Pride Month Celebrations in June

June is celebrated as Pride Month as a nod to an event that happened on June 28 1969 at a bar called Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. The bar became the site of a clash between patrons and the police. Police raided the Stonewall Inn, claiming the property had violated liquor laws and as police officers began making arrests the patrons waiting outside didn’t clear and scatter. They heckled the police, threw bottles at them, and made their anger loud and clear. The police, who weren’t used to this kind of behavior, asked for reinforcements to barricade themselves inside the bar while around 400 people rioted outside. The barricade was breached, the bar was set on fire, and all in all the riots went on, stopping and starting, for several more days.

One year after Stonewall, the first Pride march in New York City took place on June 28, 1970. It began on Washington Place and traveled along Sixth Avenue before ending with a “Gay-In” in Central Park. The main goal was visibility: for a community that had been pushed to the margins of society, being out and proud was a revolutionary act. It was a huge success, drawing over 5,000 attendees, five times more than the organizers expected. And a new tradition was born, one that would last through the decades. Concurrent marches commemorated Stonewall in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago (which actually beat NYC to the punch by one day).

Flippysox celebrates inclusiveness!