Backbench business: Pride Month

Pride Month is celebrated in June each year by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities around the world. The month of June was chosen to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of June 1969, which broke out after police raided the Stonewall Inn – a gay bar in Lower Manhattan, New York City. This prompted a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBT community that are widely considered to have triggered the modern LGBT rights movement. The following year, to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, the first gay pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.

In the UK, the first official Gay Pride Rally took place in London in 1972. Around 2,000 people attended the event. The last London Pride that took place in 2019 attracted an estimated 1.5 million attendees, making it the largest yet.