Together Gibraltar has wished the LGBTQ+ community a Happy International Pride Day.

A statement from Together Gibraltar follows below:

This year’s Pride is special because it marks 50 years from events that began the fight for equality by the LGBTQ+ community. 

On the 28th June 1969, there was an uprising in the Stonewall Inn, a bar in New York, started mainly by drag queens, trans people, lesbians and people of colour, who were continuously targeted by police raids and brutality. This was continued by three nights of violent clashes in Greenwich Village. These events sparked the beginning of the Pride parades two years later to that day, across the main US cities. This movement spread across the world, with Pride becoming a symbol for freedom from oppression and as a reminder of the different challenges the LGBTQ+ community still faces in society. 

Society has changed a lot since those days, but there is no Pride without remembering those who sparked this worldwide movement to stop bigotry, intolerance, violence, persecution, oppression and to be able to be themselves freely without shame or fear. 

We must feel proud of ourselves in Gibraltar as a society for having come such a long way. Same-sex marriage was legalised in 2016 which has been transformative for many in the local LGBTQ+ community. 

Together Gibraltar wishes the LGBTQ+ community, friends, family, allies and everyone else a Happy International Pride Day.