How Activists Organized the First Gay Pri Paras | HISTORY

Contents:

• THE OLST KNOWN GAY MAN?
• GAY PRI
• WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO-ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’
• HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS

THE OLST KNOWN GAY MAN?

The rts—which took place after a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York Cy—served as a talyst for the gay rights movement the Uned Stat and across the globe. To honor that, we've round up some of the most historic firsts om the LGBTQ muny, om the first pro-gay film to the first state to repeal sodomy laws. Der Eigene (The Own), which was published om 1896 to 1932 by Adolf Brand om Berl, Germany, is nsired the first gay journal the world, acrdg to Out magaze.

Throughout the perdil's nearly 40 years of publitn, vered topics like homosexualy and bisexualy a number of lerary and artistic ways, cludg poetry, prose, polil manifto, and nu photography. One of the mtee's first iativ was a petn to repeal Paragraph 175, an anti-gay piece of legislatn Germany's Imperial Penal Co, which crimalized sexual acts between men. In 1961, Illois beme the first state to repeal those sodomy laws and crimalize homosexual ntact between nsentg adults, acrdg to the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn.

Five months after the rts, activists Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Brody, and Lda Rhos ma a proposn at the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns that there be an annual march New York Cy to memorate the event on the last Saturday of every June, acrdg to Back then, was lled the Christopher Street Liberatn Day, although the march was a precursor to what would later bee the NYC Pri March that still tak place today.

GAY PRI

Multiple LGBT rights anizatns, cludg the Gay Liberatn Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, me together to form this march—and The New York Tim reported that participants took up nearly 15 cy blocks at the ial march. He noted that he'd "robbed banks and kidnapped children and murred people" past rol and that he uldn't unrstand why people thought that "choosg to play a gay guy" was "nsired a reer enr.

After participatg New York Cy's Christopher Street Liberatn Day 1972, Jeanne Manford (who's seen holdg the "parents" sign the photo above), the mother of Morty Manford, a gay man, created PFLAG 1973. Acrdg to the PFLAG webse, she cid to start the support group bee of her experience at the march, where "many gay and lbian people ran up to [her] … and begged her to talk to their parents [for them].

WORLD’S FIRST GAY GBY CLUB TURNS 20: ‘NO-ONE HAD SEEN PLAYERS LIKE BEFORE’

Its creatn spired siar groups offerg "'safe havens' and mutual support for parents wh gay and lbian children" across the untry, acrdg to s webse.

And jt hours after that terview, DeGener' character on Ellen me out as gay as well an episo famoly lled "The Puppy Episo, " acrdg to Vany Fair. But more often, is left to satiable rearchers like Dose, followg a trail of microspic ’s no shortage of memorable moments this le of tective work, says Dose, an affable 72-year-old wh a shock of whe hair who has dited his life to unearthg the roots of the gay liberatn movement: There was the meetg wh the refed elrly dghter of a physician who worked wh Hirschfeld, who, after ffee and ke, prented Dose wh a box of antique Japane sex toys. ” There was the fortuo meetg wh the stute’s hoekeeper, who scribed her tenure as the happit time of her life, and regaled them wh tal of gettg a massive Indonian stone phall statue through German 1897, Hirschfeld helped found the Scientific Humanarian Commtee, partially outraged rponse to the trial of thor Osr Wil, two years earlier England, on 25 charg of “gross cency” related to his homosexual relatnships.

In the years after World War I, the relatively progrsive Weimar Republic laid a foundatn for Berl’s liberated gay scene, replete wh r barets, high-level advot, and creased eedom.

HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS

Among them was a small group, cludg Dose, who brought forth the Magn Hirschfeld 1982, Germany was preparg to mark 50 years sce the Nazi takeover, and young gay rights activists cludg Dose hoped to shed light on LGBTQ persecutn and activism. But the Nazis’ seized holdgs had first been distributed to other librari, and then redistributed by Brish and Amerin forc, stterg the books across Europe’s cultural tl they’ve unvered so far clu the 1904 The women's clothg and s natural velopment (found Berl), a 1920 py of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexualy by Sigmund Frd (found Prague), and Va homosexualis, a 1902 llectn by gay activist Augt Fleischmann (found a Polish bookstore wh a note sayg had been slated for stctn 1933).

Only one filled- py has been found, the Berl State Library, but an timated 40, 000 were once held at the stute for rearch gay liberatnAs he pieced together the fdgs, Dose realized how much broar Hirschfeld’s foc was than gay liberatn. To date, there have been five openly LGBTQ+ people who have served as a natnal head of ernment, Iceland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Serbia -- but gay, bisexual, lbian, and even transgenr lears have guid natns sce time immemorial. That he sat on the throne named Neferkare leads many scholars to believe the tale Kg Neferkare and General Sase, which scrib a gay relatnship between a pharaoh and his general, was fact about Pepi, though Egyptologists ntue to bate if the story was tth or fictn.

The dictator of the cy of Athens 514, Hipparch had ma a sexual advance toward the openly gay Harmodi and was rejected multiple tim, acrdg to historian Thucydis.