By Mike Ott
Why do we celebrate Pride Month in June? Why is Pride marked by a parade? Why do we so often hear about Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and other LGBTQ2S+ heroes this time of year? These are common questions that many have, and they all reach back to the same root answer: the Stonewall Riots.
In June of 1969, an event took place that is considered by many to be the igniting spark of the modern queer rights movement.
Here’s what happened: In the very early hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village institution on Christopher Street that served as a popular gathering place for queer people. Finally having had enough, patrons and other community members fought back, resisting police aggression and violence.
This resistance effort, now known as the Stonewall Riots, extended into the following days and nights, eventually culminating in the formation of several activist groups fighting for the right to live openly and legally regardless of sexual orientation.
One year later, in 1970, members of the queer communities in New York and several other cities marched to show their pride, which established the month of June — as an anniversary marking the Stonewall Riots — as a time to celebrate Pride and recognize the fights of those who came before us.
Now, every year, we mark the Stonewall Riots with a parade, known as the Pride Parade in Toronto and many other places. While not every city celebrates its Pride in June, many do, as a commemoration of what took place in 1969 and as a time to fight for the work that still needs to be done in Toronto and around the world.
While the Stonewall Riots were, of course, not the beginning of the queer rights movement, they did mark a very important “last straw,” as it were, for many members of the community. Before 1969, being gay or trans was illegal, persecuted, or otherwise looked down upon by most establishments, cultural institutions, and people.
Around the mid-century, many activist groups began to form, working to end homophobic and transphobic laws, change minds, and move the community's legal and social status forward. Coinciding with the Civil Rights movement and anti-war movements of the 60s, queer people hoped to be recognized as full citizens and humans under the law, and places like Stonewall served as gathering places for these ideas and movements.
Many of the original queer heroes of this time defied gender and sexual expectations, living openly and proudly trans or in drag, challenging the notions of mainstream culture and society. Of course, the powers that be (including the police), were not inclined to allow people to show their pride and identity in this way, and began cracking down on gay bars and other queer spaces. In June 1969, they decided to target Stonewall Inn, shortly after 1am.
This time, though, they would be caught by surprise. The police quickly found they were facing a crowd of people who were not willing to comply with their homophobic, transphobic, and discriminatory actions. People refused to produce identification, resisted being brought to the bathroom to verify that their sex “matched” the way they dressed, and began to defend themselves against being sexually assaulted by police during "frisks," especially women.
As police grew more and more aggressive, a community of people who had finally had enough, fought back. The tension grew into violence, and the riots began. This is the time when bricks and stones were thrown, which is now common language, especially in meme culture. Marsha P. Johnson, often wrongly-attributed as having thrown the first brick, was one of the many members of the community who showed up after the riots began. She, along with friend Sylvia Rivera, went on to form the group S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) and helped co-found the Gay Liberation Front shortly after the riots, and these groups would be among many that helped push the community forward. Johnson and Rivera are but two of the many members of the community who took the momentum of the Riots and ran with it, helping to rapidly expand the social and legal status of the queer communities over the coming years.
A few hours after the Riots began, the area had quieted down somewhat, and the street had been cleared. However, as the day grew on, members of the community picked up where they left off, continuing the demonstrations and resistance the next night. Many people who were there have been quoted with words of praise for the queer community finally fighting back, having had enough, standing up for themselves, and the Stonewall invasion by police being the last straw.
The aftermath of the Riots saw the formation of several activist groups (like the Gay Liberation Front, S.T.A.R., and the Gay Activists Alliance) and national media attention to the struggles and activism of the queer community. One year later, the Riots were commemorated with what is often considered the first Pride Parade — the Christopher Street Liberation Day demonstration. Marches also took place in Chicago and LA, and a year later, they started up in London, Paris, Boston, Stockholm, West Berlin, Dallas, and Milwaukee. Over the next few years, these marches would begin in even more cities, including San Francisco, Miami, Buffalo, and many others.
Now, more than 50 years later, Pride is celebrated in cities, towns, and villages around the world, with many of them taking place in June as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots. Though the date of June 28, 1969, is by no means the beginning of the fight for queer rights, it does mark an important day in history that helped launch the community forward and bring our issues to the mainstream world. Today, we mark this day with Pride Parades, celebrations, calls to action, and recognition of the many that came before us.
Stonewall itself has been made into a National Historic Landmark, and Christopher Street remains an important gathering place for queer people from around New York and the rest of the world. Here in Toronto, we celebrate Pride in the Church-Wellesley Village, which, like Christopher Street, is a historic place where queer people have gathered and found homes in one another.
In February of 1981, Toronto faced its own version of the Stonewall Riots, called the Bathhouse Raids or Operation Soap. Police forcefully entered and abused clients of four bathhouses around the city (The Club, Richmond Street Health Emporium, The Barracks, and Roman II Health and Recreation Spa). It followed a similar event when the Mystique and Truxx bathhouse in Montreal was raided by police in 1977, leading to the province of Quebec being the first Canadian government to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Like Stonewall, these events should not be considered the beginning or end of the LGBTQ2S+ rights movement in Canada, but they did mark an important turning point when members of the community refused to take anything else from police.
These raids and moments of intense persecution and violence by police are dark moments in our history, but these days, it’s important we look back on them as catalysts for massive leaps forward in the recognition and acceptance of queer people.
Even though Toronto’s Pride Weekend (celebrated with the Trans March, Dyke Rally, and Pride Parade) falls on June 23, 24, and 25 this year, June 28 still marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and first Pride parades. As we continue to move forward, we remember those who came before us, many of whom continue to fight and help move our world into a better future for queer people. While it’s easy to forget that Pride is a riot, we must remember where we came from to help guide us forward.