Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, participants encountered little resistance from onlookers. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs.
There was little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign "I am a Lesbian" walked by. – The New York Times coverage of Gay Liberation Day, 1970 Ĭhristopher Street Liberation Day on Jmarked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march from Sheridan Square, covering the 51 blocks to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. Bisexual activist Tom Limoncelli later stated, "The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Pride Month is June tell them 'A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.'" Craig Schoonmaker are credited with popularizing the word "Pride" to describe these festivities. Martin (aka Donny the Punk) and gay activist L. Additionally, Howard along with the bisexual activist Robert A.
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īrenda Howard, a bisexual activist, is known as the "Mother of Pride" for her work in coordinating the march, and she also originated the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world every June. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the committee scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF. For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization.
of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison Jr. At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York City organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street. Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN). Īll attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained.
We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration. 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. On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia. In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for a "Gay Power" demonstration in Washington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square. Veterans of the riot formed a group, the Stonewall Veterans Association, which has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the rioting at the Stonewall Inn, to the present day. This event, together with further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches on a much larger scale. Button promoting the second annual pride march in 1971.Įarly on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people rioted, following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan.