Groups such as the White Aryan Resistance and Ku Klux Klan have also tried to oppose "gay pride" by stressing straight pride. Support for straight pride events is often based on religious objections to homosexuality. Some of the opposition arose from reports that the shirt seller was a sponsor of the event with a cut of sales funding the Tea Party Express, although those reports may not have been accurate. Some state and national gay advocacy groups denounced the shirts, claiming that they echoed the use by racist groups of a " white pride" slogan. Īt a 2010 Tea Party Express rally in Lansing, the state capital of Michigan, a vendor was selling t-shirts printed with the slogan "straight pride". Other events, typically occurring in United States high schools where First Amendment concerns arise, have revolved around people desiring to wear "straight pride" t-shirts. "Straight pride parades" or "straight pride days" have been organized in response to similar events organized by LGBTQ groups. Conservative organizations at UMass Amherst held another such event the next year, attended by about fifty people and protested by a crowd estimated to be ten times larger.
The UMass event was promoted as "Burn a Fag in Effigy" rally. In 1990, rallies in support of Straight Pride were held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) organized by the group Young Americans for Freedom and at nearby Mount Holyoke College. In 1988, Vermont Republican John Burger asked the state's Governor to establish a "Straight Pride Day". Incidents where the slogan or concept of "Straight pride" caused controversy have occurred since the late 1980s. Heterosexual pride parades exist as a response to societal acceptance of LGBTQ visibility, and originated in campuses in the 1990s as a backlash tactic. Analysts of LGBTQ rights state as a counter-argument that mainstream culture offers many approved social venues (weddings, baptism, family reunions and so on) for heterosexuals to express and celebrate their sexual orientation in public, while LGBTQ individuals feel more isolated and pride parades offer them support and an opportunity for socializing. This appeal to ridicule argument expresses the idea that showing pride for LGBTQ orientations is equally absurd. In this context, the terms straight pride and heterosexual pride have been used as an argument criticizing gay pride as unnecessary, stating by contrast with heterosexuality that heterosexuals "don't talk about straight pride", don't have "straight pride rallies", and would be seen as ridiculous if they were to "band together and have a heterosexual pride parade".
The concept of LGBTQ pride originates as a movement which seeks to challenge the negative images of LGBTQ people by being openly identified with a culturally stigmatized group as such, it creates a discomfort. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, LGBTQ communities were further stigmatized as they became the focus of mass hysteria, suffered isolation and marginalization, and were targeted with extreme acts of violence. Late in 1979, a new religious revival among conservative evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics ushered in the conservatism politically aligned with the Christian right that would reign in the United States during the 1980s, becoming another obstacle for the progress of the LGBTQ rights movement. In the 1970s, the popularity of disco music and its culture in many ways made society more accepting of gays and lesbians. A new period of liberalism in the late 1960s began a new era of more social acceptance for homosexuality which lasted until the late 1970s. It was the commemorative march one year later that drew 5,000 marchers up New York City's Sixth Avenue, that got nationwide publicity and led to modern-day LGBTQ pride marches. Newspaper coverage of the events was minor, since, in the 1960s, huge marches and mass rioting had become commonplace and the Stonewall riots were relatively small. LGBTQ history traces back to ancient civilizations, but the term gay pride is usually associated with the modern LGBTQ rights movement that was sparked by the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. Further information: 1960s in LGBT rights and Counterculture of the 1960s