The Real Meaning of PRIDE

En Español >>El significado real del ORGULLO

By Axel "LOLA" Rosa

When you think of Gay Pride, what comes to mind? Rainbow flags, parades, parties, your gay coworker constantly reminding you of it all month? Yes, that’s all true, but have you ever wondered how PRIDE started? Perhaps, you didn’t even know that one of the first individuals to riot was a Trans Latina woman. 

The history of PRIDE, some say, began in the 1950s when the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, identified homosexual men and women as a threat to National Security. During his time in office, he signed an executive order banning LGBTQ members from federal government jobs. 

At this point, homosexuality was still considered sodomy and illegal. Many members of the LGBTQ community experienced violence, harassment, discrimination, and even police raids. In New York City, Police raids on LGBTQ bars were common. Although these bars were illegal, the LGBTQ community could still enjoy themselves and socialize amongst each other thanks to the Mafia. They operated the establishments and paid police officers to look the other way. That would stop working on June 28, 1969, when police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in lower Manhattan. Patrons were fed up, and their rebellious rioting that night ignited marches of activism and awareness across the nation, setting the tone for the modern gay liberation movement. A year later, on the first anniversary of the riots, the first Gay Pride Parade was organized and held on Christopher St. Back then, there was no glitter, no music, no cover charges, no shows, no sponsors, not even the rainbow flag. It was a movement to fight for the LGBTQ community’s rights. The Rainbow Flag would later become the universal symbol of PRIDE in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker. Today, PRIDE is celebrated worldwide and still brings awareness to critical issues within the community. In 2011 President Barack Obama proclaimed June to be LGBT PRIDE Month.

The Stonewall Inn riots were said to be led by trans women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Rivera was born in 1951 as a male but identified as a woman. Her Puerto Rican father was absent, and her Venezuelan mother committed suicide when Rivera was three years old. Eventually, running away from home at 11, she fell victim to sexual exploitation and was homeless most of her young life. Later, she met Johnson, and the two were credited, amongst others, with throwing the first drink at police officers when the Stonewall riots began, and Rivera was only 17 years old.

Along with Johnson in 1971, the two created STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), where they housed and supported homeless transgender youth. Rivera died of liver cancer in 2002, but her legacy remains with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. In 2015, Rivera became the first transgender activist to have her portrait added to Washington D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery.