Welcome everyone–
This is the Colors of the Rainbow Blog Hop! Celebrating Gay Pride Month and all the gay romance writers of Marketing for Romance Writers. (If you don’t belong to MFRW and you’re a writer or aspiring romance writer, it’s time to join!)

I’m Tara Lain and i write the Beautiful Boys of Romance. Before i plunge into some interesting history, let me give away a few things:

  • If you would like a FREE Tara Lain gay romance novella titled Love You So Hard, just click HERE

    to go to the MM Romance Group on Goodreads and see all the great books being given away as part of Love Has No Boundaries. These are books written especially for the event by romance authors and given away to members. So get your FREE copy now. 

  • If you Leave a comment with your email and (if you feel like it) hop over and Like my Facebook Page you will be entered to WIN your choice of any of my LGBT books. Oh, that means every book but one!  LOL My Genetic Attraction Series is bisexual LGBT, and all the rest but one M/F holiday story are gay romances. 
So let me share some interesting things about the growth of Gay Pride. On June 28th, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York, a popular gay bar. Raids on gay bars were commonplace, but on this night the patrons and over 100 observers outside the bar fought back. It was the first time queer people had ever stood up to police on such a large scale. This event is often considered the beginning of the Gay Rights movement. (The photograph shown here is from The New York Daily News) Though almost unbelievable, bars that sold alcohol to gay people at that time could have their liquor licenses revoked (can you believe that?!) As a result, most gay bars were owned by the mafia who paid off the police to maintain

their lucrative niche market. The mafioso also played both ends against the middle, extorting money from wealthy gay patrons who didn’t want to be outed.

The first rainbow flag appeared in San Francisco in 1978. It had two more stripes — a pink and aqua one — but the pink proved too hard to mass produce so it was eliminated along with the aqua for balance. Right after the Stonewall riots, the use of the term “gay” came into favor with the Gay Liberation Front. Previously, gay organizations had less direct names, but the GLF pushed the term forward.The oldest surviving gay organization in the world is the Center for Culture and Leisure (COC) in the Netherlands which was founded in 1946 under it’s rather pallid name to hide it’s real identity.
Obviously, we’ve come a long way, babies.  When the Pentagon celebrated its first Gay Pride event in 2012,

you know things have changed. But not nearly enough. I’m proud to be a person who is fortunate enough to write gay romance. I think the more people who read our books, the more likely that children who tell their moms they’re gay will be celebrated as any life event should be. The gender identity of humans has always been a great rainbow continuum, a quilt of variations and diversity. It’s time for all of us to be proud!

Thank you so much for participating in the Hop! Be sure to leave a comment with your email to win your choice of any of my books. 
The go back up to the top of this blog and click on one of the authors you want to hop to next!

There’s a fun event going on over at my Author Blog too. Check Out the Big Gay Wedding event! Maybe win some more books. : )