City Council Report

To: Mayor and City Council From: Ryan Schroeder, City Manager Date: June 24, 2019

LGBTQIA Pride Month Discussion

Members of the City Council have alerted Staff that communities around the country recognize June as LGBTQIA month. It was suggested as part of the Council Initiative on Diversity that West St. Paul discuss such a recognition.

Background: Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, , , bisexual, and questioning persons rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 43 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. This riot and further protests and rioting over the following nights were the watershed moment in modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches on a much larger public scale.

Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970 marked the first anniversary of the with a march, which was the first Gay Pride march in U.S. history and covered the 51 blocks to Central Park.

On Saturday, June 27, 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation organized a march from Washington Square Park ("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower at the intersection of Michigan and Chicago Avenues, and on to the Civic Center (now Richard J. Daley) Plaza. The date was chosen because the Stonewall events began on the last Saturday of June. Subsequent Chicago parades have been held on the last Sunday of June, coinciding with the date of many similar parades elsewhere.

The following year, Gay Pride marches took place in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin, and Stockholm. By 1972, the participating cities included Atlanta, Brighton, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

In the 1980s, there was a major cultural shift in the Stonewall Riot commemorations. The previous loosely organized grassroots marches and parades were taken over by more organized elements of the community. The marches began dropping "Liberation" and "Freedom" from their names replacing them with the philosophy of "Gay Pride".

LGBTQIA Pride Month

The month of June was chosen for LGBTQIA Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact LGBTQIA people have had in the world.

Two Presidents of the United States have officially declared a pride month. First, President Bill Clinton declared June "Gay & Lesbian Pride Month" in 1999 and 2000. From 2009 to 2016, each year he was in office, President Barack Obama declared June LGBTQIA Pride Month. Donald Trump became the first Republican president to acknowledge LGBTQIA Pride Month in 2019 but he did so through tweeting rather than an official proclamation.

In the Twin Cities, Pride celebrations center around a series of events held around the end of June, culminating with two major events, the weekend-long Pride Festival, and the . The dates for 2019 are June 22nd and 23rd for the Gay Pride Festival, with the Parade running on June 23rd. Of note is that October is typically recognized as LGBT History Month.

In a scan of observances by Presidential proclamation, included were the following:  African American History Month: February  Pan American Day: April 16  Asian Culture Day: May 18  Women’s Equality Day: August 26  Family Day: 4th Monday in September  Hispanic Heritage month: September 15 to October 15  German-American Day: October 6  American Indian Heritage Day: Friday after Thanksgiving  International Day of persons with disabilities: December 3  Human Rights Week: week of December 10

STAFF RECOMMENDATION:

Discussion

.