Pride

There have always been festivals around the world celebrating various expressions of (sexual) identity. Nevertheless, the Pride movement with marches and parades being organised worldwide and the achievement of introducing a yearly Pride month and many more activities that advocate for the rights for LGBTIQ* people, has become the most prominent and influential umbrella under which celebrations around the topic of promoting (sexual) and identities expression have been organised.

Pride (definition: see Glossary) has replaced other earlier labels used to describe activist movements advocating for gay rights, such as the "homophile" movement in the 1950s and the more radical "Gay Liberation" groups that emerged in the 1960s.

Most scholars speak about the origins of Pride by referring to the “Stonewall Uprising of 1969”. This event that has almost reached legendary status, was a week-long battle between LGBT protesters and the police at Christopher Street in New York. The event takes its name from the 'Stonewall Inn,' a well-known gay bar on Christopher Street, which was raided by police on June 28, 1969, due to suspicions of illegal alcohol sales. Such raids were common at the time, as a law prohibited bars from serving alcohol to gay clients. As a result, many gay bars operated without licenses, making them easy targets for law enforcement. During the Stonewall raid, those most targeted were individuals in cross-gender attire, as it was illegal then to wear more than three items of clothing not associated with one's assigned gender. Many of these individuals were arrested and publicly harassed.

In reaction to this, on the following day, thousands of peers and allies joined public protests in front of the bar. Some scholars not only call this event a turning point and massive catalyst of the gay liberation movement but also the first celebration of Pride.

“Many new activists consider the Stonewall Uprising the birth of the gay liberation movement. Certainly, it was the birth of gay pride of a massive scale.” (Source: The Gay Crusaders, by Kay Tobin & Randy Wicker. New York: Paperback Library, 1972.)

One year later, on 28 June 1970, during the anniversary of the ‘Stonewall Riots’, activists in New York City marched through the streets of Manhattan in commemoration of the uprising. The march was organised by the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations and the Christopher Street Liberation Day Umbrella Committee which gave the event its name: Christopher Street Liberation Day March.

The term Pride is credited to either Jack Baker and Michael McConnell (an activist couple in Minnesota) or Thom Higgins, another Minnesota gay rights activist. Higgins, a former Catholic, used the word ‘pride’ - one of the seven deadly sins - alongside ‘gay’ to challenge the church's negative view on same-sex relationships.

Another activist who helped to popularise the term, was Craig Schoonmaker, who claims: 

“I authored the word ‘Pride’ for gay pride … [my] first thought was ‘Gay Power.’ I didn’t like that, so proposed gay pride. There’s very little chance for people in the world to have power. People did not have power then; even now, we only have some. But anyone can have pride in themselves, and that would make them happier as people, and produce the movement likely to produce change."

Since that catalytic event in the streets of New York, the yearly commemoration has spread out all over the world. Find here a list that demonstrates the global impact of Pride for the ‘coming out’ of Queer right groups from all continents over the last 50 years. The list marks the first events in all continents officially labelled as being part of the Pride movement.

Asia: First pride march in Quezon City, Philippines (June 26, 1994)

Europe: ‘March for Gay Rights’ (Marche des Fiertés) in Paris, France, on June 24, 1977, organized by the French LGBT+ group ‘Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire’ marked the beginning of the Pride movement in Europe.

Africa: ‘South African Pride Parade’ held in Johannesburg on October 13, 1990. This historic event took place towards the end of the apartheid era and marked the beginning of organized LGBTQ+ pride celebrations on the continent. The South African constitution, adopted in 1996, later provided protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, making South Africa a pioneer in LGBTQ+ rights in Africa.

Oceania: Sydney’s ‘Gay Pride Week’, held in September 1973. 

Middle East: First Pride March in Israel (1979) and first pride week in Lebanon (2017).

South America: Buenos Aires ‘March of Pride’, which began in 1992.

Starting as singular events, Pride marches soon evolved into Pride weeks, and culminating in a global Pride month, unsurprisingly held in June to honour the Stonewall uprising. In the U.S., the Pride month has been officially acknowledged at the highest political level, with President Barack Obama issuing Proclamation 8529 on May 28, 2010, stating: "I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists."

In Canada, Pride month has even grown into a ‘Pride season’, with numerous Pride events taking place from June to September.