by Christopher Rudolph
6/2/2016
Pride Month is a time for celebration, but it also serves as an opportunity to remember where we came from: The Instagram account LGBT History provides a daily history lesson with vintage photos from Pride marches, Gay Games, Studio 54, and more.
Partners Leighton Brown and Matthew Riemer said they started the account to share the pictures they felt a connection to and learn more about queer culture from the past, but as they gained followers and received grateful emails from viewers, they quickly realized there’s a real lack of resources for LGBT history.
“Every queer person in every picture from every parade, protest, photo booth, house party, disco, picnic, AIDS ward, stage, jail cell, bar and everywhere else has a story,” Brown, an attorney in D.C. told Mashable . “And too few of them are known… That’s why we started @lgbt_history.”
Scroll through the gallery below to understand our history, and follow the account to get some Pride in your feed every day.
Vito Russo & Larry Kramer, New York City, June 24, 1990. Photo by Michael Abramson. . "On Gay Pride Day 1990," twenty-seven years ago today, Benjamin Shepard writes, "under the balcony of Larry Kramer's apartment, where the iconic queer activist Vito Russo sat that day, five months before he succumbed to the virus, members of ACT UP cheered, 'We Love You Vito!' Politics, friendship, and homosexuality were intimately enmeshed in the life and activism of Vito Russo." #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #Resist #Pride2017 #NYCPride2017 #NeverAgain #NeverForget
A post shared by lgbt_history (@lgbt_history) on Jun 24, 2017 at 7:57pm PDT
AIDS Vigil, The Pier, New York City, June 27, 1993. Photo © Philip Jones Griffiths. . There are hundreds of thousands of queer people who should be here to see what they helped build. In their absence, caused by government neglect, greed, and hatred, we all have an obligation to carry the fight forward. . The AIDS crisis is not over. Please follow and support organizations on the front lines of the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS; organizations like @blackaids, @greaterthanaids, @aplahealth, @aidsfoundationchicago, @gmhc, @pozmagazine, and @visual_aids. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #Resist #NYCPride2017 #Pride2017 #NeverForget #NeverAgain
A post shared by lgbt_history (@lgbt_history) on Jun 25, 2017 at 4:47pm PDT
Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) celebrates his forty-eighth, and final, birthday with friends (l-to-r Doug Perry, Harvey, Eric Garber, and Cleve Jones, @realclevejones), The Elephant Walk Bar, San Francisco, California, May 22, 1978. Photo by Rink Foto. Harvey Milk would turn eighty-six today. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #queerhistorymatters #haveprideinhistory
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on May 22, 2016 at 4:38pm PDT
"STOP ATTACKS ON LESBIANS & GAY MEN — CARRY A WHISTLE," National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Washington, D.C., October 14, 1979. Photo by Joel Rinne & Earl Colvin. On May 17, 2005, after a year-long campaign, events around the world marked the first International Day Against Homophobia. The day, held each May 17, is of particular importance in Europe and Latin America. Today, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia serves to draw the attention of policymakers, opinion leaders, social movements, the public, and the media to the violence and discrimination experienced by LGBTI people around the world. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #queerhistorymatters #haveprideinhistory #idahobit
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on May 17, 2016 at 6:00am PDT
Dolly Parton and Keith Haring, 1985. Photo by Andy Warhol. Keith Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990), whose imagery is recognized as a visual language of the freedom fights of the late twentieth century, would turn fifty-eight today. His art, activism, collaborations with artists from Andy Warhol to Grace Jones to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Madonna, and his work with countless LGBT leaders left an indelible mark on modern art and the queer revolution. Keith Haring died of AIDS-related illness on February 16, 1990; he was thirty-one. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #keithharing #toosoongone #dollyparton #andywarhol
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on May 4, 2016 at 6:20am PDT
"GAY'S THE WORD" float, Gay Pride, London, June 30, 1979. Gay's The Word, founded in 1979, is the only specifically LGBT bookstore in the United Kingdom, and the shop has always served as a gathering place for London's LGBT community. Perhaps most notably, Gay's The Word was headquarters for the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners group in 1984-1985, as memorialized in the 2014 film "Pride." The Gay's The Word contingent, and the float pictured here, led London's 1979 Gay Pride Parade. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #gaystheword
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on May 3, 2016 at 5:34pm PDT
Gay Pride Rally, Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts, June 21, 1977. Photo by Spencer Grant. Boston's 1977 Pride celebrations ended with a rally on Boston Common at which Professor Charley Shively decried institutionalized homophobia and the rise of Anita Bryant by burning his Harvard doctoral degree, a one-dollar bill, a copy of Massachusetts' three-hundred year-old anti-sodomy law, and, finally, a copy of the King James Bible. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #gay #bi #lesbian #trans #pride #charleyshively
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on Feb 29, 2016 at 7:54am PST
Attendees, Reno Gay Rodeo, Reno, Nevada, August 1, 1982. Photo by Bob Sorensen, gayrodeohistory.org. The first Gay Rodeo, held in Reno in October 1976, was a fundraising event for local senior citizens, and approximately one hundred and seventy-five people, including attendees, took part. By 1984, the event drew over 10,000 people; the International Gay Rodeo Association was formed the following year. Annual events continue to present day, with the 2016 Finals Rodeo set to take place in Las Vegas. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #rodeo #pride #bobsorensen #gayrodeo #gaycowboys #fridayvibez
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on Apr 1, 2016 at 9:41am PDT
"Georgia Sodomy Law Sucks!", demonstration after the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law in Bowers v. Hardwick, Richard B. Russell Federal Building, Atlanta, Georgia, July 3, 1986. Photo by John Spink, @ajcnews. On February 19, 2016, the Georgia Senate passed HB-757, the First Amendment Defense Act, a "bill to protect religious freedoms…so as to provide that religious officials shall not be required to perform marriage ceremonies in violation of their legal right to free exercise of religion." HB-757 would, among other things, allow religiously affiliated groups to refuse to "rent, lease, or otherwise grant permission for property to be used by another person for an event which is objectionable to such religious organization." On March 2, 2016, activists and advocates urged Georgia Governor Deal to veto HB-757 and delivered the signatures of over 75,000 people who support the veto. HB-757 is one of over 100 anti-equality bills introduced in twenty-nine state legislatures for consideration during the 2016 sessions. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #proequality #nofreedomtohate #pride #notanotherbowers #itshappeningagain #speakout #hb757 #keepgeorgiaqueer
A photo posted by @lgbt_history on Mar 2, 2016 at 12:50pm PST
I write about drag queens. Dolly Parton once ruffled my hair and said I was "just the cutest thing ever."
@chrisreindeer