Pride is a protest: Stonewall riots ignited revolution in 1970s New York

“Out of the closets and into the streets!” 

These words were among the slogans chanted at the world’s first Pride march on June 28, 1970, in New York’s Greenwich village. Organizers called it Christopher Street Libertarian Day. On that day the prior year, the police raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street as they had done many times. They arrived as usual to rough up the patrons, to scare them and to enforce the anti-LGBT laws of the time (including bans on same-sex intimacy and cross-dressing). 

But this time was different — this time, the police had finally pushed too far — and the queers of Greenwich Village were not gonna take it anymore. Legend has it that transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson started the riots by defiantly throwing her shot glass at the mirror over the bar, shattering it, and declaring, “I got my civil rights!” Others say the action started on the street where Marsha either picked up a brick and threw it at a cop car or threw a Molotov cocktail into the tavern. Marsha said she didn’t arrive at Stonewall until 2am when the riots were already well under way. “The place was already on fire,” she later said in an interview. 

Whatever the true events that fateful night, the myth that “Marsha threw the first brick at Stonewall” stands for how the riots galvanized the Gay Rights movement into a full-tilt revolution. More than half the patrons of Stonewall were Racialized minorities and transgender. Many were homeless children whose families disowned them. They didn’t know they were starting a rebellion — they were poor, ostracized, and had nothing to lose. 

A crowd of 400 fought back against the police and threw coins, bottles, and debris at them, forcing the police to barricade themselves in the bar. Eventually, police reinforcements broke up the crowd, but still the riots continued in fits and bursts for the next five days.

At the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, queer activists held the first annual Pride parade, then dubbed the Christopher Street Liberation Day March. There had been other Gay demonstrations, but none came close to the scale of this march. The route began on Washington Place in Greenwich Village with just a few hundred anxious souls, but as they moved north up Sixth Avenue, hundreds then thousands of onlookers became inspired to join. By the time they reached Central Park for the Pride festival, an estimated 20,000 people had taken up the march. 

Pride is a protest. It always was. We protest injustice, and at the same time we celebrate and give each other the courage to live out loud without fear or shame. The year is now 2026 and Pride still matters. Our trans friends are more visible than ever but with that visibility has come a backlash targeting their right to exist, to use public restrooms, take part on sports teams and use their preferred pronouns. It is disgraceful to see a fragment of the queer community join this backlash in pushing for a community of ‘LGB without the T’. Transgender people have always been here and will always be here. They were there at the very beginning at Stonewall, fighting for their lives so that you can enjoy the freedoms you have today. We will not abandon them.

Pride Halton stands for a united front of all 2SLGBTQIA+ people and allies. This Pride Season, we advocate especially for two-spirit, transgender, and intersex people. We condemn the rise of Anti-Trans laws and discrimination against Trans people in the United States, Canada, and around the world. To our Trans friends: you are beautiful and valued, and you matter.

Thank you for reading. If you made it this far, please join us next month on Sunday, July 19th for our annual Pride Parade in Milton starting on Main Street at 2pm. Stay for the Pride in the Park festival at 3pm in The Fairgrounds. Pride Halton welcomes everyone to join the march and enjoy this free, family-friendly event.