Pride Month: Google Doodle celebrates LGBTQ rights

Google today unveiled a doodle celebrating Pride month on Thursday. Pride month is celebrated from 1-30 June as an annual celebration to mark the contributions made by the LGBTQ+ community. Pride month is celebrated in commemoration of its roots in the Stonewall Riots of June 1969.

History of pride month:

The genesis of the gay rights movement goes back to the early 1900s when Henry Gerber created Society for Human Rights in the 1920s for the gay and lesbian community.

After several failed attempts in getting equal representation in society, in June 1969 the gay rights movement took a furious step forward with a series of violent riots in New York City.

About Stonewall Riots:

The New York Police Department (NYPD) fiercely clamped down on protests and raided bars and restaurants where gays and lesbians were known to gather. The NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, in Manhattan.

When the police dragged patrons and employees out of the bar, several people protested against the NYPD personnel. The scuffle sparked six days of demonstrations outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and throughout the neighborhood.

By the time the Stonewall Riots ended on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went from being a fringe issue to front-page news worldwide.

Gay Pride Parade

In 1970, on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, activists in New York City marched through the streets of Manhattan in commemoration of the uprising.

That time celebration came to be simply known as the Gay Pride Parade.

Over the years gay pride events have spread in different countries.

In June 2000, President Bill Clinton officially designated June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, in recognition of the Stonewall Riots and gay activism throughout the years.

And in 2009, former US President Barack Obama made the name more inclusive, calling it: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

Obama also honoured Pride month by inaugurating Stonewall National Monument, a 7.7-acre around the Stonewall Inn.