Opn: Why there is gay pri, not straight pri - The Utah Statman

Contents:

• I’M A GAY MAN. HERE’S WHY I DON’T CELEBRATE PRI MONTH
• GAY PRI
• OPN: WHY THERE IS GAY PRI, NOT STRAIGHT PRI

I’M A GAY MAN. HERE’S WHY I DON’T CELEBRATE PRI MONTH

The origal anizers chose this month to pay homage to the Stonewall uprisg June 1969 New York Cy, which helped spark the morn gay rights movement. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York’s Greenwich Village, and began hlg ctomers outsi. New York’s gay muny, fed up after years of harassment by thori, broke out neighborhood rts that went on for three days.

The uprisg beme a talyst for an emergg gay rights movement as anizatns such as the Gay Liberatn Front and the Gay Activists Alliance were formed, moled after the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement. In 1978, artist and signer Gilbert Baker was missned by San Francis cy supervisor Harvey Milk – one of the first openly gay elected officials the US – to make a flag for the cy’s upg Pri celebratns. Baker, a proment gay rights activist, gave a nod to the strip of the Amerin flag but drew spiratn om the rabow to reflect the many groups wh the gay muny.

”In March, some men will cry the need for an Internatnal Women’s Day, celebrated on the is Pri Month, a time to reflect on and celebrate lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer history.

GAY PRI

There is a level of social and systemic privilege not afford to many members of the LGBTQ muny North Ameri, and certaly many untri around the is herently polilPri has been celebrated every year June sce 1970 after the 1969 Stonewall rts New York, when police raid the Stonewall Canada, Toronto’s Pri was lnched siar fashn after protts epted when police raid four bathho Febary 1981 and arrted hundreds of gay motive has always been — and should rema — polil. The slg back of hard-earned rights and protectns of LGBTQ people, particularly transgenr people, is difficult to when straight people ask why there is a need for gay pri or wonr why there aren’t straight pri celebratns, feels a lot like they are sayg ntributns by LGBTQ people — a mory group that fac nstant adversy — are simply not worthy of regnn. Origs of Pri MonthThe roots of the gay rights movement go back to the early 1900s, when a handful of dividuals North Ameri and Europe created gay and lbian anizatns such as the the Society for Human Rights, found by Henry Gerber Chigo the 1920s.

Followg World War II, a small number of groups like the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis published gay- and lbian-posive newsletters and grew more vol mandg regnn for, and prottg discrimatn agast, gays and lbians. In 1966, for example, members of the Mattache Society held a “sip-” prott at Juli, a bar New York Cy, where they mand drks after announcg that they were gay, vlatn of lol laws agast servg alhol to gays and lbians. Dpe some progrs the postwar era, basic civil rights were largely nied to gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people—until one night June, 1969, when the gay rights movement took a fur step forward wh a seri of vlent rts New York Cy.

Stonewall RtsAs was mon practice many ci, the New York Police Department would ocsnally raid bars and rtrants where gays and lbians were known to gather. By the time the Stonewall Rts end on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went om beg a ge issue largely ignored by policians and the media to ont-page news Gay Pri ParaOne year later, durg the anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, activists New York Cy marched through the streets of Manhattan memoratn of the uprisg. The march, anized by the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) and the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Umbrella Commtee, was named the Christopher Street Liberatn Day time, that celebratn me to be simply known as the Gay Pri Para.

OPN: WHY THERE IS GAY PRI, NOT STRAIGHT PRI

Acrdg to activist Craig Schoonmaker, “I thored the word ‘pri’ for gay pri … [my] first thought was ‘Gay Power.