Takg s cue om the revolutnary events at Stonewall New York Cy a year earlier, the LGBT muny Chigo held s first annual Gay Liberatn March June of 1970. This march (which me to be known as the PRIDE Para) enuraged people to fight homophobia, to e out and raise awarens of the issu and jtic facg the muny.
Contents:
- INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
- THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
- HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
- LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
New York Cy was the se of the natn’s first gay pri para on June 28, 1970. A few other ci also held march that year. * pride parade 1970 *
Amid the flurry of rabow-lan rporate logos, sponsored events and news ems about gay pengus, is difficult to turn on a televisn or set foot public durg June whout the remr that is Pri Month for LGBT and queer people. Gee Dudley, a photographer and artist who also served as the first director of New York Cy’s Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, documented scen om pri paras New York Cy om the late 1970s through the early ‘90s.
The years saw Ana Bryant’s homophobic csa through the “Save Our Children” mpaign 1977, the electn and assassatn of Harvey Milk 1978, and the Whe Night rts the followg summer after the lenient sentencg of Milk’s murrer, Dan Whe. “It was, a sense, the year we buted on the larger public stage, ” says Jim Saslow, a profsor of art history at the Cy Universy of New York and an early gay activist.
THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
A look back at a major turng pot the stggle for gay rights * pride parade 1970 *
“We were beg acceptable enough that a gay person uld have a signifint polil reer, but we also beme very aware of how much of a nerve that was touchg for nservative people.
HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
The banner om the begng of the first Christopher Street Liberatn Day March, 1970. The CSLD March took place exactly one year after the Stonewall Rts, on June 28, 1970, but wasn't the first LGBTQ rights march the U.S. That distctn belongs to Chigo, who hosted their first Gay Pri Para on June 27, 1970, one day before New York Cy. Photograph om the Leonard Fk Photography Collectn, the LGBT Communy Center Natnal History Archiv. * pride parade 1970 *
But as the number of out gay people grew, says Saslow, the paras transned om timate gathergs of like-md people to events attend by a broar array of participants.
“The guy a drs wh a beard, nng ont of the task force banner, ptur a lot of the atmosphere of the early gay liberatn muny, bee so much of me out of the hippie movement, ” says Saslow. Partners Charl Llie and Frz Lohman began to exhib art by gay artists their SoHo loft 1969, the same year the Stonewall uprisg took place. ” Wh the visibily afford to LGBT people today, and particularly to gay men, is easy to fet that embracg on the street was a bold actn to make.
LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
Gay Pri Paras are a hallmark the fight for LGBT equaly and visibily—and there’s much more to them than feather boas and guys jockstraps! * pride parade 1970 *
”When John D’E heard a group of LGBTQ activists would be marchg the streets of New York June 1970, he told his boyiend and several of his gay iends. “Comg out” me wh threats of vlence and social that changed the aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall uprisg—when a group of LGBTQ people rted rponse to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York Cy. In 1965, for example, members of the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) began picketg each year on July 4 outsi Philalphia’s Inpennce Hall.