In the Spirit of Rebellion: Pride as Protest, Then and Now

Charles Hall
Jun 30
4 min read

From the streets of Stonewall to the avenues of Budapest, we remember what Pride was born to be.

Pride has always been a celebration—but it began as something more urgent. More defiant. More necessary.

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City. It wasn’t the first time, and it wasn’t supposed to be the last. But this time, the patrons of that small, grimy bar—drag queens, trans women, sex workers, lesbians, gay men, and homeless youth—refused to go quietly.

What followed wasn’t a permitted protest or a polished press release. It was a spontaneous uprising that lasted six nights, filling the streets with people who had been pushed too far. There were bricks. There were fires. There were voices rising in a chorus of “enough.”

Stonewall wasn’t the beginning of the movement.

But it was the moment the movement could no longer be ignored.

✊🏽 Pride Was—and Still Is—a Protest

The movement didn’t begin with rainbow banners and floats. It began in a bar with no fire exits, where drinks were watered down and the police were always a threat. It began in fear—and transformed into fury.

Within months of Stonewall, new activist organizations emerged: the Gay Liberation Front, the Gay Activists Alliance, and STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). The spirit of rebellion that erupted on Christopher Street began to take form, organize, and multiply.

One year later, in 1970, thousands marched in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to commemorate the uprising. They didn’t call it a parade. They called it Christopher Street Liberation Day.

Pride, from the very start, was protest made visible.

We didn’t march because we were accepted.

We marched because we refused to be invisible.

🏛️ Milestones in Queer Protest

From underground meetings to mass mobilizations, the LGBTQ+ movement has been shaped by those willing to say no to silence. Here are just a few moments when rebellion reshaped history:

🪧 1969 – The Stonewall Uprising

Six days of protest against police brutality sparked a movement and gave it a name.

🧠 1973 – Psychiatry Confronted

Activists disrupted the American Psychiatric Association, demanding that homosexuality be removed from the DSM. In one powerful act, protest replaced pathology with pride.

🕯️ 1987 – ACT UP Storms the FDA

During the AIDS crisis, ACT UP staged a massive "die-in" at the FDA, demanding faster drug approvals. Their message was blunt and unforgettable: Silence = Death.

🏛️ 1992 – Queer Nation Refuses to Blend In

Queer Nation made protest personal and public—storming political events, claiming space, and reminding America: We're here. We're queer. Get used to it.

🏳️‍⚧️ 2016 – Trans Communities Push Back

When North Carolina passed a law banning trans people from using public restrooms, activists responded with national walkouts, protests, and education campaigns that sparked change.

🕯️ 2020 – Black Trans Lives Matter

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, LGBTQ+ activists across the country organized massive marches honoring Black trans lives. These protests brought visibility to a crisis of violence often ignored.

✊🏼 2025 – Budapest Pride Marches On

In open defiance of Hungary’s constitutional ban on LGBTQ+ “promotion,” more than 100,000 people marched. It became one of the largest Pride demonstrations in Eastern European history—and a living tribute to Stonewall’s legacy.

🔥 The March That Shouldn’t Have Happened

Budapest, June 28, 2025.

Despite everything—from constitutional bans to years of censorship—the people marched.

They marched past police barricades and state media coverage that refused to name them.

They marched in the face of increasing repression from a government determined to erase LGBTQ+ identity from schools, streets, and screens.

But 100,000 voices refused to be erased.

They danced through the streets. They waved flags. They kissed partners and held hands. And in a country where Pride had been legally outlawed, they made the most rebellious choice possible: they showed up anyway.

They made noise. They made history.

They made Pride impossible to ignore.

And they made Stonewall live again.

🎆 What Freedom Really Means

As the Fourth of July approaches, Americans gather to celebrate independence: fireworks, flags, parades, and speeches. It’s a time to reflect on liberty, equality, and the ideals that shaped a nation.

But for LGBTQ+ people, those ideals have always been complicated.

We’ve been asked to pledge allegiance to a country that didn’t always acknowledge our existence. We've been told to wait our turn. To be patient. To be quiet.

And yet, we've shown up anyway.

We’ve claimed our place—not just in parades, but in protests. Not just in celebrations, but in struggle.

When we say that Pride began as a riot, we’re not just quoting history—we're reminding people that our freedom was never handed to us.

Like the revolutionaries of 1776, we stood up and said, enough.

The American story is one of rebellion. So is ours.

Every time we march in defiance of a ban, hold hands in a public park, speak our truth in spaces that wish we wouldn’t—we’re practicing something very American: the pursuit of

freedom.

And just like the founding rebels, we don’t do it for ourselves alone.

We do it for each other.

For those who came before us.

For those still learning it's safe to shine.

This Independence Day, let us remember:

Rebellion made this country.

Rebellion made Pride.

And rebellion is what makes us free.

🌈 Carrying the Fire Forward

The spirit of rebellion didn’t end at Stonewall. It’s in every community center organizing a drag story hour despite protests. It’s in every teen who comes out in a town where they’re told not to. It’s in the quiet courage of living openly, and the loud roar of marching down forbidden streets.

We don’t just inherit a movement.

We carry a fire.

And we pass it forward.

From Stonewall to Budapest, from whispered “me too’s” to full-throated chants, from closets to capitals—

We rebel, we remember, and we rise.

Because we are not done.