Proud to March in June

This past Sunday and all throughout June, cities around the world from Athens to Lisbon to Bogota to Albuquerque celebrated Gay Pride. In big American cities like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, millions of spectators showed up to watch hundreds of floats jaunt down main streets in their city's pride parades.

In San Francisco's parade, it is common these days to see politicians, high schools, and dozens of corporations making their way down Market Street clad in rainbow garb.


Marchers get political in the 2017 San Francisco pride parade.  Douglas Zimmerman / SFGate.com


But how did all this pride start?

Go back forty-eight years to 1969 in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. On the early morning of June 28, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar that catered to gays, lesbians, transgendered and others on the margins of the community. Police raids were common on gay bars, but this time the patrons fought back, setting of a riot and mobilizing gays and lesbians in New York and beyond.


Protesters clash with police at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969.  New York Daily News


That same year in November, activists met in Philadelphia and voted to create an annual parade in New York called "Christopher Street Liberation Day":
"That the Annual Reminder, in order to be more relevant, reach a greater number of people, and encompass the ideas and ideals of the larger struggle in which we are engaged-that of our fundamental human rights-be moved both in time and location. 
We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration. 
We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support."
The next year, in 1970, gay rights groups in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco organized marches in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. San Francisco called theirs the "Christopher Street Liberation Day Gay-in." Los Angeles' was "Christopher Street West."

Since then, pride parades have grown and sprung up in locations once thought impossible: Ireland, Ukraine, Mumbai, Latvia, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Poland, Croatia, and Little Rock, AR.

Since I'm based in the Bay Area, let's take a look at San Francisco pride parades from the past. How have the parades evolved, and what issues were past parades concerned with?


The first parade in 1970.


Marchers in the 1972 parade.  San Francisco Chronicle


A float rumbles down Polk Street in the 1973 parade.  Vincent Maggiora / San Francisco Chronicle


Revelers in the 1976 parade.  Harvey Milk


A mom celebrates her gay sons in the 1977 parade.  Vincent Maggiora / San Francisco Chronicle


Supervisor Harvey Milk rides in the 1978 parade.  Terry Schmitt / San Francisco Chronicle


Members of the San Francisco Aids Foundation march in the late 1980s.  SFGate


The Dykes on Bikes contingent in the 1986 parade.  Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover


Marchers commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riot in the 1989 parade.  Gary Reyes


Members of the AIDS activist group ACT UP march in the 1990 parade.  San Francisco Examiner


Members of ACT UP mourn those lost to AIDS in the early 1990s.


In the 2004 parade, Mayor Gavin Newsom is heartily cheered when he declared gay couples could marry in San Francisco. The California Supreme Court later invalidated his actions.


A couple celebrates the California-wide permission for gays to marry during the 2008 parade. Months later, Proposition 8 invalidated that law.


Two Dykes on Bikes celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Proposition 8, in the 2013 parade.  Sarah Rice / Getty Images


Apple employees swarm down Market Street in the 2015 parade.  Brandon Chew / San Francisco Chronicle


I am currently working on a book about Ah Toy, the first Chinese brothel madam in gold rush San Francisco.

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Comments

  1. KurtJune 29, 2017 at 10:17 PM

    Looks like fun, but they need more floats.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 9, 2017 at 11:34 AM

    There have been some really interesting documentaries and semi-documentary films this year in the San Francisco Gay Film Festival looking back over this period as well, such as "After Louie" (with Alan Cumming), or the documentary "Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution", that were really interesting. It is amazing how much has changed over the last few decades; though I've only been really aware of it over the last roughly twenty years, it wasn't too much earlier that basic things like non-discrimination in employment or housing became real (and alas, unfortunately, only for parts of the United States even today). So the battle ain't done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Noel C. CilkerJuly 12, 2017 at 2:36 PM

      After marriage equality it's easy to forget that there are other battles to fight (which you mention), including https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/26/supreme-court-denies-religious-liberty-challenge-gay-weddings/100558978/.

      The battle ain't done!

      Delete

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