Pride Month: The History of Pride
Early Roots (Early 1900s–1960s)
The roots of the gay rights movement go back to the early 1900s, when a handful of individuals in North America and Europe created gay and lesbian organizations such as the Society for Human Rights, founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago in the 1920s. In the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, homophile organizations such as the Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society coordinated some of the earliest demonstrations of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, carrying out pickets called “Annual Reminders” at Independence Hall in Philadelphia each July 4, beginning in 1965.
The Word “Pride”
Years before the Stonewall Uprising, the concept of gay pride was starting to emerge. There was even a group in Los Angeles founded in 1966 that used P.R.I.D.E. as its acronym — it stood for Personal Rights In Defense and Education. The terms “gay pride” and “gay power” were also influenced by the civil rights movement’s language of “Black pride” and “Black power.” Pride was seen as a powerful counter-narrative — “a really good way to say ‘no, we’re not sinful. We’re not diseased. We’re not negative. We’re not bad.'”
The First Pride March (1970)
Five months after Stonewall, during a conference in Philadelphia, activists Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Brody, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. The Christopher Street Liberation Day Umbrella Committee was formed, and committee member L. Craig Schoonmaker came up with the slogan “Pride” — reasoning that where people may not have equal rights or power, they always have pride in their identity.
The first Gay Pride Parade was held in New York City on June 28, 1970. Smaller marches also took place that day in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. By all estimates, there were three to five thousand marchers at the inaugural event in New York City — today that number is in the millions.
The Rainbow Flag (1978)
Harvey Milk commissioned Gilbert Baker, an artist, Vietnam War veteran, and drag performer, to create a flag for San Francisco’s annual pride parade. The flag debuted at the Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. The first version featured eight colors: pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for harmony, and purple for spirit. After Harvey Milk’s assassination in 1978, demand surged, but due to manufacturing limitations the pink and turquoise stripes were removed, leaving the six-stripe flag still used today.
Pride Today
Today, Gay Pride parades in many cities are enormous celebrations — events in São Paulo, Sydney, New York City, Madrid, Taipei, and Toronto routinely attract up to 5 million attendees. Pride Month has since grown into a global celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and identity. In Canada, Pride Month is celebrated in June as part of the Pride Season, which runs from June to September.
In short: Pride began as an act of resistance, grew into a movement, and has become both a global celebration and an ongoing call for equal rights.
