the LGBTQ community have today. This month is important, so no one feels the need to hide who they are. A year later, community members marched through local streets in commemoration of the event and honoring the fight and those they lost, dubbing it “Christopher Street Liberation Day,” which eventually became “Gay Pride” and later, “Pride” to include all under the LBGTQ community.
It is held in the month of June because the “flash” point for fighting for LGBTQ rights in the United States, The Stonewall Riots, began on June 28, 1969.Īfter years of police harassment, patrons and neighborhood residents of Greenwich Village, N.Y., a predominately LGBTQ neighborhood, reached a boiling point during yet another raid at the Stonewall Club, and they fought back by throwing objects at the arresting officers and police vehicles becoming a full-blown riot. Pride month is meant to increase the visibility of those who were previously shamed, ostracized and stigmatized for being themselves.