The true meaning behind Pride Month, and really the point of the Pride movement, has unfortunately been forgotten by many people due to the politicalization of sexuality and identity. The meaning of Pride is and always will be the fight to exist.

Following the end of World War II, many people in the United States felt a fever to return to the prewar social order, and to stymie the tides of change that were sweeping across the nation. Most Americans would know the story of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and his push to weed out those he deemed “Unamerican” from this new growing society, in what would be called the “Second Red Scare.” What many people do not know, or intentionally sweep under the rug, is that the LGBTQ+ population was included in this list of “unamerican” individuals. Throughout the majority of the 1950s and 1960s, the FBI and police departments kept lists of known homosexuals and the bars they frequented. The US Post Office would keep track of addresses where known homosexuals and lesbians lived, and any bars that catered to or supported the LGBTQ+ community were shut down or outright banned. Cities performed “sweeps” to rid neighborhoods, parks, bars and beaches of gay people. They outlawed the wearing of opposite-gender clothes and universities expelled instructors suspected of being homosexual.

The Stonewall riots changed this narrative, and showed the government and those that would keep the LGBTQ+ population banned from the rest of society that enough was enough. There’s a proudly held statement within the LGBTQ+ community: “The first Pride was a riot.” It was the first pushback against the forces that would keep people down for who they loved, or how they identified.

Pride is not “shoving beliefs down people’s throats.” Pride is the generation-spanning, eternal spirit of those at Stonewall who finally stood up and said enough was enough.

Boston Colton

Baker City