- [Narrator] For most of the 20th century,
LGBTQ people were forbidden from showing pride
in their sexuality.
They were forbidden from being who they are,
but they fought back against persecution,
police brutality, oppression.
This is the history of pride in the United States
in six minutes.
Okay, go.
Throughout most of the 20th century,
activities associated with being anything but heterosexual
and gender conforming were
against the law.
As an increasingly visible gay culture began to grow,
so did police raids of gay spaces.
Police force was used to suppress the acceptance of
the queer and trans community
and enforce a conservative agenda.
Dating back to the early 1900s,
violent raids spread across America,
especially in cities like New York, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles.
A popular location to target were bars and bathhouses
where gay people gathered.
Over time, hundreds of people were arrested and beaten
just for existing within these spaces since activities
associated with queerness were criminalized.
In the 1930s, in what is now Miami-Dade County,
a venue not unlike the spaces we have the freedom to create
and occupy today existed.
La Paloma nightclub was a space
for burlesque-like performances by both women
and female impersonators,
as well as a space for effeminate male performers.
Some of the staff and patrons were queer and or
gender non-conforming folks.
One of the club's visitors described it as,
"A scene for homosexuals in evening gowns
"and trousered lesbians, as well as sex workers."
On a November night in 1937,
a group of nearly 200 men and women associated with the KKK
stormed the nightclub violently attacking the people inside
while dressed in their long white-hooded robes
and burning their fiery cross.
Later, local law enforcement conducted their own raid
of La Paloma.
Given the time period, it's likely that the same authorities
who raided as police had already attacked
while their identities were concealed with the KKK.
Despite the violent, vigilantian police raids
La Paloma reopened with new programing
that the manager describes as,
"Spicier entertainment than ever."
And that's just one example of the dozens,
maybe hundreds of violent incidents
that targeted the LGBTQ community for decades
leading up to 1969.
So what made the Stonewall Riots of 1969
such an iconic turning point for gay liberation?
Well, in the 1960s, the West Village in New York City
became somewhat of a gathering place for gay people
and home to many underground gay venues.
The Stonewall Inn was particularly known
for bring a place where trans people, drag queens,
and homeless queer youth could gather safely.
It was considered a safe space not only by the nature
of being for queer people,
but also because it gave young, homeless queer individuals
a place off the streets to be.
In the days leading up to the riots,
tension between the NYPD and the community was building.
A few days prior, police raided Stonewall,
harassing the patrons.
Their goal was to shut the inn down.
The LGBTQ community was growing tired of the brutality
and oppression they were facing for simply existing.
In the early hours of June 28th, 1969,
police raided the Stonewall Inn again,
leading to the arrest of 13 patrons.
As the patrons were being removed from the venue,
a crowd gathered questioning the police's authority,
resulting in violent conflict.
Many note a lesbian as one of the first people to fight back
against the police that night,
with some believing her to be Storme DeLarverie.
DeLarverie, a biracial butch lesbian,
became known to be something of a guardian to lesbians
in the city.
Other prominent figures in the uprising were
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
Rivera was a Latina trans activist
who was just 17 at the time.
Marsha P. Johnson was an iconic figure
in the NYC trans community and the Stonewall Riots.
That night in 1969 was followed by six days
of conflict and protest against the NYPD.
By the following night, the news of the riots spread quickly
across the city and a group of about 2,000 protestors
began to gather.
What occurred was a direct confrontation between
the police and protestors.
The cops used fire hoses and threatened gun violence
while the crowd chanted and sang for liberation.
Further acts of defiance involved the crowd holding hands
and engaging in other displays of affection boldly,
as these could've been considered criminal activities
at the time.
Overall, 21 people were arrested during the riot.
Within several weeks,
the New York Mattachine Society,
one of the earliest LGBT organizations in the United States,
led a gay power march throughout the city,
drawing a crowd of hundreds.
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera went on to founds STAR,
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries,
and organization that served to aid homeless
and runaway trans youths,
as well as other LGBTQ individuals.
They also rallied against racism, sexual violence,
and transphobia.
A year after the Stonewall Riots, on June 28th, 1970,
the first Pride parade was held.
The first march gave the community a chance to memorialize
the uprisings that had occurred on Christopher street
the year before.
It's reported that the march started
with just a few hundred people in downtown New York
but swelled in size as it made its way uptown
towards Central Park.
Displaying gay pride at this time was still a bold act,
and it's said that at the beginning of the march,
many were worried about their safety so they moved swiftly
through the streets.
Today, Pride celebrates the strides the community has made
since that first public display of gay pride in 1970.
We march in June to honor those who came before us
and took to the streets demonstrating against centuries
of abuse, government hostility, and discriminatory laws.
(sweeping instrumental music)