As a sure sign of its continual forward evolution, Pride marches have become as quintessentially part of the American summer landscape as baseball, beach trips, and Fourth of July barbecues. In a Simpsons episode in 2002, when approached by gay men at a Pride March exclaiming, " We're here! We're queer! Get used to it!" Lisa Simpson observed, "You do this every year, we ARE used to it."
Though that statement may resonate with many urban dwellers, the original Pride Marches were anything but mainstream. The story of Pride marches are almost as old as the Stonewall Rebellion itself, and it's a great example of our community's ingenuity, pluck, and gumption.
Immediately after the Stonewall Rebellion (June 27-29, 1969), gay (LGBT) activists, many of whom had already been activists working within the Civil Rights, Women's, and Anti-War movements, seized the opportunity and formed the Gay Liberation Front (GLF).
The GLF was a radical and militant organization that believed that sexual liberation for everyone could only come about when all heterosexist institutions were overthrown. These activists were very much a part of the various socio-political movements of the '60s, and to the end they aligned themselves with the Black Panthers, Anti-War movements, and Students for a Democratic Society.
Though the group's attempt to include the goals/philosophies of all those movements was commendable, by trying to address every one's needs it ended up serving no one. Right from the beginning the group was plagued by internal conflict: gay men ridiculing their effeminate brothers; lesbians accusing femmes and drag queens as perpetrating oppressive gender stereotypes; and everyone charging butch men and women as holding on to heterosexist privilege.
Even as infighting would lead to the group's quick dismantling, , the GLF is important because of two things: 1) it is from which our concept that coming out is one of the most important political acts an LGBTQ person could do originated, and 2) the GLF's use of disorder-inducing, headline-grabbing direct-action ZAPs (congregating en mass to raise public awareness) would be a strategy replicated by successive LGBTQ organizations like GAA, Lavender Hill Mob, and ACT-UP.
Within six months of GLF's coming together, several members broke off to form the Gay Activists' Alliance (GAA). Unlike the GLF, the GAA focused solely on gay Civil Rights. The GAA proved to be incredibly effective at taking on the community's political enemies. Amongst it's numerous achievements are the GAA's starting of the gay employment non-discrimination movement, the creation of arguably the first LGBT community center at its Soho Victorian firehouse, and helping Dr. Frank Kameny in becoming the first openly-gay person to run for Congress.
The GAA also organized the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, which planned the first march to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, named appropriately the Christopher Street Liberation Day March. The march was meant to commemorate the events of Stonewall as well as to highlight the ongoing struggle for LGBT rights.
Over time the Christopher Street Liberation Day became simply Gay Liberation Day, celebrated on the east coast in cities like New York and Atlanta, while cities in the west like San Francisco and Los Angeles opted for the term Gay Freedom Day. Eventually the community would settle on the name Gay Pride and later on, LGBT Pride. The Christopher Street Liberation Day March Committee in NYC became the full-fledged non-for-profit Heritage of Pride (HOP). Though the GAA would be dissolved by the late 70s, its members went on to found groups like the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), organizations still at the forefront of the struggle today.
Presently the visibility of corporate floats at the LGBT Pride March have led many to question whether or not the march should now be called a parade. In response HOP maintains they have not forgotten the March's revolutionary principles. A march points to political grievances and HOP states that until LGBT people can live their lives without violence, harassment, and discrimination, they will continue to call it a march.
Despite its humble, radical beginnings, LGBT Pride Marches/parades are celebrated not only across the country, but all over the world. And as the message of the march adjusts to appeal to the masses, we must remember the hard work and courage of those early activists without whom none of this would be possible.
To learn more, here are some must-reads:
http://www.queerty.com/new-york/the-gay-pride-issue-20070618/
http://www.nycpride.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_parade
