Gay and Lbian Liberatn Perd (1970 – 1978) — PRIDE HISTORY GROUP

Contents:

• GAY PRI
• 40 YEARS AFTER BLOODY PROTT, GAY RIGHTS PNEERS GET THE APOLOGY THEY SERVE
• FIRST GAY MARDI GRAS
• GAY AND LBIAN LIBERATN PERD (1970 – 1978)

GAY PRI

Gay Pri, also lled LGBT Pri or LGBTQ Pri, byname Pri, annual celebratn, ually June the Uned Stat and sometim at other tim other untri, of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) inty. Gay Pri memorat the Stonewall rts, which began the early hours of June 28, 1969, after police raid the Stonewall Inn bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood.

Gay Pri typilly volv a seri of events and is often pped by a para volvg marchers and lourful floats om the LGBTQ muny and s the Stonewall rts, LGBTQ dividuals had generally not broadst their sexual orientatn or inty, but the event galvanized the gay muny and sparked greater polil activism (see gay rights movement).

In 1970, on the first anniversary of the rts, several hundred monstrators marched along Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street, which ns past the Stonewall, what many nsir the first Gay Pri march (though other memoratns were also held that year). Early Gay Pri events (often lled Freedom Day or Gay Liberatn Day) were often sparsely attend and enuntered protts, particularly bee of the outlandish stum that some marchers wore. As acceptance of the LGBTQ muny creased among the straight muny, policians sympathetic to the views of the LGBTQ muny and gay-iendly bs and rporatns began participatg the march.

40 YEARS AFTER BLOODY PROTT, GAY RIGHTS PNEERS GET THE APOLOGY THEY SERVE

The total number of people participatg—both gay and straight—mhroomed, and Pri events were held many part of the globe, cludg ci where they sometim enuntered stiff ristance (e. The tentn was to promote gay and lbian culture and to enurage polil activism agast the discrimatn they routely group anised a tradnal march and public meetg the morng and a street para at night.

Lead-up to Mardi GrasThe Stonewall rts that began the early hours of 28 June 1969 New York Cy were the rult of a police raid on a gay bar lled the Stonewall rts are wily nsired to mark the start of the ternatnal gay rights March 1978 the San Francis based Gay Freedom Day Commtee ntacted Atralian activists llg for solidary activi to support a march planned on the anniversary of the Stonewall march was opposn to the ntroversial Briggs Iniative which if passed would have mandated the firg of gay and lbian teachers California public Gay Solidary Group formed Sydney to mark ‘Internatnal Gay Solidary Day’ on 24 June Atralia, var groups and anisatns had been lobbyg, stagg monstratns and march, producg newsletters and a variety of other activi to promote their e. Makg historyAtralian Lbian and Gay Archiv print Graham Willett scrib the 1978 Mardi Gras as the ‘most dramatic moment of the backlash’ agast the mpaign for gay rights.

Addnally, laws around obtag perms for street march and paras were such, the first Mardi Gras march was a major civil rights tone beyond the gay muny. Gatherg momentumCapalisg on this and on the wellsprg of support that had emerged, the gay muny cid to keep gog wh the ia of a ntued to mpaign on different aspects of discrimatn agast them, and this also began to translate to a ut acceptance of gay people as ctomers and employe.

FIRST GAY MARDI GRAS

Public fear about AIDS was so great that anisers of the 1985 Mardi Gras were unr tense prsure to prsure, bed wh the shock of seeg iends, lovers and partners sicken and die, fostered a termatn and rilience wh the gay and lbian muny. Not1 Robert Swie, Judh O’Callaghan and Glynis Jon, Absolutely Mardi Gras: Costume and Dign of the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras, Powerhoe Publishg, Sydney, 1996, p.

GAY AND LBIAN LIBERATN PERD (1970 – 1978)

Pair of buckled slg back platform sho wh peek-a-boo toThe sho form part of Ron Munster's prize-wng 'Lucille Balls' stume worn at the 1994 Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras.

ReferencHistory of the event, Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi GrasRobert Swie, Judh O’Callaghan and Glynis Jon, Absolutely Mardi Gras: Costume and Dign of the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras, Powerhoe Publishg, Sydney, Willett, Livg out Loud: A History of Gay and Lbian Activism Atralia, Allen & Unw, 2000Richard Wherrett (ed. It is important to note that there existed lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr dividuals, muni, and relatnships long before the terms beme monplace. Gay – 1955 – the term gay was ed throughout Europe earlier, but this is the year most agree that gay me to mean same-sex relatnships between men.