Below is my column in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.
The observance of Pride Month dates back to events over half a century ago. In the 1950s and 1960s, many forces in our country were trying to return the United States to a version of America that they believed existed before World War II. A national paranoia about communism, fueled by figures like Joseph McCarthy, had infected out country, leading to the U.S. Army and other government institutions labeling various groups as un-American and subversive security risks – including gay men and lesbians.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the police, and even the U.S. Postal Service kept records on known homosexuals, their friends and the establishments they frequented. States soon followed suit, and eventually even local cities were performing sweeps to rid neighborhoods, parks, bars and restaurants of gay people.
Every state in our country criminalized same-sex acts during this time, with penalties ranging from a light fine to five, 10 or 20 years in prison – or even life. The only exception was Illinois, which decriminalized sodomy in 1961. In 1971, 20 states even had what are known as “sex psychopath” laws which permitted detaining suspected gay or lesbian people for that reason alone. In Pennsylvania and California, they could be committed to a psychiatric institution for life and in seven states they could be castrated.
On June 28, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York. Owned by the Mafia, with an agreed-upon payout to the police to leave it alone, the bar catered to many of the most marginalized people in the LGBTQIA community, including drag queens, transgender people and homeless youth. It was the only bar for gay men in New York where dancing was allowed.
When a raid occurred, identification cards were checked, but generally only trans women and drag queens were the ones arrested. During that raid in 1969, some of those detained refused to go into bathrooms and let the police check their genitalia to confirm their sex. Some of the lesbians reported the police were feeling them up instead of professionally frisking them.
A crowd began to grow outside the door, and within minutes more than 100 people were gathered outside of the club. As the police began loading people into patrol wagons, a bystander shouted “Gay power!” And someone else started to sing the Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.”
An officer pushed someone in drag who then hit the officer with her purse. The cop then clubbed the suspect over the head, raising the anger and frustration of those in the crowd.
A lesbian complained that her handcuffs were too tight was beaten over the head with a police baton by an officer. She looked at the crowd of bystanders and shouted, “Why don’t you guys do something?”
That’s when the riot began. It lasted for six days as people stood up, claimed the streets as their own, and refused to continue to be subject to inhumane abuse and discrimination. A year later, to mark the first anniversary of the riot, Gay Pride marches were staged in New York as well as Los Angeles and Chicago. From there they spread to other cities and the modern gay rights movement was born.
In 1999, the U.S. Department of the Interior included several parts of Christopher Street and Greenwich Village as a part of the National Register of Historic Places – the first time this was done for a place meaningful specifically to the LGBTQIA community. At the ceremony, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior John Berry said, “Let it forever be remembered that here – on this spot – men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose, and love whom our hearts desire.”
I am proud of my own congregation, St. John’s Episcopal Church, which played a small role in bringing this celebration of Pride to Grand Haven five years ago when we offered a pride-themed community worship service at Waterfront Stadium. Thanks to the work of numerous community members, our city is now blessed to have Grand Haven Pride (http://ghpride.org) a fully independent 501(c)(3) charity that provides year-round programming and is currently in the final days preparing for the third Grand Haven Pride Festival on Saturday, June 14.
If you come to the festival that day, you will be greeted first in the morning at 10 a.m. with the fifth annual Pride Worship Service – an opportunity for LGBTQIA people of faith and their allies to gather, proclaim the good news of God’s love, and worship a God who delights in the diversity of creation. During the festival you will see amazing entertainment, get to know some great vendors and nonprofit agencies that support the Pride Movement, and celebrate the strides our community has taken.
And, when you see the first drag queens step foot on stage, you will now know why drag queens are an absolutely essential part of the Pride Movement – because queens and trans people faced some of the worst attacks that led to the Stonewall Riots.
As someone who moved to Grand Haven in 1991, when I was just 10 years old, I am so proud to see the thousands of people who have gathered for each of these past festivals, and I cannot wait to celebrate with you all again this year. Because love will always overcome hate – but only if people of goodwill stand up and say no to those who want to hate, demean and exclude.
About the writer: The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.
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