Each year in the month of June, we celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride. Pride Month is held in June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising of June 1969, which is often considered the origin of the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights. Police raids of bars catering to gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender noncomforming clientele were frequent at the time, and usually met with little outright resistance. But when police raided the Stonewall Inn in the early hours of June 28, 1969, the community fought back. For the next several nights, crowds returned to the Stonewall Inn to "Liberate Christopher Street," to publicly and proudly proclaim LGBTQ+ identity, and to continue the confrontation with the police. One year later, the first ever Gay Pride Parade commemorated the uprising and celebrated the activist movements it had inspired.
You can read an excellent summary of the Stonewall Uprising and aftermath in Polly Thistlethwaite's "Stonewall" entry in the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Culture, Society, and History, edited by Fedwa Malti-Douglas. Or, for a more thorough look at the history and legacy of Stonewall, try Tristan Poehlmann's The Stonewall Riots: the Fight for LGBT Rights or The Stonewall Reader, an anthology of primary sources compiled by the New York Public Library.
Pride Month is an opportunity to remember queer history and to celebrate the beauty, joy, and resilience of our LGBTQ+ community. It is a reminder that although we are vulnerable alone, we are strong when we're together. It is a reminder of how powerful we can be when we claim the space to be who we are, fully. It's also a really good time to have a dance party.
This guide is designed to help you learn more about LGBTQ+ history, identity, and representation, and discover art and literature that portrays, examines, and celebrates queer experiences. Happy reading!
