Contents:
- INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
- HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
- LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
- NEW YORK’S FIRST GAY PRI PARA
INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
“Comg out” me wh threats of vlence and social that changed the aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall uprisg—when a group of LGBTQ people rted rponse to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York Cy. In 1965, for example, members of the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) began picketg each year on July 4 outsi Philalphia’s Inpennce Hall. “The homosexual who wants to live a life of self-fulfillment our current society has all the rds stacked agast them, ” read one 1970 article about the upg march the Gay Liberatn Front News.
” 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. LAPD chief Edward Davis had a history of bashg LA’s gay muny, pared activists to bank robbers, and said the group would have to pay $1, 500 and post a $1.
HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
Marchers reportedly took up 15 cy spectacle marked the world’s very first Gay Pri a year after the Stonewall Rts, which patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York Cy, fought back agast a police raid, the march was anized by the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Commtee to memorate the began as a memoratn quickly beme one of the first steps the broar gay rights movement the Uned Stat. “Thoands of young men and women homosexuals om all over the Northeast” participated, The Tim reported, “proclaimg ‘the new strength and pri of the gay people.
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. 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.
LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
]But Pri was not always so unabashedly celebratory; for a long time, was a radil asslt on mastream valu, a means to fy the belief that homosexualy was a s, an illns and a crime, that gay people were subhuman. Declarg yourself is now so route (at least among people more liberal muni) that we fet the speratn Harvey Milk’s 1978 entreaty that everyone who was gay e out if any progrs was to be ma.
Some members of the para saw patrts standg on the sil, watchg; one proclaimed that he would ll out on the spot the gay iends he saw who weren’t participatg. Fred Sargeant wrote The Village Voice: “Before Stonewall, gay lears had primarily promoted silent vigils and pole pickets, such as the ‘Annual Remr’ Philalphia. ” 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.
I me out gradually and anxly: moved wh my first boyiend when I was 23 1987, and thereby grew hont wh iends and fay; wrote a novel wh gay them that was published when I was 31; joed the board of the Natnal L. A few years ago, I was ntacted by a reporter om my high school paper who was wrg an article wh the workg tle “Gay at Horace Mann: A Historil Perspective. 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.
NEW YORK’S FIRST GAY PRI PARA
The Tim quoted Michael Brown, then 29 and a foundg member of the Gay Liberatn Front: “We have to e out to the open and stop beg ashamed, or else people will go on treatg as eaks. 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.
This year’s march fly the face of a vice print who, the print joked, would like to hang all gay people; of the ongog e of nversn therapi; of the ntued executns of gay people Iran and Islamic State-ntrolled terrori. And if we hadn't done that, nobody would remember the Stonewall today, " said Karla Jay, the first woman chair of the Gay Liberatn Front and a retired women's and genr studi profsor at Pace Universy.
June 27, 1973Igng a MovementEarly the morng on June 28, police raid the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar that had bee a staple of New York Cy's unrground gay muny.