The Second World War had many societal repercussions for people in the United States. Reeling from the financial consequences of waging a war that spanned years, many Americans had this collective desire for the social order to go back to the way things were before the war. There were numerous issues fuelling this train of thought. One of them was the repeal of Prohibition in the United States. Prohibition, at the time when it was instituted, was a controversial topic of discussion. There were people on both sides of the argument. However, after it was repealed in 1933, a study in the late 1930s found that two-fifths of the American population wanted it reinstated. There is a reason we just explained all of this. And it is incredibly relevant to why exactly Pride Month is held in June in the United States.
As mentioned earlier, there was this growing consensus that America needed to go back to the way it was before the war. That feeling only strengthened over the decades. The prohibition era, meanwhile, led to the establishment of multiple speakeasies and impromptu establishments that sold alcohol. These illegal establishments didn’t just vanish overnight after Prohibition was repealed. No. They continued their operations well into the 60s and even further. A general perception amongst the American population was that these establishments endangered the socio-cultural thread of the American way of life. Essentially, these establishments were representations of everything that the United States, at the time, hoped to avoid.
Historically, the prohibition era did nothing but push the sale of alcohol and its consumption to be an underground activity, something that was not quite natural. Naturally, alcohol flourished amongst the LGBTQIA+community, who were already marginalized and forced to do everything in a manner that didn’t offend the American sensibility. Decades after the repeal of Prohibition, there was this tendency to lump the consumption of alcohol, the practice of ‘unnatural activities’ and the idea of ‘non-conformity’ all together. By the early 1960s, a campaign to rid New York City of gay bars was in full effect by order of the Mayor at the time. And, that exactly is what led to the Stonewall Uprising in June of 1969.
If you are familiar with your history, you would know that the Stonewall Uprising came about as a result of the police raiding the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of Manhattan. The raid on Stonewall Inn, which was over the sale of liquor without a license, led to the police assaulting the patrons of the bar, who were all members of the LGBTQIA+ community. What followed was an explosive rage from the by-standers and the onlookers, a result of the decades’ worth of social and legal repression. The Stonewall Uprising lasted for five days. In the wake of the riots, the LGBTQIA+ community came together like never before, holding protests and rallies to fight back against the decades of harassment that the community had to face.
Two of the most notable figures during this period of time were Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two trans-women who not only organized rallies for gay rights but also formed housing resources for the city’s at-risk LGBTQIA+ youth. Johnson, in fact, has been credited as the first person to cast a brick at the Stonewall Inn during the riots. The validity of that statement is up for debate due to the existence of different accounts, one, even, on the part of Johnson. What is not up for debate, however, is the tremendous impact that Johnson and Rivera had on the movement. The months following the Stonewall Uprising, however, saw a change in the dynamics. Johnson and Rivera were slowly pushed out from the forefront of the leadership of the movement, their voices silenced by other members of the LGBTQIA+ community, mostly gay white men. The reason, ironic as it may seem, was the fact that Johnson and Rivera were trans-women and that sole factor, seemingly, detracted from the validity of the movement. Fifty years from the Stonewall Uprising, Johnson and Rivera are finally getting a statue dedicated to their efforts in New York. That, at least, acknowledges their considerable efforts for the movement. Whether it completely realises the scope of it is still, however, up for discussion.
A year after the Stonewall Uprising, the idea for a march, on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, was proposed by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee. After some deliberation, it was decided that the theme for the march would be ‘gay pride’. What started off with a few hundred people ended up being thousands of people by the time the march ended in Central Park. Thousands had joined along the way as a gesture of solidarity and pride. Consequently, ‘Gay Pride’ came to be celebrated, in the United States, on the last Sunday of June. Over time, the day grew to be a month-long celebration.
India has had its own history of Pride Marches. The first Pride Parade in India was held on 2nd July, 1999, in Kolkata. Dubbed the ‘Rainbow Pride Walk’ and seeing participation exclusively from men, it was the first Pride March in South-East Asia. For a time, Kolkata was the only city in India to host Pride Marches. Over time, other cities soon followed suit. Bengaluru in 2008, Guwahati in 2014, amongst others. Interestingly, different cities in India hold their pride marches at different times of year. Delhi and Bengaluru, for example, hold it on the last Sunday of November and December, respectively.
With the oncoming festivities of this year’s Pride Month, it is crucial that we recognize the weight behind the movement. It would be incredibly sad if we just reduce the work, borne over the decades, to mere filters on social media. It is crucial that this Pride Month, you take the time to not only share in the joy but also in the considerable amount of work left for us, as a collective, to do.
