Origins of pride

We as gay people all now of Pride and Mardi Gras, its a time for us to celebrate the fact that we are gay and to generally have a good time. But this feeling of celebration was’nt always the case, the origins of many pride events began with marches sometimes ending with violence. To gain Gays recognition by their countries and thus legalise homosexuality and prevent persecution.
In the 1960s gay Americans began to protest for equal rights. Gays in the United States had long endured discrimination in many areas of their lives, including employment and housing. This is said to have led to the events that may have created pride events as we know them. Around 1969. A police raid on the stonewall inn (New York, USA) apparently caused distraught among the gay community, after several years of police harassment ,its no surprise really. The are several explanations as to what happened next, some say a drag queen threw a punch at a police officer for prodding her, others say a lesbian encouraged the crown to put up a struggle. But what ever way it started the crowd and onlookers decided they had had enough and began to fight the police conducting the raid. The police called for backup and riot police arrived but all this did was attract a bigger crowd that had turned into a nasty mob. At this point it is said that rocks were thrown at the crown and beatings were given to effeminate males. But apparently this did’nt stop the crowd and led to days of violence and a crowd of over 1000 people gathering and participating. This was known as the stonewall riot. Soon support grew for the gay community and a movement that became known as stonewall was formed to fight for equal rights for gay people. A year on a march was held to commemorate the riots and this is were it has been suggested that our prides and Mardi Gras came from. The actions of gay people in New York was said to have been the starting gun for gay people suffering world wide and led to movements, parades and such merging and working together for equal rights after all its easier in numbers. Now I am not saying this is the definitive view of how prides started, every pride has more to it for instance the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney started from a small demonstration in 1978, when 1,000 people marched in support of Gay Solidarity Day and other prides are more recent and are created to encourage tolerance and equality within communities.
But however they were started they are here and have helped to promote equality and fair treatment for gay people. And when I am at a pride event not only am I having a great time with my husband I am celebrating our freedom at that event and the work of others who helped to make our lives easier.