On the one-year anniversary of the riot, several demonstrators marched past the Stonewall, marking the first Pride Parade. The police became outnumbered and scared, eventually barricading themselves inside the bar.Īnd for five more days, protests erupted in the city, sometimes including thousands of people. Within minutes, hundreds of people were resisting the police violence. They stood by, becoming increasingly agitated at the escalating police brutality. However, during a police raid on June 28, 1969, people at the Stonewall didn’t just sit back and wait to get arrested. Homosexuality was illegal, and bars and clubs were often the only places LGBTQ individuals could express themselves. Patrons of a New York City bar, The Stonewall Inn, were routinely harassed by the police, subjected to degrading strip searches, and consistently at the mercy of police raids. The event often considered the spark of the gay rights movement was the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. Even though Pride is often viewed as a party or parade, its origins stem from a refusal to accept the police violence plaguing the LGBTQ community.
