Seattle celebrates Pride on the last Sunday in June as part of the annual Pride Month festivities. This tradition commemorates the Stonewall Riots, which occurred in June 1969 and marked a pivotal moment in LGBTQIA+ history.

The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall, were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Although the demonstrations were not the first instance in American history when people in the queer community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.