Gay Freedom Day 1974 - FoundSF

Contents:

• EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970
• 1978 GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO
• A HISTORY OF GAY FREEDOM DAY, DYKE MARCH, AND TRANS MARCH
• GAY FREEDOM PARA (SAN FRANCIS, 1978)
• 1980 GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO
• 1986 SAN FRANCIS LBIAN AND GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO
• LOOKBACK: WHAT GAY LIFE WAS LIKE SAN FRANCIS 1976
• DID NAMBLA MARCH GAY PRI PARAS THE 70S AND 80S?

EVERY SF PRI THEME SCE THE FIRST-EVER GAY FREEDOM DAY 1970

Willie Brown urged everyone to register to vote, so they uld oppose a statewi iative sponsored by Fullerton Republin Assemblyman John Briggs that would perm public school districts to fire homosexuals.

A lot of progrs has been ma toward this goal the last 50 years, cludg a Supreme Court lg jt two weeks ago that gay employe were protected om job discrimatn unr the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the fight is far om over. Thirty people marched down Polk street as part of the San Francis Gay Liberatn March, acrdg to Mark Sawch om the GLBT Historil Society Mm San forward several s later, crowds have grown om thoands to more than a ln participants paradg down Market Street every year --- at least until the COVID-19 panmic.

And went back to 1970, was a two day event that June Here's how to watch 2023 San Francis Pri Para on ABC7Sawch says there was a piic "gay-" gatherg Goln Gate Park's Speedway found TONS of footage our ABC7 News archive datg back to the 1972 para when was lled Christopher Street Wt. Sawch says the tle referenc the street New York Cy's Greenwich Village neighborhood where Stonewall and other tablishments tered to LGBTQ the para's ceptn 51 years ago, the para has gone through several name Origal rabow flag returns home to SF, displayed at GLBT Historil Society1973 -1980: Gay Freedom Day1981 - 1994: Internatnal Lbian & Gay Freedom Day Para1995 - 2013: San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Celebratn2014- to prent: San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Para and CelebratnMORE: San Francis Internatnal Airport opens termal honorg Harvey MilkOf urse, the para is now simply referred to as "San Francis Pri. It was officially lled the Gay Freedom Day up until 1981 when beme known as the Internatnal Lbian and Gay Freedom Day Para, and then changg aga 1995 to the San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Celebratn.

1978 GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO

CONTINGENTS/PARTICIPANTSGay VetsGay Amerin IndiansBay Area Coaln Agast the Briggs AmendmentSupervisor Harvey Milkgay teachersanti-Ana Bryant ntgent ("Ana Bryant: Emprs of the Bigots")tersectnal ntgents -- agast racism, for workers'/workg class rights"Separatn of Church om State"Women Uned to Defeat BriggsOlivia RerdsDeaf Gays of San FrancisSEIU/Department Store Employe Unn Lol 1100Gays for LSDL. The thg we ll the Gay Pri Para was, once upon a time, lled the Gay Freedom Day Para — a better name, if you ask , bee at this pot gay folks are pretty proud enough, but not always pletely ee. The gural event San Francis was a small 20- to 30-person march of "hair faeri" followed by a "gay-" Goln Gate Park the summer of 1970, memoratg the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts.

It was ially dubbed the Christopher Street Wt para, featured a poster wh a upraised fist and the words "Gay Pri, " and keepg wh San Francis's place hippie history, was way more nu and kooky than the equivalent event New York. The Civic Center celebratn that we all know began 1982, and the annual event was known as the Gay Freedom Day celebratn, followed by Internatnal Lbian and Gay Freedom Day, and only beme officially known as Pri, or the San Francis Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr Pri Celebratn, 1995.

A HISTORY OF GAY FREEDOM DAY, DYKE MARCH, AND TRANS MARCH

Dyke March began 1993 and still bears some more of the prott nature and grassroots-y-ns of the origal Gay Freedom Day events, wh handma signs, light nudy, no real floats, and most people on foot.

GAY FREEDOM PARA (SAN FRANCIS, 1978)

Also featur terviews wh State Senator Milton Marks who reflects on the Briggs iative and creasg opposn to Gay rights and lawyer Carol Ruth Silver, who stat that: "People here are celebratg.

Part of the crowd at the Civic Center celebratn at the end of the 1977 San Francis Gay Freedom Day Para; photograph by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers (1993-11), GLBT Historil Society.

1980 GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO

Inially referred to as the Gay Liberatn March, then as Christopher Street Wt, then as Gay Freedom Day, the celebratn ployed both ivoly and prott hop of iatg a cultural shift how society viewed LGBTQ people. Organizers distributed photopi of the typed, llaged and hand-drawn documents seen here to gui marchers and sponsors of a 1975 lumn the Bay Area Reporter, muny lear and mera-store owner Harvey Milk (1930–1978) poted to two challeng for Gay Freedom Day anizers: promotg the para through the media and obtag municipal fundg.

By the time Milk beme California’s first openly gay elected official as a member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors 1978, mastream media were creasgly providg advance verage of the event—and that same year, the Para Commtee obtaed s first grant om the cy.

1986 SAN FRANCIS LBIAN AND GAY FREEDOM DAY PARA VIO

Now an ternatnal symbol of LGBTQ muny, the flag buted wh two exampl flown on the monumental flagpol at Uned Natns Plaza on Gay Freedom Day, June 25, Para 1978; footage by Crawford Barton, Crawford Barton Papers, GLBT Historil Society. Behd the ftivi, another aspect of the Gay Freedom Day Para returned year after year throughout the 1970s: arguments about goals, disagreements on tactics and fights over cln and reprentatn. The headle that starts on the right page ntu on subsequent pag to give a full 1928 quote by early German homosexual-emancipatn lear Kurt Hiller: "The liberatn of homosexuals n only be the work of homosexuals themselv.

” 1972 Emms Hoe, a “gay swchboard” and service anizatn, sued the Christopher Street Wt Para Commtee for $200 small claims urt, claimg that the proceeds om the year’s event had not been distributed to the cy’s gay social-service anizatns as promised by the mtee. Sprg 1973 Gay Freedom Week chair Steve Gsburg quashed mors about an irreparable rift the Gay Freedom Day anizg mtee, whose members asserted that the San Francis para would be “the largt and only one the Wt. 1976 A aln of anizatns cludg the Gay Lato Alliance, Gay Amerin Indians, Bay Black Cc and Lbian Actn Organizatn voted a rolutn clarg that the Gay Freedom Day Para had lost sight of the te meang of the 1969 Stonewall rts.

LOOKBACK: WHAT GAY LIFE WAS LIKE SAN FRANCIS 1976

The Commtee was workg agast the Briggs Iniative, a state ballot measure put to the voters November that would have banned gays and lbians and their supporters om workg California public schools.

The satiril flyer on the right oppos the fictnal “Larry Rice” of “Gays Opposg Discrimatn” (GOD) who urg para-goers to wear gray bs sus so that gay people will “appear as socially acceptable members of the bourgeoisie.

DID NAMBLA MARCH GAY PRI PARAS THE 70S AND 80S?

September 1980Disgntled members of the LGBTQ muny mpaigned agast the move of the Pri “rporate board” to elimate general membership and muny volvement direct cisn-makg about the Gay Freedom Day and Para. What remas remarkable is how, even as endured perennial dangers of ternal divisn and external attack, Gay Freedom Day ntued to grow to the huge event that we know as San Francis Pri today. 1976 Gay Freedom Day proclamatn; Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart Papers (1993-13), GLBT Historil 1976, Mayor Gee Mosne issued a proclamatn for Gay Freedom Day for the first time, signalg the growg importance of the celebratn as a civic event.