The  Gayest Time of the Year

We know this time of year is celebrating gay Pride but how did we get here? Pride in the Christian Bible is seen as a sin, which was the earliest I heard of it. It is so shameful that some people avoid talking about achievements or successes to avoid this sin. I feel into this camp when I was younger, and even so now that I'm older. To me the term has been shifted and re-branded to being prideful of things you are committed to 'hating'; from an organized religion that has strayed from the understanding it claimed originally. This is a personal meaning that will not be the same for you, but helped me get more comfortable with my bisexuality. The original definition of the 'Gay Pride' movement is an acronym that most people are unaware existed!

The first gay rights organization was actually formed in 1920 by Henry Gerber who ran a human society. The term 'gay pride' came much later than him. The original acroymn P.R.I.D.E was born around 1966 and "stood for Personal Rights In Defense and Education" (NPR).Groups in LA began to see the term used with 'Black pride' and 'Black Power' in regards to their personal rights. It eventually became 'Gay pride' to differentiate between the two. We today see 'gay pride' as a full term used especially during the month of June to celebrate the LGBTQ community. The month chosen to celebrate was not done in vain though and as many changes made in the USA it came from protesting.

The protest in question was near the Stonewall Inn due to police targeting drag queens. The local departments took an old law known as the 'Three Piece Law' from 1845 to stretch its application to drag queens. it is almost like we see the same here when they stretch the law to say you are obstructing an investigation, if you record wrongdoing. The law was originally used "to punish rural farmers, who had taken to dressing like Native Americans to fight off tax collectors" (History). It doesn't seem to have any real application to this scenario as these people weren't evading taxes but expressing themselves. This caused the protest to begin with but the police also escalated it further, as we see in California today. The protesters at that time hid in the Stonewall bar around 4am on June 28th and this initiated the day and month of remembrance. The community was struck hard by police violence this night and it brought forth our dangers to light.

After Stonewall the last Sunday in June became "Gay Pride Day" and from there grew. As more groups and sexualities got discovered and accepted the one day event expanded. You can now even find capitalism ruing it in the Target section with the t-shirts and pride collections. Although, we all may remember a few years back when Target tried to be even more accepting. They received such backlash they had to move their section to the back of the store. In 2025 they have now opted to focus on other holidays and completely bypass Pride all together. We have come so far yet not far enough in the fights for LGBTQ protections as this administration continues to threaten them. Remember they only want to control who you can have sex with so they can control how you have sex, so they can control the outcome, so they can have more workers. It is a slippery slope to intervene in people choosing who they love to choosing how they can love, let's give them every spike possible on that slope.