Dateline: May 20-26, 2023, Puerto Vallarta
By Clinton Harris Chair DACB 2024
It is time again for Gay Pride in Puerto Vallarta. This is a time of celebration for LGBTQ+ and our allies and for people who honor diversity, equity, and inclusion! Your local chapter of Democrats Abroad (Costa Banderas) joins in our celebration of Gay Pride for 2024.
While now global, the origins of Gay Pride follow the evolution from a very specific “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” moment in US history where a severely oppressed minority fought back. When the patrons and staff of the New York City gay bar called the Stonewall Inn resisted a common enough police raid very early in the morning of June 28, 1969, they sparked a turning point in the gay rights movement and US politics.
“The turning point came when the police had difficulty keeping a dyke in a patrol car. Three times she slid out and tried to walk away. The last time a cop bodily heaved her in. The crowd shrieked, “Police brutality!” “Pigs!” A few coins sailed through the air…escalated to nickels and quarters. A bottle. Another bottle. [NYPD Deputy Inspector Seymour] Pine says, “Let’s get inside. Lock ourselves inside, it’s safer.”
Full Moon Over the Stonewall, by Howard Smith. The Village Voice, (v.XIV) July 3, 1969
While the police and those they detained were barricaded inside the bar, the crowd grew larger outside. The upper hand had shifted to the crowd until it dispersed several hours later around 4:00 AM. But it wasn’t over! Thousands gathered around the Stonewall again that evening. The crowds returned to protest daily into the next week. But even after that, it wasn’t over because the resistance and the protests weren’t just about this raid of a Greenwich Village gay bar. This uprising was about the sustained oppression and abuse sanctioned and perpetrated by our own government. In 1969, homosexuality was a criminal offense and also considered a mental illness. Indeed, arrests and even publishing of the names of detainees in reports ended careers and destroyed families. Some institutions used castrations, electrical shock therapies, and even lobotomies to “treat” homosexuality as well as involuntary confinement in mental institutions.
One year later on the anniversary of the Stonewall, the first “Gay Pride Liberation March” (aka “Christopher Street Liberation Day March”) took place in New York City. There also were Gay Pride marches in Los Angeles that day and Chicago the day before. Many of the organizations that planned those marches had existed before the Stonewall raid. They could not let this moment of clarity- who we are and that we deserved a lot better- pass into obscurity. Through these Gay Pride events, they helped channel the anger and frustration of oppression into actions- to demand legal reforms, to pressure politicians and businesses, and to register LGBTQ voters. Organizers chose the name “pride” because it is the opposite of shame. It has become a beacon!
The Gay Pride movement quickly found its political home in the Democratic Party. The Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club of San Francisco became the first registered LGBT Democratic club in the nation in 1971. In 1975, the Stonewall Democratic Club was established in Los Angeles. In 1983 the Democratic National Committee established a Gay and Lesbian Caucus. ''Human rights, and that includes gay rights, is no longer a debatable issue within the Democratic Party,'' said Ann Lewis, political director of the DNC at the time. The Democratic Party platform added marriage equality as a plank in 2012.
Yes, wave your rainbow flags high! Our iconic rainbow symbol was first introduced at San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day [Gay Pride] Parade on June 25, 1978. The artist/designer Gilbert Baker meant the colors to represent togetherness in the gay rights movement. Celebrate the 51 years anniversary of the American Psychiatric Association declassifying homosexuality as a mental illness in May 1973. Take pride in your hard-fought gains in equality under the law, which include marriage, medical access, and much more. Please also remember how we got here and recognize that our fight isn’t over!
We are in an extremely important election year. Our choices are clear and the consequences are ominous especially for LGBTQ+ communities. We invite you to get involved, to motivate others to get involved, and to vote up and down the ballot, as you are able. We also invite you to a screening of “Stonewall Uprising” documenting and celebrating our “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” moment that has led us to Gay Pride. We have one showing Tuesday 21, May from 2:00-3:45 PM upstairs at Nacho Daddy (Basilio Badillo #287) in the Zona Romantica. A suggested donation at the door will help offset costs, but this is not a fundraiser event.
Democrats Abroad is the official Democratic Party arm for the millions of Americans living outside the United States. We strive to provide American citizens living abroad with a Democratic voice in our U.S. government and we work to elect Democratic candidates by mobilizing the overseas vote. (www.democratsabroad.org)
