LGBT Pride Month is a month dedicated to celebrating and commemorating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride in the Western world, usually in June. Pride Month began in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation demonstrations in 1969, and has since spread beyond the United States. Modern-day Pride Month honors both the LGBT rights struggle and LGBT culture.

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History

The Stonewall riots, a series of rioting for homosexual rights that took place over many days beginning on June 28, 1969, inspired the concept of Pride Month. The riots erupted following a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay nightclub in New York City’s Lower Manhattan. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie are among the activists accused of encouraging the riots, though Johnson denies any involvement.

The first pride marches were staged in various US cities a year after the riots. The march in New York City, which aimed to commemorate “Christopher Street Liberation Day” alongside counterpart marches around the US, is seen as a watershed moment for LGBT rights. The purpose, according to Fred Sargeant, an organizer of some of the earliest marches, was to memorialize the Stonewall riots and advocate for wider liberty. While the early marches were more of a protest than a celebration, he remarked that they served to remind people of LGBT communities and how they might include one’s family and friends. However, despite the fact that the earliest riots were mostly comprised of them, transgender women and people of color were noticed to have been ignored or silenced during the early marches.

Recognition

US President Bill Clinton recognized “the anniversary of [the] Stonewall every June in America as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” in June 1999. President Barack Obama extended the legally recognized Pride Month to encompass the whole LGBT community in 2011. However, in 2017, Donald Trump rejected to renew government recognition of Pride Month in the United States, though he eventually acknowledged it in 2019 in a Tweet that was later utilized as a Presidential Proclamation. Despite previously voted against same-sex marriage and LGBT school education in the Senate, Joe Biden celebrated Pride Month and committed to advocate for LGBT rights in the United States after taking office in 2021.

Criticism

Some have criticized how many corporations release Pride Month-themed products, comparing it to the concept of slacktivism, because the companies are believed to be profiting from the topic of LGBT rights without contributing meaningfully to the movement. Others have criticized the seeming hypocrisy of firms creating social media profiles that resemble the rainbow pride flag but refusing to change the profile images in locations where LGBT acceptance is limited.