This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots, when police officers raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York. The incident set the modern gay rights movement into motion.
The rainbow pride flag was raised on the flagpole at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Monday. To honor June as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Pride Month, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the flag be raised and flown at the Capitol through July 1.
The governors office initially said this was the first time the flag has flown on the main flagpole but was corrected, and Newsom issued the following statement Wednesday:
“While this is the first time the LGBTQ Pride flag has been flown above the Capitol to commemorate June as LGBTQ pride month, I have learned that there were three hours in 1990 where the flag flew there previously.
“This piece of our states history deserves to be called out and recognized. News reports from the time tell of a group of activists and legislators who quietly orchestrated the flag to be flown to commemorate National Coming Out Day. It was an act of visibility and defiance.
“After a short time on display, Gov. Deukmejian was alerted to the flags existence and ordered it to come down, telling media it was mistakenly raised.”
A California creation[hhmc]
The rainbow pride flag was designed in San Francisco in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker. Baker said he was asked by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, to create a symbol for the gay community. The first versions of the flag were flown in the 1978 Gay Freedom Day parade in San Francisco.
Uprising in New York[hhmc]
The parade was inspired by the events that took place at New York Citys Stonewall Inn in 1969. The inn was owned by the Genovese family, a Mafia organization, and was an unlicensed dance club and bar. In the 1960s, police raids on gay bars in New York were frequent. Before the raid on the inn, several other gay clubs were shut down.
The Stonewall Inn was a gathering place with a young crowd, and when the police showed up in force to raid it in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, a mob started a riot. The clash with police included several thousand people at times and continued over six days.
The incident became well known and within months, several gay organizations and pro-gay newspapers were started. The next year, the first gay pride marches were held in New York to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Inn incident, with simultaneous marches in Los Angeles and Chicago.
In 2016, President Barack Obama wrote a proclamation that recognized the Stonewall Inn as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service and is considered significant because of its association with events thatRead More – Source
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