Love & Resistance: The Important Exhibition for Pride Month

It’s Pride month, and New York City is celebrating with even more conviction than usual. On top of hosting New York City’s annual Pride festivities, it’s the official host of World Pride as well, and will draw an estimate 4 million people to the Pride March on June 30.

The extra attention stems from a key milestone: it’s been 50 years since the Stonewall Uprising in New York’s West Village. The June protests, an impromptu riot after a violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn, sparked action nationwide, and are seen as the pivotal start date of the American Gay Rights Movement.

Half a century later, same-sex marriage is now legal throughout the United States (and in more than 25 other countries around the globe). But the fight for equality continues, both in America and abroad, as the LGBTQ+ still faces systemic discrimination.

To commemorate Stonewall, and provide a sobering reminder of how far we’ve come and what it took to get here, the New York Public Library is hosting Love & Resistance, a photographic exhibition examining the early days of the Gay Rights movement. It’s through the lens of photojournalists Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, whose piercing imagery of the era helped change how Americans perceived the Queer community, and how it perceived itself.

In the midst of all of Pride month’s parties and parades, Love & Resistance is a must-see for New Yorkers interested in the heritage behind Pride. Here, we take a look at this important exhibition, on view through July 15th.

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Love & Resistance at the New York Public Library runs through July 15th on the second-level exhibition rooms. See why we love the NYPL so much in our recent Midtown Musings!