People created new flags to depict Pride, specifically for people who are transgender, nonbinary, and pansexual. And by 1978, artist and gay-rights activist Gilbert Baker created the powerful icon that became synonymous with the Pride movement: a rainbow flag.Ĭapping the story there makes for a tidy ending to the Pride brand. A year later, on the anniversary of the riots, thousands of people marched in the streets of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and a few other large cities in what would become the first Pride parades in the country. Five days of protests in the area followed as the beginnings of the gay rights movement was ignited. But this night, the clientele, who usually acquiesced to the constant police harassment, fought back. On the night of June 28, 1969, NYC police raided the Stonewall Inn, one of the most popular bars in New York.
