Please shop with us on Pride Day at The Book Keeper 2025! On this day we will be donating our profits to local 2SLGBTQIA+ organization, Queer and Questioning Sarnia.
On June 28, 1969, nine New York police officers stormed the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and began aggressively searching the bar’s patrons. They demanded identification and arrested anyone they suspected of being gay or dressed in a way that didn’t conform to mainstream society’s narrow understanding of gender.
The events that followed would spark the modern LGBTI rights movement, inspiring the first LGBTI Pride parade down Christopher Street.
In 1969, it was still illegal to be gay in most parts of the US. For many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, nights out at places like the Stonewall Inn were the only times where they could openly be themselves. The venue was known for its celebration of inclusion and also became a safe space for sex workers and the homeless.
Three women of colour, Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Stormé Delarvarie were pivotal in inspiring the other guests to rise up against the police.
The riots at the Stonewall Inn are an iconic demonstration of how a single decision, an instinctive reaction to injustice, can be the first step to igniting a movement that can change the course of history. (Amnesty.org)
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