Although BA4 and BA5 are beginning to circulate across the US, COVID cases have begun to fall

again after a long, if blunted, second-omacron surge. Shanghai is opening up after a

draconian two-month lockdown, and millions are trying to escape this incident for fear of

another one. California is facing water restrictions amidst a worsening drought crisis.

This is America Dissective. I'm your host, Dr. Abdul-Alsayin.

It's June, which means it's Pride Month. For millions of LGBTQ Americans and allies,

Pride Month is a moment of celebration and a moment of commemoration. It's a moment to reflect

on how far the community has come. Don't forget that only a few short decades ago,

the idea of LGBTQ equality was openly scored, and what progress has been made, much of that progress

has only come very recently. Now to that historic Supreme Court decision, legalizing same-sex

marriage across the land. Historic ruling struck down the bans on same-sex marriage still in

effect in 14 states, all of them in the south and the Midwest. The right of same-sex couples to

marry was only enshrined into law by a Supreme Court decision in the case of Bergerfeld V. Hodges,

but the fight for LGBTQ equality goes back way further. Throughout the month of June,

major cities around the country will have Pride Parades, where LGBTQ Americans and their allies

will march in a show of solidarity and, well, Pride. But the first Pride Parade wasn't a parade

at all. It was an uprising. See, New York City police had raided the stonewall in. A popular

gay bar in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. In the early morning hours of June 28th, 1969,

the community had had enough. For the next several nights, they organized protests across Greenwich

Village, eventually forming activist organizations demanding the right to live freely. The movement

birthed three gay liberation newspapers, and the next year, there were gay Pride Parades commemorating

Stonewall in LA, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and there have been across the country ever since.

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