When mers and gay activists uned: the real story of the film Pri | Pri | The Guardian

Contents:

• WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
• GAY PRI
• PRI OR PROTT? WAL’ FIRST GAY PRI MARCH, 1985
• 50 YEARS OF L.A. PRI, THE WORLD’S FIRST PERMTED GAY PRI PARA, POSTERS
• A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY

WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI

" He acknowledg now that this is a le you n only e once a pch and explas that he went on to tell the story of mers the Dulais valley South Wal durg the 1984-5 strike – the longt Brish history – and a gay and lbian group om London that donated more money (£11, 000 by December 1984) to their e than any other fundraiser the UK, along wh a mib emblazoned wh the logo LGSM: Lbians and Gays Support the a when a gree of homophobia was the norm, LGSM drove a uple of mib om Hackney Communy Transport and a clapped-out VW mper van to a bleak mg town South Wal to prent their donatns, uncerta what sort of wele to expect. Three years later and the film, shot Banwen, Wal, and London, and directed by Tony-wng Matthew Warch (rponsible for Matilda the Mil, and soon to be artistic director of the Old Vic), is might assume a rom about strikg mers and 80s gays was unlikely to be big box-office, but the same was probably said of Billy Ellt. "In the homema LGSM documentary, we also glimpse a tall, handsome fellow wearg groovy leather troers, shakg a donatns bucket outsi Gay's the Word bookshop London's Marchmont Street – this is Jonathan Blake.

Cliff, an olr mer ( the film, a killgly funny and affectg Bill Nighy) appears the documentary sayg: "The lbians and gays have been super duper. One hope is that the film might revive polil tert bee the activism of the left has been siled, the tra unns are weak, gay rights issu aren't there. "Mike marvels at how tim have changed for homosexuals the metropolan first world: "It is unbelievable, we have ma such progrs.

And when he has to make a speech a gay bar wh a clientele whose look is more S&M than M&S, you fear for him – how is all gog to pan out? Twenty-seven gay people ( the film is a dozen) slept on his floor – the morng, his six-year-old dghter "uldn't put her foot down". We knew gay people existed – my dad worked wh a mer who was gay – but nobody openly talked about ; was nsired very personal.

GAY PRI

Spencer Grant via Getty ImagView of the large crowd, some of whom are holdg up handma signs and banners, participatg a gay and lbian Pri para the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, 1970. (Photo by Spencer Grant/Getty Imag)Harold Adler/Unrwood Archiv via Getty ImagA participant at a gay Pri gatherg Goln Gate Park, San Francis, California, cir Imag via Getty ImagA group, led by several people rryg an 'It's Time! Allan Tannenbm via Getty ImagCoupl embrace and kiss Central Park after a gay Pri para, New York, New York, June 26, Alpert via Getty ImagA gay rights protter drag wh a banner clarg 'Not Every Boy Dreans Of Beg A Mare' durg a gay rights march up Fifth Avenue to Central Park, New York Archive via Getty ImagA group of men ri a tck at the tersectn of 32nd Street and Fifth Avenue durg the annual gay Pri para New York Cy, cir Prs via Getty ImagGay and lbian Pri para New York Cy, cir 1980.

Photofn via Getty ImagA lbian and gay Pri London, Globe via Getty ImagGay Pri para march down Charl Street Boston on June 20, 1981. Barbara Alper via Getty ImagGay Fathers take part a gay Pri para on the rner of Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue S New York Cy, June 1982.

PRI OR PROTT? WAL’ FIRST GAY PRI MARCH, 1985

Barbara Alper via Getty ImagMembers of the People Wh AIDS movement rry a banner durg the gay Pri para New York Cy, June Reste via Getty ImagNear the tersectn of North Broadway and Wt Barry Avenue, participants march behd a banner that reads 'G.

C., Gay & Lbian Physicians of Chigo' durg the annual Chigo gay and lbian Pri day para, Chigo, Illois, June 28, Sohm/Visns of Ameri via Getty ImagGay and lbian Pri para, Hollywood, California, McPartland via Getty ImagTwo women wearg 'Wife' signs around their necks, se for the mera, at the 1989 gay Pri para Greenwich Village, Manhattan, memoratg the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, June 25, 1989: #TheFutureIsQueer is HuffPost’s monthlong celebratn of queerns, not jt as an inty but as actn the world.

Gay Pri, also lled LGBT Pri or LGBTQ Pri, byname Pri, annual celebratn, ually June the Uned Stat and sometim at other tim other untri, of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) inty. Gay Pri memorat the Stonewall rts, which began the early hours of June 28, 1969, after police raid the Stonewall Inn bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood. Gay Pri typilly volv a seri of events and is often pped by a para volvg marchers and lourful floats om the LGBTQ muny and s the Stonewall rts, LGBTQ dividuals had generally not broadst their sexual orientatn or inty, but the event galvanized the gay muny and sparked greater polil activism (see gay rights movement).

50 YEARS OF L.A. PRI, THE WORLD’S FIRST PERMTED GAY PRI PARA, POSTERS

In 1970, on the first anniversary of the rts, several hundred monstrators marched along Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street, which ns past the Stonewall, what many nsir the first Gay Pri march (though other memoratns were also held that year). Early Gay Pri events (often lled Freedom Day or Gay Liberatn Day) were often sparsely attend and enuntered protts, particularly bee of the outlandish stum that some marchers wore. As acceptance of the LGBTQ muny creased among the straight muny, policians sympathetic to the views of the LGBTQ muny and gay-iendly bs and rporatns began participatg the march.

A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY

The total number of people participatg—both gay and straight—mhroomed, and Pri events were held many part of the globe, cludg ci where they sometim enuntered stiff ristance (e. In 1885, exactly one-hundred years before Wal’ first Gay Pri march, the Crimal Law Amendment Act was passed by Parliament.