An Analysis of the History of Pride and What Is Being Done Today to Keep the Tradition Alive
Rohin Buch
Health Head
Ever since the June 1969 Stonewall riots, which are considered to be the spark of the modern LGBT rights movement, the LGBT community has been constantly fighting for their rights. Pride Month and the resultant Pride marches, or simply “Pride,” as we know them today, can be considered to have their roots in a June 28, 1970 march on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. This event, which was then called the “Christopher Street Liberation Day March,” was organized by a group of activists at the time, namely Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Linda Rhodes, and Brenda Howard. The route of the Christopher Street Liberation Day March covered a mere 50 New York City blocks and attracted only a few thousand marchers, but the passion of the marchers led to a spread of these type of LGBT rights-centered parades across the whole nation and that year there were similar marches in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles as well. The humble beginnings of this event would lead to a massive worldwide outcry for the rights of a group of people who had been marginalized since the beginning of time as well as the proliferation of Pride parades across the world.
According to Karla Jay, an early member of the Christopher Street Liberation Day March in Los Angeles, she was surprised it started at all. This was because the Los Angeles police chief at the time, Edward M. Davis, was supposedly a man of very antiquated views who was thought to have said that if he allowed the LGBT community to march, then he would have to allow the community of thieves and burglars to march next. However, due to last-minute Court approval of their march, the LGBT community of Los Angeles was allowed to go ahead with their march on the same day as the first march in New York and by 7 p.m. there were 1,169 people on the streets of Los Angeles. According to one John Kyper, the organizer of the first Pride March in Boston, the approach of marchers there was to confront the police at the police station and read off a list of demands which they felt were necessary for their community and others to receive their rightful voice in society. These demands included an end to police harassment and the threat of imprisonment, which is an eerie echo of the Black Lives Matter movement and what is going on in our society today. Furthermore, according to Kyper, they made demands at each of the stops on their march: “at the State House on Beacon Hill, we demanded our legal rights; at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral facing Boston Common, we demanded religious tolerance, and then we all headed to Boston Common itself where we held a small rally and a symbolic closet-bashing.” Peter Tatchell, a British LGBT rights activist commented on the first Pride March in London in July 1972 which he helped organize, along with other members of the Gay Liberation Front: “In those days, most L.G.B.T.s were closeted and much of the public were ignorant or hostile. It was a gamble. The fear of arrest and violent attacks deterred many and made us nervous. Not surprisingly, less than 1,000 people joined the march. But it felt revolutionary. Our chant of “gay is good” challenged the orthodoxy that gay was bad, mad, and sad. The police hemmed us in. Some officers openly abused us. Bystanders shouted insults. A few threw coins and the police refused to arrest them. Some bystanders were supportive, but most gaped with disbelief that “faggots” would dare show their faces. It was scary but we were determined to be out and proud — and to demand our liberation.”
Today, the LGBT community and activists are fighting more and more for an inclusive community just as the marchers 50 years ago at the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade did. Many advances have been made in the realm of LGBT rights—homosexuality and same-sex marriage have been legalized in many countries and are becoming more and more common internationally. Especially this year, with the horrible murders of hundreds of innocent African Americans in the US, Pride has taken on a new meaning. This year and for many to come, Pride will be all about celebrating everyone in the LGBT community regardless of race and making them feel like they have a home, a family, a community, and a place where they feel safe.
This year, however, Pride celebrations have become subject to question due to the global pandemic and worldwide restrictions on mass gatherings. 2020 Pride will be held online, however, in a 24-hour event called Global Pride, featuring the Black Lives Matter movement at its center. It will be the world's first worldwide LGBTQ event and it is expected that it will attract as many as 300 million viewers online. This event will be headlined by some of the biggest names in the world including Vice President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, whose country legalized same-sex marriage in May, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, and many many more. This online event is an unprecedented one in the over 50 years of Pride tradition since the first march in 1970, however, it has the capacity and ability to bring together everyone across the world regardless of if they have the means to physically reach a Pride parade. This year, all that is necessary to attend Global Pride is internet connection.
Works Cited
Kaufman, David. “How the Pride March Made History.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/gay-lgbt-pride-march-history.html?auth=login-google.
Salam, Maya. “Your 2020 Virtual Pride Guide.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/article/gay-pride-2020-events-online.html.
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