How Activists Organized the First Gay Pri Paras | HISTORY

Contents:

• GAY PRI
• HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
• GAY PRI 101: A BEGNER’S GUI TO GAY PRI PARA
• INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN

GAY PRI

Known then as the Christopher Street Liberatn Day March — named after the street on which Stonewall is loted — the para began on Washgton Place between Sheridan Square and Sixth Avenue and moved up Sixth Avenue, endg wh a “Gay-In” Central Park. It was ually “a small, pole group of gays and lbians [would picket] outsi Liberty Hall, " Sargeant scrib.

” The event was put on by a gay men's rights group lled the Mattache Society, which was one of the earlit LGBTQ+ rights groups the Uned Stat ( formed 1950). Acrdg to the History Channel, five months after Stonewall, Sargeant, Rodwell, and activists Ellen Brody and Lda Rhos attend the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) Philalphia and proposed a rolutn: that an annual march be held on the last Sunday June New York Cy to memorate Stonewall. Many rried lorful pennants or signs readg "Gay Pri!

" Bce not, "Comg om activist backgrounds, anizers and marchers stuck wh what they knew, prentg themselv as proud gay people through their signs, chants, and displays of affectn. ” Over a dozen LGBTQ+ rights groups were volved the planng, cludg lbian femist group the Lavenr Menace, formed rponse to mastream femism's excln of lbians; Gay Liberatn Front, formed post-Stonewall; lbian civil rights anizatn Dghters of Bilis; trans rights anizatn Queens Liberatn Front; and var stunt groups. It's her efforts that helped gay activists lay the foundatn for weeklong celebratns of gay pri leadg up to the climactic Gay Pri Para.

HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS

"AdvertisementADVERTISEMENTSargeant and Rodwell ran the Osr Wil Bookshop, the first gay bookstore the untry, and they ed their mailg list to raise funds and spread the word. Many of the planng meetgs were also held at the bookstore; as the NYU webse Rearchg Greenwich Village History wr, "served as a type of muny center for the gay muny the village.

Gay is good, gay is proud.

Craig Schoonmaker was the one who had suggted the word “pri” rather than “gay power.

GAY PRI 101: A BEGNER’S GUI TO GAY PRI PARA

“It was only after the march that the gay pneers realized what might be possible, ” Sargeant relled. 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. In 1978 what is perhaps the most-regnized symbol of Gay Pri ma s but at the San Francis event: the rabow flag.

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

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.

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.