A look back at a major turng pot the stggle for gay rights
Contents:
- INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
- LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
- HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
- WNS THE BIRTH OF PRI: FOOTAGE OF THE FIRST GAY LIBERATN DAY MARCH (1970)
- REMEMBERG THE 1970 CHRISTOPHER STREET GAY LIBERATN DAY MARCH
- PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
- FIRST GAY LIBERATN DAY (GAY PRI MARCH) NEW YORK CY
- GAY RIGHTS
INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
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. * the first gay liberation march *
” 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.
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. 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.
LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
On the afternoon of June 28, 1970, one of the first-ever Gay Liberatn Day march took place, origatg on Christopher Street Greenwich Village, directly outsi the Stonewall Inn. This event marked the first anniversary of the pivotal Stonewall Uprisg. The group of brave marchers, started small at jt 200 people, but grew to… * the first gay liberation march *
“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
On November 2, 1969, jt 4 months after the Stonewall rts Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Lda Rhos of the newly formed Gay… * the first gay liberation march *
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. 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.
WNS THE BIRTH OF PRI: FOOTAGE OF THE FIRST GAY LIBERATN DAY MARCH (1970)
* the first gay liberation march *
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. 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.
On November 2, 1969, jt 4 months after the Stonewall rts Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Lda Rhos of the newly formed Gay Liberatn Front proposed the first “gay pri para” which was then lled the “CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY MARCH.
REMEMBERG THE 1970 CHRISTOPHER STREET GAY LIBERATN DAY MARCH
Martha Shelley, who anized the first prott march New York Cy after the 1969 Stonewall Rt and helped found the history-changg Gay Liberatn Front, is g to Port Townsend for an … * the first gay liberation march *
At the fal annual Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) Philalphia, on November 2, 1969, the followg rolutn was proposed on behalf of Rodwell, reprentg the Homophile Youth Movement, and Broidy, of NYU’s Stunt Homophile League: “That the Annual Remr, orr to be more relevant, reach a greater number of people, and enpass the ias and ials of the larger stggle which we are engaged – that of our fundamental human rights – be moved both time and lotn.
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. Michael Evans/The New York TimJune 27, 2019When we hear of Pri march today, we tend to thk of fs and feathers, of men more than half-naked wavg om rabow-hued, Lurex-draped para floats, of Dyk on Bik who gun their motors fiance of genr norms, of wavg gay and trans celebri.
PARTY AND PROTT: THE RADIL HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN, STONEWALL AND PRI
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. * the first gay liberation march *
They are fitas that perlate through the ci and sometim small towns of the veloped world, as well as some parts of the rt of the world, and they mark the fact that gay people exist numbers, provi documentary evince that we have more fun and are more fabulo than anyone else, that we are gay the old sense of the word.
” The piece argued that homosexualy, “is a pathetic ltle send-rate substute for realy, a piable flight om life, ” addg that “ serv no enuragement, no glamorizatn, no ratnalizatn, no fake stat as mory martyrdom, no sophistry about simple differenc taste — and, above all, no pretense that is anythg but a pernic sickns.
The prumptn that gay people were emasculated, weak, impotent had been fied by the Stonewall uprisg, but this was somethg new: not people rnered by the police who fought back, but an open and immediate assertn by people who unprovoked clared their paper vered the march, wrg, “Thoands of young men and women homosexuals om all over the Northeast marched om Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow Central Park yterday proclaimg ‘the new strength and pri of the gay people.
FIRST GAY LIBERATN DAY (GAY PRI MARCH) NEW YORK CY
<strong>The long read</strong>: A police raid on a gay bar New York led to the birth of the Pri movement half a century ago – but the fight for LGBTQ+ rights go back much further than that * the first gay liberation march *
Michael Evans/The New York TimThe article went on: “Michael Kotis, print of the Mattache Society, which has about 1, 000 members around the untry, said that ‘the gay people have disvered their potential strength and gaed a new pri’ sce a battle on June 29, 1969, between a crowd of homosexuals and policemen who raid the Stonewall Inn, a place equented by homosexuals at 53 Christopher Street. That progrs has been signifintly erod by the current admistratn, wh s support of relig exemptns that allow people to ny service to gay people, wh s attempts to ot trans people om the ary, wh s stctn to embassi not to fly the rabow flag for Pri month.
GAY RIGHTS
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. 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. ” 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.