Dr. Marion Somers
The common symbols of pride include the rainbow flag and others, the lower case lambda, the pink triangle and the black triangle. The original gay pride flag had eight color bars. This flag was first displayed in 1978 at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. The term ”Gay Pride” originated with Thom Higgins, a gay rights activist in Minnesota (1969). Brenda Howard a bisexual activist is considered the “Mother of Pride” for establishing the first Pride march in New York City and originating the week long series of events around Pride Day and which morphed into the annual LGBT Pride celebrations which are held around the world in June. The goal is to continue to raise awareness, improve the attitudes of society and encourage inclusiveness. During the 1950s-1960s, there were repressive legal and social issues regarding the gay community. On Saturday, June 28, 1969 those in the gay community and the police rioted in what is called the Stonewall on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City. This became a turning point for the LBGT rights movement and organizing proceeded on a much larger scale. Many new activists consider the Stonewall uprising the birth of the Gay Liberation movement. In 2012 Google displayed some LGBT rainbow colored patterns and in 2017 included rainbow colored streets on the maps to display Gay Marches around the world. President Joe Biden declared June, LGBTQ PLUS Pride Month in 2021.For the first time in history an Arab Monarchy, diplomatic embassies in the United Arab Emirates supported the LGBTQ community by raising the rainbow flag to celebrate Pride Month in 2020 with the statement “Dignity and equality of all people.” On May 28,2010, President Barak Obama stated, “I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.”(Proclamation 8525)
