What Is the History of UK Gay Pri?

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
• THE ARE THE RADIL ROOTS OF BRISH GAY PRI
• GAY LIBERATN FRONT ACTIVISTS ON THE FIRST UK PRI
• UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT
• INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
• THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
• 50 YEARS ON FROM THE FOUNDG OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: PROGRS MA SCE AND APPLIBILY TODAY
• GAY LIBERATN
• THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Image source, Peter Tatchell / Jamie GarderImage ptn, The first Lbian and Gay Pri march central London, on 1 July 1972, was anised by the Gay Liberatn FrontFifty years ago about 2, 000 people took part London's first official Lbian and Gay Pri event, as part of a prott agast how the police treated that muny. Policg PriImage source, Peter Tatchell / Jamie GarderImage ptn, The first Lbian and Gay Pri march through central LondonImage source, Peter Tatchell / Jamie GarderImage ptn, Pri protters gathered Trafalgar Square on 1 July 1972The first Lbian and Gay Pri event the UK, on 1 July 1972 was a relatively small affair, although s roots are a gatherg a few away Highbury Fields held November tumn some 150 members of the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) held a torchlight vigil to prott agast police harassment of gay people. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, The GLF march of the early 1970s were staged prott at police harassment of gay peopleImage source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Lbians played a key and very visible role GLF march throughout the 1970s and 80sPeople like Andrew Lumsn, who attend the first London Pri march 1972, saw those events as the begng of a huge change.

PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI

The feelg was that we had broken down a barrier that was put ont of that said, 'you mt not be out, you mt not be seen', " he ptn, Stuart Feather and Andrew Lumsn took part the first London Pri march 50 years agoMr Lumsn, who will be marchg alongsi some of the origal Gay Liberatn Front members this year, says was also about fyg the anti-gay tablishment. Policians at PriImage source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Prime Mister Boris Johnson, then London mayor, at the 2008 Pri marchWhile the first march may have been held fiance of policians, 's somewhat different the days - every directly elected London mayor has attend Pri at some the 1980s, Pri foced on the Aids crisis and the troductn of Sectn 28, which saw the Conservative ernment of the day ban the promotn of homosexual liftyl schools. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, UK Black Pri 2019 - a celebratn of LGBTQ+ people of lourOthers have been dismayed at events that have taken place at Pri, cludg when members of the lbian and femist group Get The L Out gathered at the start of the para actns of the protters - scribed at the time as bigoted by Pri London - reflected, though, that there are those who wish to separate the "LGB" om the "T", argug that transgenr rights n impge on the rights of gay people, pecially s of solidary, 's fair to say there is an creasg number of people who feel the event has lost s way - that the culture around the Pri march and the rabow flag don't reprent them.

THE ARE THE RADIL ROOTS OF BRISH GAY PRI

Last year, some of the origal Gay Liberatn Front protters - cludg human rights mpaigner Peter Tatchell - held a Reclaim Pri to the origal route of the 1972 march, they lled for the return to the origal pot of Pri, as a celebratn of and a prott support of LGBTQ+ rights, whout the morn-day rporate sponsorship and mercialism. E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. ) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy.

GAY LIBERATN FRONT ACTIVISTS ON THE FIRST UK PRI

Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.

In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women.

In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act. Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons.

UNTEND NSEQUENC: THE LEGACY OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT

This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat. At the lol and natnal levels, the number of openly gay policians creased dramatilly durg the 1990s and 2000s, and 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir beme prime mister of Iceland, which ma her the world’s first openly gay head of ernment. In Ai, Asia, and Lat Ameri, openly gay policians have had only limed succs wng office; notable electns to natnal legislatur clud Patria Jiménez Flor Mexi (1997), Mike Waters South Ai (1999), and Clodovil Hernans Brazil (2006).

Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary. Soon they were advotg nothg ls than “gay liberatn” nscns-raisg groups to fundraisg danc, protts outsi hostile newspapers to refug for homels trans and queer people, this surge LGBTQ+ anisg took many forms, and as the first anniversary of the rts me to view, some the muny began discsg how bt to mark what was beg regard as the “Bastille day” of gay rights.

Wh a sgle lifetime, homosexualy has moved om beg a crime and a psychiatric disorr, punished the US by imprisonment, chemil stratn, social ostracisatn and a lifetime as a registered sex offenr, to a socially and legally regnised sexual inty. To relig and cultural nservativ, Pri paras are nothg ls than the public flntg of viancy, while many LGBTQ+ people regard today’s rporate-sponsored paras as havg sold out the radil, revolutnary mands of the gay liberatn movement. The roots of that bate go back to s earlit days, and suggt that Pri and the Stonewall rts have always been part of a ntent battle for inty and ownership – a battle that has helped produce the very ia of what beg a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer person might Stonewall rts were not the birth of the gay rights movement.

INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN

Seven years before that, when police had raid Coopers, a donut shop the cy ntled between two gay bars, LGBTQ+ patrons had attacked officers after the arrt of a number of drag queens, sex workers and gay had been a gay rights movement the US among people scribg themselv as “homophil” sce the late 40s. Hirschfeld’s scientific approach, bed wh his sympathetic treatment of LGBTQ+ people – he was himself homosexual – had been key velopg the ia that their shared experienc uld be unrstood not jt as discrete sexual (and crimal) acts, nor as psychiatric illns, but as a legible sexual and genr inty, which uld be afford civil rights.

Photograph: Getty ImagIn Los Angel 1950, a group of experienced polil activists and munists, cludg Communist party USA member Harry Hay, me together to form the Mattache Society, one of the first homosexual rights anisatns the US. ) The Mattache Society had radil roots activism, takg on the anisatnal stcture of cells and central anisatn favoured by the Communist well as publishg magaz for gay men, and supportg victims of police entrapment, the society had wir polil aims, cludg to “unify homosexuals isolated om their own kd” and to “te homosexuals and heterosexuals toward an ethil homosexual culture parallelg the cultur of the Negro, Mexin and Jewish peopl”.

THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN

It wasn’t enough to fend men who had sex wh men; rather, a polil stggle uld only be waged by creatg the ia of the homosexual as an inty, the same polil mol as other mori – someone who uld regnise him or herself as part of a wir culture. Such aims would bee key to the ncept of “gay pri” some two s two s, however, would be among the harst for LGBTQ+ people US history, as the greater visibily of the homosexual inty led to a nservative backlash, and a moral panic the media that was palised upon by policians. Ironilly, sackg 5, 000 feral employe and thstg them out of the closet, the red-baers provid a new hort of activists for the homophile movement, such as the army map service astronomer Frank Kameny, who voted the rt of his life to the LGBTQ+ e.

After he was forced to appear before the Hoe Un-Amerin Activi Commtee, Hay was expelled om the Mattache Society, now a growg anisatn of a few thoand men, and he wasn’t the last radil to be thrown homophile movement began to tackle “subversive elements” and orient self around rpectabily. In 1966, the Mattache Society challenged this policy wh a “sip-” at Juli’, a Greenwich Village bar that was popular wh gay men, but was attemptg to shake off s homosexual bars equently flouted this law, explog legal loophol and payg off the NYPD while chargg their LGBTQ+ ctomers high pric for watered-down drks. Dpe his own rervatns about the place, Mattache activist Dick Lesch, wrg jt a month after the rts, acknowledged how Stonewall was more than jt a dance bar, terg for those “who are not wele, or nnot afford, other plac of homosexual social gatherg”.

When, ncerned by the ongog unrt, members of the society pated on the board-up wdows of the Stonewall “WE HOMOSEXUALS PLEAD WITH OUR PEOPLE TO PLEASE HELP MAINTAIN PEACEFUL AND QUIET CONDUCT ON THE STREETS OF THE VILLAGE – MATTACHINE”, their ll went unheed. As the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns me together for a meetg November 1969 to discs the followg year’s Annual Remr, Rodwell wonred whether a memoratn of the rts – one whout a drs or other rtrictns, and that uld be mirrored across the natn – might not be more suable.

50 YEARS ON FROM THE FOUNDG OF THE GAY LIBERATN FRONT: PROGRS MA SCE AND APPLIBILY TODAY

At the same time, there were tensns around the excln of trans people, many of whom scribed themselv as queens and transvt, the language of the LGBTQ+ scene at the time, even while still intifyg themselv as “gay” umbrella, which brought people together for the e of liberatn, failed to acknowledge the different experienc of those who sheltered unr , or addrs the power imbalanc wh . It wasn’t until the 00s, though, that rporate sponsorship began to overwhelm Pri, as more fundg led to larger and larger events, which LGBTQ+ people are now often charged to the late 90s, some US activists created Gay Shame rponse to Pri’s mercialisatn, an event that foced on anisg around wir issu that affected the whole LGBTQ+ muny. Dpe the radil LGBTQ+ anisg that took place rponse to the Aids crisis – where Pri paras beme a loc for awarens-raisg protts – many more-radil activists felt that, wh creasg rporate volvement, the event was beg taken over by liberal activists wantg to assiate queer liv to beg a “mol mory”, wh marriage and ary service beg a symbol that gay people particular had “ma ”.

GAY LIBERATN

Gay assiatnists want to make sure they’re on the wng si the cizenship wars, and see no need to nont the legaci of systemic and systematic US opprsn that prevent most people livg this untry (and everywhere else) om exercisg their supposed ‘rights.

In recent years accatns have been ma that Pri has bee part of a “homonatnalist” project, where the victori won by LGBTQ+ activists sce the 50s, the face of wispread opposn and hostily, are now portrayed as evable products of a natnal culture. Last year, Richard Grenell, Donald Tmp’s ambassador to Germany, attacked Iran, sayg that “barbaric public executns are all too mon a untry where nsensual homosexual relatnships are crimalised and punishable by floggg and ath”. This is te, of urse – but then the same uld be said for the US’s close regnal ally, Sdi Rsia, both fascists and relig fundamentalists have found attempts to anise Pri march a potent rallyg ll, mobilisg wispread homophobic feelg by claimg that homosexualy is, sence, a rptg import om the wt.

THE GAY LIBERATN MOVEMENT

In Poland, natnalist and nservative policians have found electoral benef siar statements; only last year Jarosław Kaczyński, lear of the lg Law and Jtice party, scribed LGBTQ+ activism as a “foreign imported threat to the natn” e of such rhetoric across the world, and the history of European exportatn of homophobic laws, means that attempts by liberal, pro-LGBTQ+ mentators the wt to pict other untri as somehow naturally backwards is often dangeroly unterproductive for LGBTQ+ people those untri. Two Brish activists, Aubrey Walter and Bob Mellor, hopped on a plane and arrived jt time to attend the Black Panther's Revolutnary Peopl' Conventn – where, for the first time, an vatn was extend to legatns om the movements for women's and gay rights.

Photo: Ray Malone It is pursu of exactly that goal that the GLF – s after origally disband – has the 17th of June, 2019, almost exactly 50 years after Stonewall, a crowd of gay, lbian, trans, non-bary and queer activists gathered at Trafalgar Square, the se of the first London Pri march 1972.