HAPPY PRIDE

This month, and every month, we recognize and celebrate our LGBTQIA+ family, friends, and colleagues. To honor the contributions, cultures, and histories of these communities, we have pulled together some important resources and encourage you to reflect, learn and continue taking actions that build more inclusivity in our communities and workplace.

HISTORY OF PRIDE

UNITED STATES

On June 28, 1970, on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the first Pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Thousands of LGBT+ people gathered to commemorate Stonewall and demonstrate for equal rights. The events of Stonewall and the liberation movements that followed were a direct result of prior decades of LGBT+ activism and organizing. In particular, Pride traditions were adapted from the “Reminder Day Pickets” held annually (1965-1969) on July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On June 11, 1999, President Bill Clinton issued a presidential proclamation designating June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month to mark the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and the birth of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

HISTORY OF PRIDE

CANADA

When asked about the history of pride, often the first thing that comes to people’s minds are the Stonewall Riots. Canada, however, has its own rich history and turning points in the struggle for and eventual celebration of LGBT rights. The most well-known of these are the Toronto raids which lead to riots that turned into what is today, a vibrant pride festival. This was not the only turning point in Canadian history — click through for a brief timeline of notable events in the history of Pride in Canada. Read more.

FIND A PRIDE EVENT NEAR YOU

Around the world, Pride celebrations take a variety of forms, from parades to parties to protests and proms. Since the start of the modern LGBTQIA+ liberation movement in the 1970s, hundreds of independent Pride events have sprung up in cities worldwide. Find an event near you!

PROMINENT PEOPLE

Learn more about just a few LGBTQIA+ non-profit groups and organizations that work to combat racial, gender, and sexuality-based injustice and violence.

  • Barbara Gittings

    Gittings became a crusader for gay rights a decade before the Stonewall rebellion. In addition to launching the New York chapter of the lesbian organization, Daughters of Bilitis (which she ran form 1958 to 1963), she edited their national magazine and was known for standing front and center in picket lines protesting anti-gay discrimination. Source.

  • Bayard Rustin

    Rustin never hid his homosexuality while fighting alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement. His unapologetic openness pushed him to work mostly behind the scenes of the movement. He later urged New York City mayor Ed Koch to work on a gay rights bill before his death in 1987. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor by President Obama in 2013. Source.

  • Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon

    Martin are Lyon co-founded Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco as a couple in the 1950s. They were the first same-sex couple married in 2004 after the city clerk was ordered to provide marriage licenses to gay couples. Their marriage was voided later that year by the California Supreme Court. They married again in 2008 when the court legalized same-sex marriage in the state. Source

  • Gilbert Baker

    Baker helped define the LGBTQ movement as the designer of the rainbow flag. The flag was first unveiled at the San Francisco Pride Parade in 1978 and has become a universal symbol for the community. Source.

  • Chris Bearchell

    Chris Bearchell is a one of the most notable people in the history of queer liberation in Canada. She began writing for The Body Politic in 1975 and for years was the only woman writing for the paper. She was also part of the founding of some of the first queer organizations in Canada. Source.

  • Jeanne Manford

    Every movement needs ally support and Manford made sure the LGBTQ community got that support as co-founder of PFLAG, the nation’s first and largest organization for parents, families, friends, and allies to LGBTQ people. She was grand marshal of the New York City’s Pride March in 1991 as well as the first Queens pride celebration in 1993. Manford was posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by Obama in 2012. Source.

  • Asia Kate Dillon

    Dillon is an actor who is the first non-binary performer to portray a significant role in an American television show, as Taylor Mason in Billions. Dillon goes by the pronoun they/them. They have been nominated for several Critics’ Choice Television Awards and co-starred in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. As non-binary actors, their presence in film and television has helped open our eyes.  More.

  • Angela Robertson

    Angela Robertson is an activist working with black, women’s and LGBTQ communities. She is widely respected and recognized for implementing life-transforming programs for women in Toronto. Angela is currently Executive Director of Queen West – Central Toronto Community Health Centre. She was previously Director of Equity & Community Development at Women’s College Hospital and Executive Director of Sistering – A Woman’s Place which is an organization that offers practical and emotional support to homeless, under-housed and low-income women in the city. Source.

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ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT

Learn more about just a few LGBTQIA+ non-profit groups and organizations that work to combat racial, gender, and sexuality-based injustice and violence.

  • The Human Rights Campaign

    The Human Rights Campaign is a national organization working towards equality for LGBTQ Americans. Founded by Steve Endean in 1980 as The Human Rights Campaign Fund with the intent to provide financial support for political candidates who supported LGBTQ rights, the organization quickly evolved and is now that largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the U.S., providing support and awareness for and on behalf of the LGBTQ community.

  • SNaPCo

    SNaPCo builds power of Black trans and queer people to force systemic divestment from the prison industrial complex and invest in community support. A donation will help fund programs — like a 16-week internship program to create effective leaders to end the crisis of mass criminalization — support trans people that are in need, and bolster a SNAP4FREEDOM school that helps educate collaborators on how they can turn words into action.

  • GLSEN

    GLSEN was founded in 1990 by a group of teachers in Massachusetts who wanted to improve the bullying and discrimination problem against LGBTQ students in schools from grades K-12. Since then, GLSEN has worked on important legislation like the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which requires any K-12 grade school to employ anti-bullying policies with specific protection for those bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

  • GLAAD

    Originally founded in 1985 to protest the inflammatory coverage of the AIDS epidemic, GLAAD is now the leading source for fair representation of the LGBTQIA+ community in the media. From coverage of significant events to accurate depictions of queer stories in film and television, GLAAD is there to enforce visibility and accountability.

  • National Center for Transgender Equality

    The National Center for Transgender Equality was founded in 2003 and has since made it their mission to advocate and push for policy change that protects the freedom and liberties of transgender Americans.

  • The Trevor Project

    Named after the 1998 Academy Award-winning short film, The Trevor Project was the first national crisis and suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ teens and young adults. Since its inception, it’s helped thousands of struggling LGBTQ youths through their various services — Trevor Lifeline, which is accessible via phone call or text; TrevorChat (available on their site), a social network for LGBTQ youth 25 and younger, and their support center.

  • Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders

    With LGBTQ protection laws being what they are, the limitations of an unpredictable future is most threatening to aging LGBTQ folks. Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders, or SAGE, is the oldest organization in the United States specifically dedicated to advocating for the lives of our LGBTQ elders. Since 1978, The New York City-based group has been a source of information on health and legal centers, as well as benefits and programs aimed for the betterment of the lives of the elderly.