Happy PRIDE Month! This year, Pura Vida is so honored to continue our work and partnership with The Trevor Project with the launch of our 2023 PRIDE Collection. 🏳️🌈 The Trevor Project is the leading organization working to end suicide among LGBTQ young people in the U.S. and beyond. The nonprofit operates several programs to help prevent and respond to the public health crisis of suicide among LGBTQ young people, including 24/7 free crisis services, innovative research, advocacy, public education, and peer support. They offer extensive helpful resources on their site, including the coming out handbook. Through 4/30/2024, 5% per product sold will be donated to The Trevor Project, with a minimum donation of $25K.
We continue to show our support of The Trevor project by creating five NEW string bracelets that let you rep five different PRIDE flags: Progress, Bisexual, Transgender, Lesbian, Nonbinary, and Pansexual. The drop doesn’t stop there; it also includes additional bracelets, rings, apparel, and our first-EVER limited-edition Pride Box. The box includes three bracelets, one anklet and a sticker. Each item sold from this collection will help grow the $63K Pura Vida has already raised for The Trevor Project. 🫶
We can’t wait to see how your PRIDE looks come to life this year! In honoring the tradition of PRIDE and providing some inspo for your outfit planning, let’s talk a bit about the history PRIDE in six of the major cities in the US:
New York City
The first PRIDE March took place in New York City on June 27, 1970, but the movement was really sparked about a year prior. In June 1969, members of the LGBTQ community stood up to police during a raid of Stonewall, a gay bar on Christopher Street in New York City. This uprising helped spark the gay liberation movement and, a year later, to New York’s first Gay Pride March, called Christopher Street Liberation Day.
San Francisco
Like many major cities, San Francisco’s PRIDE history is rooted in the events at Stonewall in New York City. On the first anniversary of Stonewall, marches were organized in major cities across the country. In San Francisco, 30 LGBTQ people marched down Polk Street on Saturday, June 27, 1970. The following day, hundreds of people held a “gay-in” at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park.
On Sunday, June 25, 1972, San Francisco’s first “official” pride parade, called Christopher Street West, occurred. The parade organizers obtained city permits and 2000 people marched from Montgomery Street to the Civic Center.
Chicago and Los Angeles
A year after the Stonewall riots, LGBTQ activists in Chicago and Los Angeles went on the march to mark the anniversary of the New York uprising and to assert that LGBTQ people everywhere would no longer accept second-class treatment. The first Chicago parade was organized on Saturday, June 27, 1970, as a march from Washington Square Park ("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower. The Los Angeles parade was held simultaneously with events in New York, Chicago and San Francisco to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising in New York that occurred a year earlier. Unlike the events in other cities, however, that were just marches and rallies, the event in Los Angeles was the first-ever officially-permitted PRIDE parade.
Boston
Like other cities, Boston Pride began in June 1970, when a small group of about 50 LGBTQ activists marched from Cambridge Common to Boston Common, where they held a rally commemorating the Stonewall riots. On June 26, 1971, about 300 people attended the first official Boston Pride March, which stopped at four locations in the city: Jacque's (a drag bar), the Boston police headquarters, the Massachusetts State House, and St. Paul's Cathedral.
San Diego
In the 1970s, LGBTQ people in San Diego founded a Center for Social Services that became a social and political focus for the community. In June 1974, the Center hosted a pride event which included a yard sale and potluck dinner at the Center as well as an informal parade to Balboa Park and back. Marchers had to walk on the sidewalk since they had no city parade permit. In 1975 the community was able to secure permits for a rally and a 400-person march. The parade has been held almost every year since.
PRIDE is an essential part of ensuring that LGBTQ young people have a strong community and a forum to advocate for one another. We couldn’t be more honored to partner with The Trevor Project, an organization that does so much incredible work for the community, on our latest collection. We can’t wait to see how you love in color this year – be sure to tag us in your PRIDE pics at @puravida. 📷
