Pride month is officially celebrated every June in many countries as a global tribute to the LGBTQ+ community. For decades, queer individuals faced pressure to hide who they were; in response, the word “Pride” was intentionally chosen as the opposite of this forced shame, serving as a powerful symbol of defiance and reclaiming the right to exist openly. At its core, the annual observance commemorates the June 28, 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City that became a historical catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Occurring on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the country’s first Pride marches attracted thousands of participants and took place in cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. A key activist in the New York City event known as the Christopher Street Liberation March of 1970 was Brenda Howard, an openly bisexual activist. Howard is recognized by some as “the Mother of Pride“ for the crucial role she played in organizing the NYC march that sparked the annual tradition we see today.

Back then, the thought of a large group of LGBTQ people gathering to honor their sexual orientation in public was inconceivable. John D’Emilio, a resident of Massachusetts in 1970, recalled telling his boyfriend and two gay friends about the planned march: “The idea of…marching in the streets…made them laugh wildly; they just couldn’t imagine it.”

Now, what once seemed impossible has transformed into a global tradition. Even non-LGBTQ+ individuals now support the LGBTQ+ community by participating in these marches. Nowhere is this transformation more evident than in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a significant symbol of LGBTQ+ activism, SF has elected Harvey Milk (1977), created the universal rainbow pride flag symbol (1978), and issued the country’s first same-sex marriage licenses (2004).

The SF pride parade held annually on the last weekend of June is one of the largest LGBTQ+ gatherings in the world, attracting over one million people to the downtown Civic Center Plaza. This past weekend, hundreds of thousands attended the 56th annual San Francisco Pride Parade under the 2026 theme “Resistance in Action!” Chosen by the SF Pride community, the theme reflects the legacy of activism in the region and encourages people to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights amid ongoing political debates over queer rights and protections. The Bay Area’s queer community is so large that Pride celebrations in Berkeley and Oakland are intentionally held in August to give local communities their own distinct spotlight and avoid competing with SF pride.

The relentless determination in places like the Bay Area eventually forced national recognition. In June of 2000, President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian pride month, which was expanded to officially recognize Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month by President Barack Obama in 2009. Obama later cemented the origins of Pride Month into American history by designating Stonewall National Monument in 2016 around the original Stonewall Inn where the modern gay rights movement began.

Today, Pride is simultaneously a celebration of identity and political protest against systemic discrimination. Pride also serves as a remembrance to honor victims of discrimination and those lost to the HIV and AIDS epidemic and ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ violence. Let us take this month as a reminder that what was once unimaginable is now celebrated by hundreds of thousands, and that preserving this progress will require continued action.

–Genevieve Yang