The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America is proud to be headquartered in San Francisco on a day like today, and salutes this inspired celebration of human freedom. Moreover, we salute the memory of the Stonewall Riots that the day marks.

It is 29 years since a collection of gay men, heavily black and Puerto Rican, in a drag bar in New York rose in anger against the long tyranny of police harassment and ill-informed hostility and said "we aren't going to take this any longer."

Their battle with the police that night largely gave rise to the Gay Liberation Movement, which along with the Women's Liberation Movement challenged the sexual and gender oppression arising from capitalism, which seeks to divide the working class along every line of distinction it enounters.

Lesbian and gay rights remain a difficult area of concern within the Irish populace, even within the ranks of its liberation movements, and the IRSCNA is proud to of the IRSP's long support for this struggle, just as we are proud that the IRSP has long been in the forefront on issues like abortion rights and challenges to religious domination in public education.

So, we take the opportunity on this day to reiterate our support for the campaign for equal rights for lesbians and gay men, and we stand in support of the underlying principle celebrated today -- Pride, the right to take pride in one's uniqueness, and the strength this provides in building unity of our class.