If you are not living under a stone, or practising some kind of media blackout, you must be aware that the month of June has been recognised as LGBTQ+ pride month. What you might not know is why as a society we picked June to commemorate the LGBTQ+’s fight for social equality and not some other month for that matter.
It was the 28th of June, 1969 that the New York police initiated a raid at the Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, a hangout for members of the LGBTQ+ community. While raids of that kind were not uncommon during the 50s and the 60s in the United States, this particular one turned more violent than usual, and the people fought back. Patrons of the Inn were joined by customers of nearby gay and lesbian bars and by local residents and what started as another anti-gay police raid it is now known as the Stonewall riots – Fun fact, it took the NYPD 50 years to apologise for their conduct during the events of that day. The first gay pride parades were organised the following year to commemorate the event.
The yearly parades became the storefront of the Gay Liberation movement that was an early attempt to promote the cause of equal rights for LGBTQ+ community. The whole movement evolved through the years to the current LGBTQ+ social movement which focuses on social equality issues that sadly still plague our societies.
TwelveSec is proud to stand side by side with anyone promoting equal human rights for all! We will be donating to both Amnesty International and to the Human Rights Watch to help promote equality worldwide!
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Wow! Very interesting