The uprising at Stonewall Inn marked a turning point in the history of LGBTQ+ communities, a demonstration of our fight for our basic human rights and dignity. Heroes like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Storm DeLarverie remind us of a sometimes painful but simple truth: we all have the power to create change and we must choose to use it.

On the night of June 27th 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village. Several patrons, mostly drag performers, were handcuffed and escorted outside by the police, among them drag king legend Storm DeLarverie who resisted arrest and repeatedly tried to escape before she was struck by police with a baton. She then punched one of the officers, demanding of the watching crowd,

“Why don’t you guys do something?”

This haunting question would serve as a mantra for the civil disobedience activism of ACT UP during the 80’s and 90’s, which in turn has contributed to the foundations of how public health today emphasizes social justice and health equity within the healthcare system. The movement that was born by the events at Stonewall inn was a pronouncement by the LGBTQ+ population that we would no longer hide nor have our health undermined by a system that choses to ignore us or treat us in anyway beneath our dignity.

“Why don’t you guys do something?”

Questions like this one create places like Cascade AIDS Project. They are the kind of questions the artists and caregivers who founded CAP asked of themselves. How places like Our House of Portland came into being. How all those who make an investment in the gender affirming care provided by Prism Health begin.

By asking themselves how they want to show up when someone needs the help they are capable of giving.  

Join us this Pride as we commemorate our history, memorialize those we’ve lost, and fight for the future where in we do not have to live in fear.

About Cascade AIDS Project

CAP is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1985 as a grassroots response to the AIDS crisis. As the oldest and largest community-based HIV services provider in Oregon and southwest Washington, we seek to support and empower all people with or affected by HIV, reduce stigma, and provide the LGBTQ+ community with compassionate healthcare. We do so by helping to ensure the health and well-being of our program participants each year through health, housing, and other social services. When the need for affordable, accessible, and culturally affirming primary care services was identified as a community need, we responded by opening Prism Health in 2017.  More information can be found at www.capnw.org.