One year after the Stonewall riots, the first Pride Parade in the world was held in New York in remembrance. The riots took place in late June 1969 in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of New York when the Metropolitan Police raided the gay bar The Stonewall Inn. After years of harassment and violence by the police, those present decided to rise up and fight back.
Contrary to popular belief, it was low-income trans women of African and Latinx descent who started the riots, and they were mainly supported by feminine gay men and butch lesbians. The riots mark a turning point in LGBT history and sparked gay rights demonstrations around the world.
Pride in the Netherlands
Seven years after the Stonewall riots, the first large demonstration in the Netherlands was organised by the International Lesbian Alliance. This became an annual event that, since 1979, is called Roze Zaterdag and takes place in a different city each year. Unlike Roze Zaterdag, Amsterdam Pride — the name used for the event from 1996 to 2006 — did not originate as a demonstration or protest march.
Amsterdam Pride was a celebration organised by gay hospitality entrepreneurs united in GBA, intended to promote Amsterdam as a gay nightlife city and to celebrate the freedom and diversity of our city (values that remain embedded in our festival’s DNA). “It was a gift from the gay business owners to the city,” says GBA spokesperson Siep de Haan.
Many years later, emancipatory content was added to Pride and the festival grew from a one-day event into an internationally known LGBT festival that showcases the diversity of the LGBT community with sport, arts and culture, pink church services, events in various Amsterdam neighbourhoods and Lesbian, Senior and Trans Pride. Because of this development, Pride received the Bob Angelo Medal from COC in 2014.
View also try:Pride Amsterdam – From year to year.
Corporate Pride
Since the tragedy at the Love Parade in Duisburg (2010), security and crowd management costs have more than quadrupled while the number of shoulders to share those costs has more than halved. As a result, it is no longer possible to place all costs solely on LGBT entrepreneurs and still expect Pride to be a gift from them to the city.
At the same time we are in a phase where gay activism no longer needs to focus primarily on politics but rather on employers and sports federations. This often happens from within, and in recent years we have seen the results joining the boat parade: proud pink employee groups from multinationals. We are grateful to them not only because their broad shoulders help keep Pride possible, but especially because they contribute to the social norm that rejecting discrimination against LGBT people is normal.
