Pride month celebrates LGBTQ culture, achievements and activism through a series of organized activities, including film festivals, art exhibits, marches, concerts and other programs.
Pride Month is observed in June to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. In the late 1960s, being openly gay was largely prohibited in most places. New York had a rule that the simple presence of someone gay or genderqueer counted as disorderly conduct, effectively outlawing gay bars.
On June 28, 1969, patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a popular bar with a diverse LGBTQ clientele, stood their ground after police raided the establishment. The resulting clash led to days of riots and protests, known as the Stonewall Uprising. One year later, on the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, thousands of people flooded the streets of Manhattan in the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March which is regarded as the first gay pride event ever.
Pride Month had humble beginnings. It initially began as Gay Pride Day, observed annually on the last Sunday in June. As awareness increased, more activities and events were planned throughout the month and eventually, it evolved into the month-long observance, named Pride Month. In 1999, President Bill Clinton officially declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, setting aside the month as a time to recognize the LGBTQ community’s achievements and support the community.
Sylvia Rivera was a drag queen who was a gay and transgender activist in the 1960s and 1970s. She’s known for participating in the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and establishing the political organization STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with fellow friend and drag queen, Marsha Johnson.
Marsha Johnson, activist and self-identified drag queen, was one of the most prominent players in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Johnson faced abuse from police and had no permanent home while working as a drag queen and waitress. Johnson found herself in the frontlines of gay rights protests after police raided the Stonewall Inn in 1969.
Jackie Shane was originally assigned male at birth, and she performed in women’s clothing and log hair at a young age. She eventually left the southern United States for Canada where she found success. Her single “Any Other Way” hit the local charts while breaking social and political lines. Shane is regarded as a trailblazer in transgender representation.
Bayard Rustin walked the dangerous world of social and political movements in the 1940s as an openly gay Black man fighting for both Black and LGBTQ+ rights during a time when it was practically illegal to be in America. He was an organizer, strategist, and a blaze-carrying torchbearer in the fight for civil rights for all. Rustin was one of the key organizers of the March on Washington.
In May 2024, Governor Andy Beshear declared Juneteenth a state executive branch holiday.
Juneteenth (June 19) is the one of the oldest known commemorations related to the abolition of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth National Independence Day was signed into law as a national holiday on June 17, 2021. The word “Juneteenth” is a Black English contraction of the month “June” and the date “nineteenth.” Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the slavery system in the United States.
Although the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in December 1865 ultimately abolished slavery in all areas of the nation, Juneteenth captured the jubilation of the end of slavery in the Confederacy. In 1980, Juneteenth became an official state holiday in Texas.
Freedom was granted through the Emancipation Proclamation signed on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bondage. This meant that President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which eventually came nearly 2.5 years later.
On June 19, 1865, US Brigadier General Gordon Granger and his troops landed at Galveston, Texas confirming the news that the Civil War had ended and that enslaved African Americans were now free. Prior to Granger’s arrival, the US military presence in Texas was too weak to enforce President Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Two months after General Lee’s surrender in Virginia, Union forces were strong enough to act as a liberating force for enslaved African Americans throughout the state.
From 1865 forward, the day has held special meaning for people of African descent in the United States. Juneteenth continues to be celebrated in cities with Black populations through a series of parades, family reunions, speeches, and consuming of specific foods with a red color including barbeque, watermelon, and strawberry soda. The use of red in ceremonies is a practice that enslaved West Africans brought to the United States. Juneteenth is an important date on the timeline of slavery history in the United States.