Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Gay Pride in Puerto Vallarta is a time of celebration for LGBTQ+ and for people who honor diversity, equity, and inclusion! Your local chapter of Democrats Abroad (Costa Banderas) joins in our celebration of Gay Pride for 2024.
Now global, the origins of Gay Pride follow the evolution from a very specific “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” moment in US history where a severely oppressed minority fought back. When the patrons and staff of the New York City gay bar called the Stonewall Inn resisted a common police raid early in the morning of June 28, 1969, they sparked a turning point in the gay rights movement and US politics. A crowd gathered as NYPD officers pushed detainees into wagons and patrol cars. The Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine ordered everyone inside away from the crowd.
While barricaded inside the bar, the crowd outside grew larger and a standoff ensued until the crowd dispersed around 4:00 AM. But it wasn’t over! Thousands gathered around the Stonewall again that evening. Crowds returned to protest daily into the next week. The protests weren’t just about the raid. This uprising was about the sustained oppression and abuse sanctioned and perpetrated by our own government. In 1969, homosexuality was a criminal offense. Indeed, arrests and even the publishing of the names of detainees in police and newspaper reports ended careers and destroyed families.
On the first anniversary of the Stonewall, the first “Gay Pride Liberation March” took place in New York City. There also were Gay Pride marches that year in Los Angeles and Chicago. The organizations that planned those marches could not let this moment of clarity – who we are and that we deserved a lot better – pass into obscurity. Through these Gay Pride events, they helped channel the anger and frustration of oppression into actions- to demand legal reforms, to pressure politicians and businesses, and to register LGBTQ voters. Organizers chose the name “pride” because it is the opposite of shame. It has become a beacon!
The Gay Pride movement quickly found its political home in the Democratic Party. The Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club of San Francisco became the first registered LGBT Democratic club in 1971. In 1975, the Stonewall Democratic Club was established in Los Angeles. In 1983 the Democratic National Committee established a Gay and Lesbian Caucus. “Human rights, and that includes gay rights, is no longer a debatable issue within the Democratic Party,” said Ann Lewis, political director of the DNC at the time. The Democratic Party platform added marriage equality as a plank in 2012.
Wave your rainbow flags! Take pride in our hard-fought gains in equality under the law, which include marriage, medical access, and much more. Remember also how we got here and that our fight isn’t over!
This is an extremely important election year. Our choices are clear and the consequences are ominous. We invite you to get involved, to motivate others to get involved, and to vote! We also invite you to a screening of “Stonewall Uprising” documenting and celebrating our moment of clarity that has led us to Gay Pride. We have one showing Tuesday 21, May from 2:00-3:45 PM upstairs at Nacho Daddy (Basilio Badillo #287) in the Zona Romantica.
Written by Democrats Abroad Costa Banderas Chapter Chair, Clint Harris, for BanderasNews.com.
Democrats Abroad is the official Democratic Party arm for the millions of Americans living outside the United States. We strive to provide American citizens living abroad with a Democratic voice in our U.S. government and we work to elect Democratic candidates by mobilizing the overseas vote. For more information about the Costa Banderas Chapter of Democrats Abroad, click HERE or contact Chapter-Chair Clint Harris at Info-MX-CostaBanderas(at)democratsabroad.org.