How Activists Organized the First Gay Pri Paras | HISTORY

Contents:

• INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
• REMEMBERG THE 1970 CHRISTOPHER STREET GAY LIBERATN DAY MARCH
• LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
• HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
• PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
• GAY RIGHTS

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

” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anizers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anizg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s. Leonard Fk Photographs, The LGBT Communy Center Natnal History ArchiveMark SegalEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and marshal of the first Pri marchThe Christopher Street Gay Liberatn Day March was as revolutnary and chaotic as everythg we did that first year after the Stonewall rts.

” Today, my origal marshal’s badge is on display the JayEarly member of the Gay Liberatn Front and Radilbians and -anizer of the first march New York and Los AngelIt was a near miracle that the first Christopher Street Wt Para Los Angel kicked off at all on June 28, 1970.

For one day, we were victor agast the Ed Davis of the world, and no one seemed “dismod” the FkelsteJohn KyperEarly member of Boston’s Gay Liberatn Front and an anizer of Boston’s first Pri ParaWe held our first march Boston 1971 — a year after New York. Groups hosted the 17th ternatnal nference of ILGA (The Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn), and the energy of the ternatnal legat who attend and the excement of hostg the gatherg only add to the drama of the untry’s first actual succsful para.

REMEMBERG THE 1970 CHRISTOPHER STREET GAY LIBERATN DAY MARCH

The Stonewall Uprisg wasn’t the only prott durg that time (nor was the most tense, that signatn go to the Snake P rt), though 's remembered today as a turng pot the LGBT civil rights weekend brgs another 50th anniversary, this time of the para—the first gay rights march, held on June 28th, 1970, and now a centerpiece of Pri weekend New York Cy. And if we hadn't done that, nobody would remember the Stonewall today, ” said Karla Jay, a former women’s and genr studi profsor at Pace Universy, and the first woman chair of the Gay Liberatn says that wh a few days of Stonewall, flyers were already circulatg llg for a new kd of movement that wasn’t pole, and wouldn’t stay the shadows. Each week’s feature will clu imag om the New York Public Library’s LGBTQ week, we look back at the untry’s first gay pri march — held New York Cy on June 28, 1970, the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts — and what led up to that historic Saturday morng on June 28, 1969, police staged a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a mafia-n gay bar New York Cy's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH

The sign the wdow reads: “WE HOMOSEXUALS PLEAD WITH OUR PEOPLE TO PLEASE HELP MAINTAIN PEACEFUL AND QUIET CONDUCT ON THE STREETS OF THE VILLAGE — MATTACHINE” Diana Davi / New York Public LibraryJt a few days after the Stonewall Rts, gay activist Frank Kameny load up a b wh fellow activists and head down to Philalphia for the fifth “annual remr” picket prott outsi Inpennce Hall. “I thk that was probably Frank’s first realizatn that this was a new orr, thgs were changg, ” Farman days after the "annual remr, " on July 6, 1969, the New York tabloid The Daily News ran a homophobic article about the Stonewall raid by Frank Lisky, tled “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. ”Activists Lda Rhos, Arlene Khner, and Ellen Davi / New York Public LibrarySoon after the 1969 "remr", four activists — Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Lda Rhos and Ellen Broidy — cid to attend a regnal “homophile” nference and “propose that the staid ‘annual remrs’ of homophile pickets at Inpennce Hall Philalphia, held every July 4 for the prev five years, be replaced by a march New York Cy, " Farman men were members of the Homophile Youth Movement Neighborhoods, and the women members of Lavenr Menace.

HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS

The march stretched 15 blocks — three quarters of a e — at s longt, The New York Tim march end Central Park's Sheep’s Meadow, where the Tim wrote marchers "gathered to prott laws that make homosexual acts between nsentg adults illegal and social ndns that often make impossible for them to display affectn public, mata jobs or rent apartments. Pl Hoton reported the Los Angel Tim on the “hour-long, e-long procsn” down Hollywood Boulevard: “Sunday eveng had many thgs — joyo monstrators for sexual rights and digny, some sual attire, others briefs, ‘queens’ drag, ‘fairi’ wh paper wgs, clowns, leather-jacketed motorcyclists, a lbian on horseback, a python, whe hki, Amerin flags, hilar and somber signs and chants, a float pictg a homosexual nailed to the cross.

” The same day, a small group of San Francisns marched down Polk Street, then had a “gay-” piic that was broken up by equtrian and other New York groups had spent months planng the Manhattan event wh the help of anisers like Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist who had cut her anisg teeth durg the anti-Vietnam movement of the late 1960s.

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

Five months after the rts, activists Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Brody and Lda Rhos proposed a rolutn at the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) Philalphia that a march be held New York Cy to memorate the one-year anniversary of the raid.

”Spencer Grant/Getty ImagView of the large crowd, some of whom are holdg up handma signs and banners, participatg a gay and lbian pri para the Back Bay neighborhood of San Francis, activists marched down Polk Street and held a “Gay-” at Goln Gate Park on June 28th, too.

“Not only did liberatnists go to Philalphia to show solidary wh the black movement, but was there that Huey Newton as lear of the Panthers, first gave clear support of the Gay Cse, sayg that homosexuals were maybe the most opprsed people of Amerin society, and uld well be the most revolutnary. On 13th November, GLF ma the first ever, public monstratn the UK by lbians and gay men at Highbury Fields, Islgton, to prott the e of “pretty policemen” agent provotrs ed by the police to entrap gay men to attemptg acts of gross cency, a standard police practice and an easy way for them to crease the figur for crime tectn and prosecutn.

GAY RIGHTS

An Anti-Psychiatry Group foced on analysg and attackg the Psychiatric Establishments wholale acceptance of Juo Christian prejudice, Biblil thory, and the e of electric shock/emetic dg programm on gays and lbians who did not f , or who were found guilty of breakg the law.