International LGBT Pride Day Date in the current year: June 28, 2024

The Stonewall riots, also known as simply Stonewall, were a serious of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, that occurred on June 28, 1969.

The original Stonewall Inn was founded in 1930 as a speakeasy, operated as a restaurant from 1934 to 1966, and reopened as a gay bar in early 1967. At the time, homosexuality was treated as a mental disorder, same-sex sexual activity was criminalized in all states except for Illinois, and the Lavender Scare was still fresh in the public memory. So it is not surprising that gay bars were frequently raided by the police, looking for any excuse to arrest patrons.

New York state law in the 1960s did not allow bartenders to legally serve LGBT people, which means that the Stonewall Inn was not allowed obtain a liquor license and operated as a private club whose members were allowed to bring their own alcohol. This made the bar vulnerable to police raids; despite bribes paid by the owners, Stonewall was raided at least once a month, although bribes did help to ensure that the managers would be given advance notice of a raid.

The raid that resulted in the Stonewall riots occurred around 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 1969. This time, the bar employees had not been tipped off about the raid, and it caught them by surprise. The raid did not go as planned: male patrons refused to produce their identification, and those dressed as women refused to go with female officers to have their sex verified, as required by standard procedure.

A scuffle between a butch lesbian woman and a police officer was the spark that ignited the Stonewall riot. The crowd turned into a mob, and violence broke out. Ten NYPD officers barricaded themselves and several handcuffed patrons inside Stonewall while the crowd outside continued to riot until 4 a.m.

Tensions between NYPD and queer Greenwich Village residents erupted into more protests over the next few days. Angered by police harassment and discrimination, activists organized into groups and started campaigning for the establishment of safe places where gays and lesbians can be open about their sexual orientation. These riots paved the way for the LGBT+ rights movement.

On June 27 and 28, 1970, peaceful demonstrations were held in several American cities to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. These demonstrations are now regarded as the first pride marches. Sometime around the 1980s, people began to refer to the anniversary of the riots as International Pride Day.

In 1999, the whole month of June was designated as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month by US President Bill Clinton. Twelve years later, President Barack Obama officially expanded the Pride Month to include the entire LGBT+ community.