Christopher Street Gay Liberatn Day, The Story Of The First Pri

Contents:

• CHRISTOPHER STREET – INTERNATNAL SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
• GAY LIBERATN NEW YORK CY, 1969-1973, BY LDSAY BRANSON
• CHRISTOPHER STREET GAY LIBERATN DAY, THE STORY OF THE FIRST PRI

CHRISTOPHER STREET – INTERNATNAL SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

Some transwomen engaged sex work to survive; homels gay teens, left the ld by the fai who were meant to protect them, mixed wh happy hour patrons at late night bar crawls. While Chelsea was rife wh boutiqu and over-priced gyms, on Christopher Street, wasn’t rare to see b drivers, rrectns officers and UPS workers still uniform, belly up at a bar, beg ee, gay and safe. Gallery: Rob Brown, Herald-Examer Collectn/Los Angel Public LibraryLos Angel' first pri para was nceived when Reverend Bob Humphri (founr of the Uned Stat Missn), Morris Kight (a founr of the Gay Liberatn Front), and Reverend Troy Perry (founr of the Metropolan Communy Church) me together to memorate the one-year anniversary of Stonewall.

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

Over the urse of the early 20th century, was a safe haven for New York's LGBTQ muny and home to events—cludg the Stonewall Inn protts—that would bee flash pots for the mastreamg of the gay rights movement all across the remas to this day an important symbol of LGBTQ life New York (photographs of the sign at s tersectn wh Gay Street are tourist souvenir shop stapl), even though 's now more populated wh luxury shops and extravagant gyms than the nightlife hotspots that was once famo for. While the thory did not directly ce gay bars any of s extensive regulatns, police will go on to terpret a le agast nng a "disorrly" tablishment to mean venu equented by gay people. Durg this time, the FBI matas a list of gay Amerins, who will subsequently be targeted by police for an array of illegal activi, cludg habatn and kissg the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, many queer people of lor had been leadg a (relatively) open life the north Manhattan neighborhood—as celebrated gay artist Bce Nugent put : "Nobody was the closet.

In the face of laws barrg gay men om beg seen public together, gay men and drag queens beg to cise the wateront and steal away wh anonymo lovers to the squalid flopho dotted along the P. Proprietors of gay-iendly bars are routely harassed; gay patrons are refed a bid to spotlight this discrimatn, on April 21, 1966 the gay rights group the Mattache Society cis to hold a Sip-.

Activists hatch a plan to go around bars the Village, and tt out whether they will still receive service after revealg to bartenrs that they are gay—all ont of the half dozen reporters they have ved along for the ri. The former 1920s speakeasy—which is still around today—is actually an gno gay bar, but the manager is hoots wh the activists and ref them service ont of the reporters.

GAY LIBERATN NEW YORK CY, 1969-1973, BY LDSAY BRANSON

On June 28, a few hundred gay men and lbians march om Christopher Street up Sixth Ave and to Central Park bearg handma banners wh slogans like "Gay Pri" and "Gay is Good. The Osr Wil Bookshop, found by leadg gay activist Craig Rodwell as the first store New York to exclively sell tl by gay and lbian thors, mov to Christopher Street. First opened at 291 Mercer Street 1967, mov to the rner of Christopher and Gay Streets (the etymology of Gay Street's name, cintally, is a total cince) held on Christopher Street for the victims of the Orlando shootg.

CHRISTOPHER STREET GAY LIBERATN DAY, THE STORY OF THE FIRST PRI

Cmpley opens fire outsi a li at the rner of Washgton and 10th Streets, woundg two people before movg on to Ramrod, a gay club on Wt Street between 10th and Christopher. By 1982 the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is formally troduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn for the disease that is sweepg through the untry, and cimatg the Village's gay populatn. Perhaps 's bee of pure enomics—as artists n no longer afford to live there, or maybe LGBTQ people feel safe livg all over the cy now, but Christopher Street and s Village is more gay spir now than actual makp.

Sourc: Greenwich Village and how got that way, Terry Miller; Gay Metropolis, Charl Kaiser; The Village: 400 years of beats and bohemians, radils and rogu, John Strsbgh; Love, Christopher Street: Reflectns of New York Cy, Thomas Keh. 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.