Back in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid took place.
They are frequently cited as the first instance in history when the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender) community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. The riots were an in-your-face protest caused by the harassment from police and government. They falsely thought the general population supported their crackdowns against the homosexual population. The riots proved them wrong. The LGBT community took to the streets standing proud of who they were. Drag Queens went out in drag. Gay men and women flaunted their sexuality for all to see because they had had enough – We're here! We're queer! Get used to it!
Move on to February 5, 1981. 150 police officers raided four gay bathhouses in Toronto. One was so badly damaged in the raid that it never reopened. Police denied the excessive force but reporters that visited the scene proved them wrong. Nicknamed Operation Soap, the raid resulted in the arrests of 268 men. The response from the gay and lesbian community was immediate and angry. Over 3,000 people gathered in protest.
A second demonstration which took place on February 20, included over 4,000 people who gathered at Queen's Park and marched to Metro Toronto Police's 52 Division, the division responsible for the raid. Born out of these police raids was the Toronto Pride Parade.This is the reason the parade is like it is. A protest parade for the same reasons as those born out of Stonewall. The parade is supposed to be about overt expression of homosexual sexuality in all its forms because you, the general citizen, through your government, wanted a crackdown against all things gay. This of course was wrong, and it backfired on the government and police of the day. The general population did not support these crackdowns or the discrimination against the LGBT community... Read More.
