Pride Month: Home

On June 28, 1969, in New York City, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, which resulted in bar patrons, staff, and neighborhood residents rioting onto Christopher Street.  Protestors demanded the establishment of places where LGBT+ people could go and be open about their sexual orientation without fear of arrest.

Pride Month is largely credited as being started by bisexual activist Brenda Howard. Known as ‘The Mother of Pride,’ Brenda organized Gay Pride Week and the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade a year after the Stonewall Riots. This became what we now know as the New York City Pride March and was the catalyst for the formation of similar parades and marches across the world.

The gay politician Harvey Milk, asked designer, Gilbert Baker, to design an all-encompassing symbol to take to San Francisco’s Pride March in 1978, which resulted in the rainbow flag. 

Bill Clinton was the first U.S. President to officially recognize Pride Month in 1999 and 2000. The New York Pride Parade is one of the largest and most well-known parades to take place, with over 2 million people estimated to have taken part in 2019.