Each year, the United States celebrates Pride Month in June as a remembrance of the Stonewall riots in New York City. However, the LGBTQ+ story in the United States extends far before the Stonewall Uprising.

 

In 1953, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 which precluded lesbian and gay people employment in the federal employment. Frank Kameny led the first documented and organized gay rights picket at the White House in 1965. Lilli Vincenz produced "The Second Largest Minority Film," shot at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in 1968. In 1977, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. 1993 and 1996 brought "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence in a field outside of Laramie, WY and left to die. And in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell v Hodges that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.

 

Join the C-SPAN Education team as we recognize LGBTQ+ Pride Month with an examination of the history of LGBTQ+ activism, the contributions of key people, and the significance of notable events. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices