Pride

Pride is both a political idea and a worldwide cultural tradition rooted in LGBTQ+ liberation history. As in Gay Pride, it emerged in the years after the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York as a deliberate answer to shame, insisting that LGBTQ+ people have nothing to hide or apologize for. The first marches in 1970 in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago were acts of open political defiance. Today Pride ranges from massive parades in major cities to small community gatherings in places where LGBTQ+ visibility is still hard won. It remains contested between celebration and protest, and between corporate sponsorship and grassroots activism, but its heart is the ongoing assertion of dignity, visibility, and belonging.