Why is Pride Week at the End of June?

The following is an article sent to me by a friend of mine which gives some important background to why June - and particiularly the end of June - is when most Pride events take place. It’s important to know the history of such occasions, and to remember such atrocities so we can hopefuly prevent them in the future.
~Chris


Statement of Solidarity on the Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion
by Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone Convener, Queer Commission of the SPUSA http://www.sp-usa.org/

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided a Greenwich Village bar: The Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn, a gay and lesbian neighborhood bar with a large number of African American and Latino patrons, was also well-known as a safe space for those who did not conform to gendernorms: butch lesbians, effeminate gay men, and transsexual and transgendered persons before the terms were in popular use. All of these factors brought the police to Stonewall in 1969 for the purpose of illegally raiding the bar, and arresting its occupantsan action not unknown in New York in the 1960s. On that fateful day, however, the Stonewall’s patrons had enough. Nobody knows who threw the first bottle that day. It may have been Sylvia Rivera, a transgendered activist and later a founding mother of political movements on behalf of transgendered and transsexual Americans. It may have been a still unidentified butch lesbian arrested in the bar. Over 2000 GLBTQ Americans clashed with 400 police officers on June 28. Arrests and beatings were concentrated among Stonewall’s African American, Latino, butch and trans patrons. What ensued was known in the New York press and among the police as the Stonewall riots. For gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual and queer Americans, and later the world, that fateful day marked the beginning of the Stonewall Rebellion. With shouts of “Gay Power,” the rebellion that lasted five days in New York began to spread across the country. Gay, lesbian, trans and other queer Americans took to the streets to protest their continued oppression, objectification, and criminalization. This singular event, the Stonewall Rebellion, marked the beginning of the modern GLBTQ liberation movement, and brought GLBTQ political and social struggles out of the closets on onto American streets. Using this date as the flashpoint, cities across America and around the world continue to celebrate the last week of June as Pride Weekend, a weekend where we remember the Rebellion, organize to continue the fight for queer liberation, and celebrate our culture, community, families and history. Today, the struggle for queer liberation continues. GLBTQ persons in the United States are still denied over 1,000 Federal rights guaranteed to heterosexuals. GLBTQ Americans continue to live daily with violence, both verbal and physical, and this violence continues to escalate despite years of work to pass poorly enforced hate crimes legislation. In August 2006, in Greenwich Village not far from the famous Stonewall Inn, four African American lesbian women were verbally and physically attacked on the street. These women were convicted of assault on their assailant, a man who ripped the hair from the women’s scalps and threw lit cigarettes at them. For defending themselves, these four young women have received sentences ranging from 4 years to 11 years. Fred Phelps, the ultra-conservative religious leader from Topeka, Kansas, continues to protest at the funerals of GLBTQ Americans, harassing their families and claiming that their deaths were deserved punishments. Police across the country continue to raid bars and sweep streets after parades. Thousands of young GLBTQ people are homeless, left to live on the street because their own families could not accept them. This summer, in solidarity with GLBTQ people across the country, remember Stonewall and continue its legacy by working for queer liberation. Recognize the capitalist roots of oppression based on gender and sexuality, refuse to force others to conform to heteronormativity, resist and call attention to homophobia in all its forms, and join the Socialist Party and its commissions in the continued struggle for a just world for everyone.