Soon after April showers brought May flowers, the month of June brings us all rainbows! 🌈
Although most people know that the rainbow flying alongside the Canadian flag represents the LGBT community, most don't know why, when, and how the heck rainbows, gays, and June all came together to form the Pride Month we all know and love today! ✊🏻
Pride is not and was never just a party, the first pride was a riot. 💥
On June 28th 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn and arrested 13 transgender and gender nonconforming individuals who seemed to violate state cross-dressing laws. 👮🏼♀️
The gays of Greenwich village were not going to let the incident at Stonewall be known as a helpless police raid. Instead, the gays fought back against police brutality and discrimination by marching and protesting in the streets.
On the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, hundreds of people gathered on Christoper Street in Greenwich village to commemorate the moment of pride shared by LGBT individuals and allies alike. 🤝
Each and every year on the Stonewall anniversary, the crowds multiplied until it was no longer just a local tradition, but a worldwide event that encouraged LGBT people and allies to come together to celebrate gay pride annually.
Given the growing visible pride of the LGBT community, Harvey Milke (one of the first elected US officials) urged the artist Gilbert Baker to create a symbol of pride for the LGBT community in 1978. Just as states fly flags to represent national pride, Baker decided to do the same for the gay community. Baker created a flag which used colours to represent the natural values of the community: hot pink for sexuality💖, red for life❤️, orange for healing🧡, yellow for sunlight💛, green for nature💚, turquoise for art💙, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit💜.
This beautiful commemoration of Stonewall and gay visibility has morphed into the Pride weekend we all celebrate today. The pride parades that block city traffic and the rainbows we see stamped on everythint, everywhere is apart of a movement much greater than most realize.
Pride is not just an excuse to dress in rainbow from head to toe, party on the streets, and mingle with some hotties; its a party with a purpose!🥳 Pride is a celebration of the long history of discrimination against sexual and gender; and it is something everyone should celebrate at least once in their lifetime.🎉
- Alexa (Co-Founder) ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
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