Every June we celebrate Pride month.  Some know the history behind the celebration, but not everyone does.  The Pride month we know and celebrate today actually started as an uprising.  

The year was 1969 at a bar called the Stonewall Inn.  According to The Library of Congress (LOC) in their LGBTQIA+ Resource Guide, Stonewall, a gay bar, was raided at least once a month.  Eventually, as explained by the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Program, at a morning raid, the bar-goers decided they had enough.  They protested in the streets for multiple days.  

The effects this rebellion had on LGBTQ+ rights were almost instantaneous.  The American University of Washington, DC explains the impact: publications that focused on LGBTQ+ topics were born soon after, and the very first Pride happened that next year.  

Today, Pride is celebrated all over the world in the month of June.  The celebrations include parades, food vendors, and stands, both from small businesses and larger corporations, selling Pride themed merchandise.  The Twin Cities Pride Festival is currently held in Loring Park in Minneapolis.  This year, according to CBS News, thousands attended Pride.  The park was packed and people were everywhere you looked.  

Stonewall changed the trajectory of the world’s viewpoint on being LGBTQ+.  The uprising was the catalyst for the Pride we know and love today.  Pride celebrations take place worldwide now, not just in the USA, and people who are LGBTQ+ get the visibility and affirmation that they deserve.