“Customers resisted the police by refusing to show identification or go into a bathroom so that a police officer could verify their sex. As police officers began making arrests, the remaining customers gathered outside instead of dispersing as they had in the past,” he explained.Īccording to the website of the Stonewall Inn, when officers roughly handled one patron, the crowd fought back, forcing the officers to barricade themselves in the nightclub. The uprising, Obama said, began when police raided the bar, which was at the time one of the city’s best-known gathering places for LGBT people. From this place and time, building on the work of many before, the nation started the march - not yet finished - toward securing equality and respect for LGBT people,” President Barack Obama proclaimed on June 24 as he declared the Stonewall Inn a National Historic Monument. “The Stonewall Uprising is considered by many to be the catalyst that launched the modern LGBT civil rights movement. This year’s Pride Festival, as well as the contemporary LGBTQ rights movement, is a legacy of the Stonewall riots of June 28, 1969. According to White, the organization expects up to 10,000 people to attend, which represents a big increase over the 2,000 people who attended 2009’s inaugural event. The Blue Ridge Pride Center has lined up over 100 booths and vendors to participate in the festival. “When you aren’t allowed to celebrate and live freely in society, and you find that one event where you get to be you … you just celebrate and want to share with the world.” She’s been pleased, she says, that local organizers have been moving beyond the boundaries of the LGBTQ community to invite and include allies from other groups, with a special focus on other minority groups. I didn’t mind it, but I thought of it as a silly thing.” Now, especially after the mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., White says she has a new appreciation for the deeper meaning of Pride events. Trans activist Candis Cox will speak at 1:15 p.m.īefore her transition, White says, “I thought of Pride as just some big party. Activities will include a parade, musical performances, a lip-sync battle, a drag show and a dance party.
One of the many duties White has been juggling lately is planning for the eighth annual Blue Ridge Pride Festival, a free celebration of LGBTQ pride in Asheville’s Pack Square Park on Saturday, Oct. “I’m the chief cook and bottle washer.” I love a parade “Blue Ridge Pride just needed someone to help with websites, marketing and data,” she explains. White was wary of giving the impression that she expected a leadership position right away.
Although she has local roots on her mother’s side of the family, “When I moved here … I didn’t want to be some kind of Yankee carpetbagger,” she says with a laugh. 10.Ĭloser to home, White has taken on the role of director of operations for the Blue Ridge Pride Center. She was recently appointed to the board of directors of that organization, and she also spoke at the HRC’s National Dinner on Sept. She’s traveled around the country speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization. While White had thought she was moving to Asheville to focus on her new career as a writer (she’s already published one book on her transition, Between Shadow and Sun: A Husband’s Journey Through Gender, A Wife’s Labor of Love), the state and national conversation surrounding HB2 has placed her in high demand as a trans activist. That night, White says, “I had a nightmare that I was shot in the bathroom.” So I thought: North Carolina!”įive days after White and her wife closed on their house in Asheville, the General Assembly passed HB2 in a special session during which the bill was introduced and voted on in just a few hours. “I wanted to move to the South,” White continues, “because I think the South needs a stronger transgender voice, but I wanted to move someplace that was welcoming. What White didn’t count on, however, was House Bill 2, the controversial law that (among other provisions) requires people to use the bathroom and locker room facilities that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate.
When she decided to move to Asheville, Tina Madison White knew she’d be leaving a lot behind in New York City: a corporate career that culminated with a stint as director of information management for Pfizer, the place where her five children grew up, and the history of her life as a husband and father before she came out as transgender.