Pop goes the PRIDE quiz

By Nancy Ford

Happy Pride Month! It’s the month officially designated for the LGBTQIA+ and all adjacent groups of supportive family and friends to get out there, wave our Rainbow flags, and reflect on the amazing strides our community has made to achieve equality.

You know the story. Stonewall. A hot summer night. Judy Garland’s death. Pissed off drag queens. Abusive cops. Beatings and arrests. Riots and rebellion. Fifty-seven years have passed since that fateful night in New York City.

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then. Things used to be really, really bad. Now they’re just bad.
Do we still have work to do in that quest to live in a world that views many of our sisters and brothers as an aberration? Is the president orange?

Yes, we do. And yes, he is.

In honor of Pride 2026, please enjoy this little quiz designed to test your basic understanding of LGBTQA+ history. Knowledge is power.

  1. Stonewall is —
    A) a cute little bed-and-breakfast run where Confederate Army “Stonewall” Jackson was said to host Sunday afternoon tea dances during the Civil War.
    B) the site of one of the United States’ first public protests by openly LGBTQIA+ protestors in June 1969.
    C) a New York City bar once controlled by organized crime.
    D) A favorite NYC photo-op destination for equality-minded tourists who consider the spot to be hallowed gay ground.
    Answer: B, C and D. It might also have been a cute little Civil War-era B&B, but that possibility remains unconfirmed.
  2. Famous anti-gay activist Anita Bryant famously said:
    A) “If homosexuality was the normal way, God would have made Adam and Steve.”
    B) “If homosexuality was the normal way, God would have made Adam and Bruce.”
    C) “If homosexuality was the normal way, God would have made my husband marry a man instead of me.”
    Answer: B, which is strange, since there’s nothing clever or sound-bitey about “Adam and Bruce”. At least “Adam and Steve” rhymes with “Adam and Eve”.
  3. Uhhh, who the heck was Anita Bryant?
    A) A former Miss America who did orange juice commercials in the 1970s.
    B) A Florida-based, anti-gay, Christian activist who once received a pie in the face during one of her public, anti-gay rants.
    C) The unofficial mother of Houston Pride.
    D) All of the above.
    Answer: D, all of the above. In 1977, Bryant was the target of approximately 3,000 activists who protested her 1977 appearance at State Bar of Texas convention in downtown Houston. The candlelight march was so well-attended and inspiring that local activists parlayed its momentum into an annual event, now attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
  4. Who famously said “More people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, my friends, that is true perversion.”
    A) Chappell Roan
    B) Pope Leo XIV
    C) Harvey Milk
    D) Harvey Wallbanger
    Answer: C, Harvey Milk. An openly gay man elected to public office in San Francisco in 1977, Milk was assassinated in 1978.
  5. “Come out! Come out!” was a familiar theme often repeated by which Pride icon?
    A) Gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
    B) Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz.
    C) Both of the above.
    Answer: C.
  6. True or false? According to Texas state law, sodomy is illegal.
    Answer: True. Though the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 23 years ago in Lawrence v. Texas that it is unconstitutional to bar consensual sex between adults, Texas’s anti-sodomy laws remain officially on the books.
  7. True or false? The 2011 repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ welcomed openly LGBTQIA+ individuals to enlist and serve in the U.S military.
    Answer: False. Transgender persons are currently barred from entering the military under medical prohibitions and cannot serve in U.S. armed forces.
  8. This year, Houston’s Pride Parade will be held Saturday, June 6 instead of the last Saturday in June, because
    A) Houston is so much cooler in early June.
    B) June 6 is queer playwright Harvey Fierstein’s birthday.
    C) Houston is the host city for the FIFA World Cup Soccer matches, scheduled June 11 through July 19, and downtown will already be packed.
    Answer: C. Pride paraders don’t want to get smacked in the head by balls. Well, not by soccer balls.
  9. Factors that make people LGBTQIA+:
    A) Prison.
    B) Playing in high school band.
    C) Softball (lesbians only).
    D) Domineering mothers (gay men only).
    E) Nature.
    F) Nurture.
    G) Show tunes.
    H) All the above.
    I) None of the above.
    Answer: I, none of the above. Nobody knows for sure what, if anything, causes a person to be LGBTQIA+. But if you are LGBTQIA+, lucky you!

Have a safe and happy Pride, everyone! Be proud this month, and every month.

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