LGBT PEOPLE ON THE OREGON COAST

Check back in a few weeks to learn more about LGBT people and allies on the Central Oregon Coast, including tales from Beulah’s.

history of gay PRIDE

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is celebrated each year in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The Stonewall riots were a tipping point for the Gay Rights Movement in the United States.

In the late 1960s, the American Psychiatric Association still classified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and gay men and lesbian women received almost universal moral condemnation from mainstream religions. The act of homosexual sex, even in private homes, was punishable by a light fine, 20 years in prison, or even a life sentence. Homosexuality was illegal in every state but Illinois.

Private businesses and gay establishments were regularly raided and shut down, with patrons being roughed-up and arrested. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 in New York City, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village. That night, however, the street erupted into violent protests and demonstrations that lasted for the next six days.

The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights. In the wake of the riots, intense discussions about civil rights were held among LGBT people, which led to the formation of various advocacy groups such as the short-lived Gay Liberation Front, which was the first group to use the word “gay” in its name, and a New York newspaper called Gay.

On the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in 1970, the first gay pride parades in U.S. history took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. By the next year, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States.

Last year’s landmark Supreme Court decision guaranteeing marriage equality in all 50 States was a historic victory for LGBT Americans, ensuring dignity for same-sex couples and greater equality across State lines. For every partnership that was not previously recognized under the law and for every American who was denied their basic civil rights, this monumental ruling instilled newfound hope, affirming the belief that we are all more free when we are treated as equals.
~ Barack Obama, May 31, 2016