California Governor Jerry Brown, a
Democrat, on Monday signed a bill that establishes June as LGBT Pride
month.
Assemblymember Evan Low, a Democrat
from Silicon Valley, introduced Assembly Bill 2969. The bill was
co-authored by all members of the California Legislative LGBT caucus
and supported by Equality California and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
“California has the largest LGBT
population of any state in the union, and the state is home to over
forty LGBT Pride celebrations each year,” Low said in a press
release. “I want to thank Governor Brown for adding Pride to the
list of celebrations codified in statute.”
The first Pride march was held in June,
1970 in New York City on the first anniversary of the Stonewall
Riots, an uprising that followed a police raid of the Stonewall Inn,
a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Pride festivals have slowly moved
from protests to celebrations of the LGBT community.
Low, who is openly gay, also chairs the
California Legislative LGBT Caucus. He's also introduced a bill that
seeks to limit the selling or advertising of therapies that attempt
to alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBT people.
Such therapies go by names such as “conversion therapy” or
“ex-gay therapy.”
(Related: California
bill seeking to ban selling of “ex-gay” therapy clears assembly.)