WHAT IS PRIDE?

OUR HERSTORY: WHERE WE STARTED

The year was 1969. Queer culture and the LGBTQIA+ community worldwide had been repressed, neglected, abused, and ignored up until that point in history. But on June 28th 1969 at The Stonewall Inn in NYC, around 1.20am, during a regular police raid of the venue, our community stood up, and said ENOUGH.

Marsha P Johnson, a black transgender gay rights activist, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina American gay liberation and transgender rights activist began a riot, throwing the first bricks in a protest against the police, and so began the Gay Rights Liberation movement.

The Stonewall Inn is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

PRIDE IN THE UK

Over the years, Pride has been organised by several organisations since the first official UK Gay Pride Rally which was held in London on 1 July 1972 (chosen as the nearest Saturday to the anniversary of the Stonewall riots of 1969) with approximately 2,000 participants. This was the first ever Pride event and rally to be seen in the U.K. The first marches took place in November 1970 with 150 men walking through Highbury Fields in North London. In 1981, the usual Pride march and rally was not held in London, decamping to Huddersfield instead as an act of solidarity with the Yorkshire gay community who claimed that West Yorkshire Police were harassing them by repeatedly raiding the Gemini Club, a leading nightclub in the North of England at the time.

PRIDE FLAGS

Did you know that each colour within the Intersex inclusive pride flag represents something?

FUN FACT - within the original pride flag pink was included, however was too expensive to print, so it was removed later on.

Check out what each colour represents in the traditional pride flag, along with various other pride flags here, representing various sexual orientations, gender and biological identities, and subcultures.

LGBTQIA+ ACRONYM DEFINITIONS

Every wondered what each letter stands for within the LGBTQIA+ acronym, well, now is your chance to find out!