In 2023, 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were proposed. In 2024, 530. LGBTQ+ rights have been won over decades, and they are being taken away in years. Queer holidays are a way to continue the struggle for acceptance. Each holiday has its history. Here are three that should be remembered.
June 28: Stonewall Day
The Stonewall Riots. Even the name is a point of tension. The STONEWALL Veterans’ Association calls it a rebellion—a demonstration and an uprising. In 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York. Officers arrested several people at the inn, including those who were not wearing clothes “appropriate for their gender,” which was a criminal offense at the time. Employees and patrons were forced into police vehicles as a crowd gathered around the bar. A lesbian being arrested shouted at the crowd to do something—they did. They threw bottles, coins, bricks, anything they had, and pushed the police back until the officers barricaded themselves in the bar. It was only when police reinforcements came that the crowd left. Protests around Stonewall continued for six more days before finally dying down.
Stonewall’s pushback against the police sparked a new wave of activism and protest in the gay rights movement. This eventually led to the creation of prominent queer organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD. These organizations continue to call for change even today. The Human Rights Campaign alone has hundreds of articles covering the deaths of queer individuals across the country.
November 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance
Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, said that it is “not an event for fundraisers and beer busts. It’s not an event we ‘celebrate.’” We cannot celebrate the hate and fear and death that trans people experience every year. We cannot celebrate Rita Hester being murdered on November 20th. Killed because she was a trans woman, Rita Hester was disrespected in death. She was misgendered in both police reports and LGBTQ+ media. This intolerance towards transgender people continues today; the vast majority of anti-LGBTQ attacks are against transgender individuals.
The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was a vigil to honor Rita Hester after transgender activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith realized that people forgot. Nobody remembered Chanelle Pickett despite her murder happening only three years before. Nobody remembered Brandon Teena. Nobody remembered the hundreds killed over the years for being trans.
And New York, despite its queer-friendly laws, is among the 15 states with the most transgender murders. We cannot forget the lives taken just for being trans.
October 11: National Coming Out Day
750, 000 people participated in the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987. They marched for an end to discrimination, especially against those with AIDS, and for federal funding to help with the AIDS epidemic. They marched for a repeal of sodomy laws and regulations. They marched for the right to love who they wanted. Observed on the anniversary of the Second National March, National Coming Out Day has expanded to include the entire LGBTQ+ community. The holiday is a celebration of identity, support, and freedom of expression—but it’s also a recognition of how far we are from true acceptance.
Coming Out Day is a day to remember that, for many, it is still unsafe to come out. We must realize that the steps that have led us here are just steps. The LGBTQ+ community has to fight just to be permitted to hang pride flags, and yet so few of us hear about it. The fight for rights isn’t over. It’s not even close.
