NEW ORLEANS, LA — Pride Month is currently celebrated every year in June to recognize the impact of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual or LGBTQIA individuals everywhere in the world.
Pride Month is celebrated through parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia, concerts and festivals. However, the commemorative month started as the fight for rights.
Historically, the initial pride month is started when a political demonstration occurred in response to the violence that erupted after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay nightclub in New York's Greenwich Village, on June 28, 1969.
For New Yorkers at that time, enforced anti-homosexuality laws and raids of known gay establishments were common. However, the officers' rough treatment of the patrons at the Stonewall Inn angered the community. It triggered the Stonewall Riots, where protestants clashed with police in Greenwich Village for six days.
The Stonewall Riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. They became the inspiration for a wave of activism within LGBTQIA communities throughout the country.
One year after the riots, a group came together to commemorate the events accompanied by political demonstrations, calling it 'Gay Pride Day'. In major cities across the nation, the day soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events.
Today, Pride Month is celebrated around the world, and events attract millions of participants. People gather to celebrate the progress made in the acceptance and normalization of queer identities and call attention to ongoing political injustice, and remember those in the LGBTQIA community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS.
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