SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Every June, cities around the world come together to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, and this year marks a special milestone.
Pride celebrations — like the one Sacramento is hosting this weekend — are filled with color and joy, as members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies mark the progress made toward equality in recent decades. That includes the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015.
"I think that even though we have achieved that legal equality, that we have a long way to go to achieve social equity, to achieve that social affirmation of who people are and their ability to just walk through life with a sense of safety,” Sacramento LGBT Community Center executive director David Heitstuman told ABC10.
Ahead of this weekend’s Pride events in Sacramento, Heitstuman said he’s mindful of a time when it was even less safe to be an LGBTQ+ person.
This month marks 50 years since the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Back then, police routinely raided gay bars. During one such raid on June 28, 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back.
"That started as a riot. It started as a protest against police brutality and against discrimination and harassment,” Heitstuman said. “Being an LGBT person was illegal, and it absolutely wasn't safe to be out in the world."
The Stonewall uprising is one of the major events that launched the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, along with the Compton's Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco three years prior, where police targeted transgender women and drag queens.
"I have many friends that went to the Compton Cafeteria,” LGBTQ+ activist Bianca Lucrecia told ABC10. “The drag queens, as they wanted to call it, and the 'girls,' we were the ones that fought the fight. We got thrown in the back of paddy wagons, we got beat up by cops, but we endured."
Lucrecia, a trans woman and Latina, said it’s still dangerous to be trans, especially a trans woman of color.
"Instead of making fun, try to understand where we're coming from,” Lucrecia, who is 66-years-old, said. “I've lived my true life for many years, so we need to stop and respect each other and respect our lives because we have every God-given right to live just like everybody else in this world."
Pride festivals everywhere are about way more than just fun, public parties, she said. "It's about bringing a message to the community, that we're here, we're proud of who we are,” Lucrecia explained.
Thousands of people are expected to attend Sacramento's Pride events this weekend. The SacPride Festival on the Capitol Mall will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available online.
The Pride March steps off at 11 a.m. Sunday, beginning at Southside Park and ending at the Capitol. The festivities will impact traffic in downtown and Midtown Sacramento this weekend.
On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared June 2019 LGBTQ Pride month.
San Francisco and New York are both hosting their Pride celebrations the final weekend in June.
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