Today, June 28, 2020, is the 50th anniversary of the first Gay Pride Parade in New York, and therefore the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. These events happened because good manners were not enough to effect positive change. Protest happens when manners aren’t enough. The Perfect Propriety of Pride is protest. This is the story of how impolite drag queens and radicals kicked forward the cause of gay rights much further than the well-dressed, well-mannered efforts of the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis*.
While in the intervening years the atmosphere of Pride has vacillated between hedonism, comfort, complacency, and corporate sponsorship, its protest origins are once again the visible core of events. And in this 50th anniversary year, how very appropriate to see the Pride landscape changing to acknowledge the reality of protest leadership in the black trans community.
In a nation born of revolution, civil protest remains - and must remain - a Perfectly Proper part of our national dialogue. For those taking to the streets, here’s some Perfectly Proper advice from Amnesty International about how to behave. But marching in the streets is not for everyone, and that’s OK. That’s not what the great African-American writer James Baldwin was going to do either. “While not a marching or sit-in style activist,” according to Biography, “Baldwin emerged as one of the leading voices in the Civil Rights Movement for his compelling work on race.” His voice continues to inspire many.
Etiquetteer would like to wish you a Perfectly Proper Pride this year, whether you spend it protesting in the streets or at home. If the former, please be safe! Here’s some Perfectly Proper guidance from Amnesty International if you’re going out. And please wear a mask and practice social distancing as much as possible; the coronavirus is still with us.
You have value. Your voice has value. Use your voice for good. Use it with pride.
A natural manifestation of Pride, 2014.
*But as Etiquetteer has said before, the most valuable lesson from Martin Duberman’s remarkable book Stonewall is that all forms of protest are necessary to create positive change.