LGBTQ History Month: The road to Ameri's first gay pri march

Contents:

• LGBTQ HISTORY MONTH: THE ROAD TO AMERI'S FIRST GAY PRI MARCH
• GAY US AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY MARCH BUDAPT PRI MARCH
• US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT
• ADVOCY GROUPS: ETHPIAN ERNMENT’S ANTI-GAY RHETORIC SPURS ONLE ATTACKS
• GAY PRI
• INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN

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

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 ia that LGBTQ+ people would march through the streets of New York Cy, proudly clarg their existence, their pri and their love was tly revolutnary back then. ” The event was put on by a gay men's rights group lled the Mattache Society, which was one of the earlit LGBTQ+ rights groups the Uned Stat ( formed 1950).

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. " Bce not, "Comg om activist backgrounds, anizers and marchers stuck wh what they knew, prentg themselv as proud gay people through their signs, chants, and displays of affectn.

” 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.

GAY US AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY MARCH BUDAPT PRI MARCH

It's her efforts that helped gay activists lay the foundatn for weeklong celebratns of gay pri leadg up to the climactic Gay Pri Para.

"Sargeant and Rodwell ran the Osr Wil Bookshop, the first gay bookstore the untry, and they ed their mailg list to raise funds and spread the word. Many of the planng meetgs were also held at the bookstore; as the NYU webse Rearchg Greenwich Village History wr, "served as a type of muny center for the gay muny the village. The first gay pri march took place New York Cy on June 28, 1970 — the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall holdg Christopher Street Liberatn Day banner, Davi / New York Public LibraryOct.

US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT

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 ps barrid themselv to the bar, and then the gay mob outsi the bar began to throw bricks and rocks toward the door and tried to break through the board up Stonewall Inn, September 1969.

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. Acrdg to historian and thor Lillian Farman, the picket protts were “staid” and reflected Kameny’s sire for gay tegratn to society and the workforce.

“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.

ADVOCY GROUPS: ETHPIAN ERNMENT’S ANTI-GAY RHETORIC SPURS ONLE ATTACKS

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. ”Michael Brown, who is named by the Tim as a founr of the Gay Liberatn Front, told Tim reporter Lacey Fosburgh: “We have to e out to the open and stop beg ashamed, or else people will go on treatg as eaks. ”At the end of the march, protters gathered Central Park's Sheep's Meadow for a gay "be-"Diana Davi / New York Public LibraryLater that same day, Los Angel held a “Christopher Street Wt” celebratn on Hollywood Boulevard that drew thoands.

GAY PRI

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. “We're beg ant, and we won't be harassed and grad any more, ” Mart Robson, a member of the Gay Activist Alliance, told The New York Tim.

NYPL has the archiv of pivotal anizatns, such as the Mattache Society of New York and the Gay Activists Alliance; the papers of pneerg activists like Barbara Gtgs; and vast holdgs LGBTQ pop culture.

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

Origs of Pri MonthThe roots of the gay rights movement go back to the early 1900s, when a handful of dividuals North Ameri and Europe created gay and lbian anizatns such as the the Society for Human Rights, found by Henry Gerber Chigo the 1920s.

Followg World War II, a small number of groups like the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis published gay- and lbian-posive newsletters and grew more vol mandg regnn for, and prottg discrimatn agast, gays and lbians. In 1966, for example, members of the Mattache Society held a “sip-” prott at Juli, a bar New York Cy, where they mand drks after announcg that they were gay, vlatn of lol laws agast servg alhol to gays and lbians. Dpe some progrs the postwar era, basic civil rights were largely nied to gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people—until one night June, 1969, when the gay rights movement took a fur step forward wh a seri of vlent rts New York Cy.

Stonewall RtsAs was mon practice many ci, the New York Police Department would ocsnally raid bars and rtrants where gays and lbians were known to gather. By the time the Stonewall Rts end on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went om beg a ge issue largely ignored by policians and the media to ont-page news Gay Pri ParaOne year later, durg the anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, activists New York Cy marched through the streets of Manhattan memoratn of the uprisg. The march, anized by the Eastern Regnal Conference of Homophile Organizatns (ERCHO) and the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Umbrella Commtee, was named the Christopher Street Liberatn Day time, that celebratn me to be simply known as the Gay Pri Para.