Niagara Falls lit up like a rainbow for significant date in Pride Month

Last night (June 28) Niagara Falls was lit up like a rainbow every hour for a full half-hour at 9 pm, 10 pm and 11 pm to honour the LGBTQ+ community.

But Pride Month started June 1 so why honour the community so close to the end of the month?

Well, it seems June 28 holds a significant meaning for the community.

The famous Stonewall Riots took place on June 28, 1969, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The gay community came out in large numbers to protest a police raid at the Stonewall Inn.

The events of June 28, 1969, are widely considered a watershed moment in the awareness and progress of gay rights with the first gay rights marches taking place in major American cities in 1970 on the anniversary.

Canada was a lot slower off the mark. In this county, the first Pride Parades weren’t held until 1979 in Vancouver and Montreal. Toronto eventually joined the Pride Parade ranks in 1981.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and many other politicians regularly take part in Pride festivities these days, including the parades, it wasn’t until June 10, 2001, that politicians really jumped into the fray. On that day, former Prime Minister Joe Clark was the Grand Marshall at the Calgary Pride Parade.