#PrideMonth History Time.

The Stonewall riots that broke out on June 28th 1969 is what kicked off the American LGBT rights movement in full.

Most people know that part but often get other details wrong, in part due to urban legends.

The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, was a bar that served as a haven for people of the LGBT community, at the time only referred to as the gay community.

Police raided the bar with the sole intent of arresting gay people for being gay.

Raids like these were not uncommon, the police were already a primary enemy of the gay community for this reason.

This raid was big and sudden, and ultimately people had had enough after years of police and government oppression.

So people started resisting and fighting back.

Stormé DeLaverie, a biracial black stud lesbian and drag king who used he/him pronouns resisted arrest and fought back the police officer trying to arrest him.

This was what has been identified as the "start" of the riots.

Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman and drag queen, arrived 40 minutes after the riot had broken out at 2 AM.

She had heard about what was going on over at Stonewall and headed over to support and ultimately help lead the people against the police.

Contrary to the urban legend, Johnson did not throw the first brick. It's unclear who did, but she herself has denied that it was her, as she wasn't even there when the riot broke out.

She did climb up a lamppost and dropped a brick through a police car's windshield though.

Sylvia Rivera, a Latina-American trans woman, may or may not have been at the riots.

There have been conflicting accounts, though Rivera herself stated that she was there and arrived with Johnson who herself also gave conflicting accounts on this.

Stormé DeLaverie, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera all became leading activists following the Stonewall riots through groups like the Gay Liberation Front, Gay Activists Alliance, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries and more.

I've used mostly modern terminology in this thread, but obviously language relating to LGBT identities has changed a lot since the 60s.

Johnson and Rivera identified as transvestites, but very much lived as women, hence why the trans community speak of them both as trans women.

Also worth noting that while the Stonewall riots have been historically immortalized as "riots", that's not a term everyone involved was fond of, including Stormé DeLarverie who said it should be called an uprising or rebellion.

Pride exists because queer women of colour finally fought back against oppression from the police.

The police has always been the enemy of the marginalized, not just 50 years ago, but today as well.

If you believe in pride. If you believe in LGBT rights and standing up for those oppressed. Then you need to understand this.

Black Lives Matter.
All Cops Are Bastards.
No Cops At Pride.