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How has Pride Month changed over 50 years?

Between the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, and everything at the forefront of today’s news, it’s been a hell of a different Pride Month. While I don’t want to detract from any of these movements, I believe it is still important to place focus on the struggle for LGBTQ+ equality in our country.

LGBTQ Pride began as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, which began in the early morning of June 28, 1969 as a spontaneous violent protest to a police raid by patrons* of the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. While not the first notable act of resistance or rioting by the community, the Stonewall Riots evoked a pervasive sense of both urgency and empowerment that led to activist organization on a national level and a newly-emboldened style of protest where gay and lesbian people chose to live more openly as an act of defiance. On the one-year anniversary of the riots, people assembled outside the Stonewall Inn for Christopher Street Liberation Day while Gay Pride marches occurred simultaneously in Los Angeles and Chicago. Within two years, the movement had gained traction with gay rights groups formed in every major U.S. city.

Today, Pride Month is observed across the country with a plethora of concerts, fundraisers, teach-ins, rainbow-colored company logos, and parades that draw crowds of hundreds of thousands. The movement has also expanded greatly from its focus on the gay, lesbian, and transgender community, to also include people who are bisexual, asexual, pansexual, queer, gender non-conforming, and many other sexual orientations and gender identities. Learn more about today’s terminology on the Human Rights Campaign website, or for a more in-depth glossary check out the UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center Glossary.

Though some criticize today’s Pride as performative or commercialized, others argue that “even a month of rainbow flags flying in your local Target is better than silence.” And while indeed much progress has been made in the last 50+ years – couples can now legally marry and adopt children in all 50 states, for example – there is still much to be done. 

Delaware has not necessarily been blazing the trail for LGBTQ+ equality, but much progress has been made. Same-sex sexual activity was deemed legal in Delaware with the repeal of its sodomy law in 1973, an act that wasn’t legal nationwide until 2003. Civil unions were approved in 2012, and by July 2013 the law had been converted to allow same-sex marriages – the 11th state to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. Delaware also allows transgender people to change their legal gender, bans the use of conversion therapy on minors, and imposes additional penalties for violent crime motivated by the victim's gender identity. Delaware does not yet recognize Gender X or a third gender on driver’s licenses, though New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland do.




To find or learn more about LGBTQ+ support and activism in Delaware:
  • Delaware Pride - Promoting platforms for expressing diversity and creating a more visible and united LGBTA community
  • Delaware Renaissance - Peer support for Delaware’s transgender and gender non-conforming community
  • Delaware LGBTQ Social - A community group to socialize, inform, meet and discuss LGBTQ topics
  • CAMP Rehoboth – Nonprofit community service organization dedicated to creating a positive environment inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities
  • PFLAG Wilmington – Support for LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies
  • Lavender Programming Board (formerly HAVEN) - University of Delaware’s largest and oldest LGBTQ+ Registered Student Organization
  • Free Mom Hugs Delaware – A group of affirming parents and allies who provide support for same-sex weddings, notes of encouragement, and more, particularly for those whose families are non-supportive 
  • Delaware Stonewall PAC - Non-partisan political organization whose purpose is the promotion of the rights of LGBT Delawareans


* Stay tuned for an upcoming post highlighting key voices in Stonewall Riots and the intersectionality of this historic event.


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