A look back at a major turng pot the stggle for gay rights
Contents:
INSI THE FIRST PRI PARA—A R PROTT FOR GAY LIBERATN
”When John D’E heard a group of LGBTQ activists would be marchg the streets of New York June 1970, he told his boyiend and several of his gay iends. For centuri, homosexualy had been stigmatized, crimalized, and persecuted.
“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. Now known as the first Pri paras, the gay liberatn march that took place New York and other U. )Stonewall sparks a movementDpe the rampant homophobia of the early 20th century, the LGBTQ muny had ma self visible before.
HOW ACTIVISTS ORGANIZED THE FIRST GAY PRI PARAS
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. Sudnly, the gay liberatn movement that had been perlatg boiled over.
“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. “Gay Liberatn is for the homosexual who ref to accept such a ndn. Gay Liberatn is for the homosexual who stands up, and fights back.