The First New York Pride March Was an Act of ‘Desperate Courage’

I was at that first march. My girlfriend and I were deeply in love and downright euphoric, even though people along the sidewalks -- mostly men, but some women -- hurled insults, propositions and occasional spittle at us. It was the most amazing thing, to be walking along surrounded by others like us, in a sea of affirmation and joy. I suppose we were all being brave, but that's not how it felt to me. To me, it felt like I was weightless, for the first time in my life.

Have a thought for so many countries in the world where it is still 1970. Conservative and traditional cultures have a lot going for them in terms of family and close community but life for women and minorities is still often shocking to the western eye. Whilst celebrating the courage and challenges that continue to bring changes to our culture, take some time to consider their situation.

Beautifully written as it is nearly impossible to distill 50 years in a short essay. I was not at the first parade in 1970 but came out when I was 18 in 1979. Yes, these trailblazers were very brave. It was/ still is somewhat of a brave act to come out to the world. I actually didn't feel that I had a real choice. I had to openly explore the real me. So yes, let's all celebrate the better world we helped to create for the younger generations. I feel honored to be a part of queer pride and all of our accomplishments in the face of our great losses and tears. In the end, LOVE wins.

I respect what these people did but I reserve the words "courage" and "bravery" for those who actually put themselves in harm's way for us.

Well done, Andrew Solomon! You have beautifully communicated for the younger generations of Americans, the challenges that confronted the early leaders & pioneers of today's LGBTQ community. As a straight white male, at the time I contributed little beyond my own non-judgemental friendship and quiet admiration for my gay friends. While real prejudices persist to this day, it is increasingly unlikely that young people will experience the thoughtless cruelty inflicted by parents, family members & "friends" or the near complete isolation that was common in that era, 50 years ago. With the exception of the first gay communities in the largest cities, most individuals were denied any social support while either concealing their needs or suffering at the hands of bigots. Thank you, Mr. Solomon for informing and educating everyone too young to have witnessed the courage of those who pushed back at great peril to themselves.

If conservatives are unable to thaw their hearts enough to listen to the LGBTQ community, can they listen to someone who is straight? I was a young teenager in the 1970’s. I knew nothing about the existence of homosexuality. When I fell head over heels for a handsome and kind male classmate, I spent TWO YEARS trying to figure out why my flirtations failed. We had so much in common! We enjoyed each other’s company. Was it just that we were both a little shy? Or was I completely undesirable? Or what? The ‘what’ turned out to be that he was gay. So, to the conservatives who hate the parades and want to go back in time, please. Do you really want the agony of the closet? The straight teen girl weeping into her pillow because she doesn’t realize the guy she likes is gay? The gay teen boy standing in misery on a high bridge and thinking he should jump because he can’t bear to tell his parents? The straight wife lying in her lonely bed and wondering if her husband is sleeping with his female assistant when he’s really with his gay colleague? The straight husband not understanding why his wife isn’t as chatty and warm with him as she is with her old female college roommate? There is nothing but heartbreak, heartbreak, and more heartbreak when people aren’t free to be their authentic selves. It is torture for everyone. So, no, we’re not going back. I am so thankful that fewer teens today are spending precious years and endless tears trapped in a world of unnecessary secrets.

Not many black faces in those photos.

It still isn't always "feathers, floats and celebrities." Where I live, in Maryland's only red congressional district, we just had our first annual Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride festival. Our FIRST ONE. In 2019. While it was well-attended and joyous (T-Mobile even turned out to get that good publicity), a handful of protestors still showed up, holding black-and-white printed signs with hateful messages on them, signs they could only type by virtue of the work of (among many other bright persons) one Alan Turing. Thank you for reminding us all of the history of the LGBTQIAP+ rights movement of this country, and of the need to continue hanging every pride flag from every flagpole. Let us begin by bringing this same history to every school curriculum, K-12, especially in places where there has been little or no local support for the LGBTQ+ community. New Jersey's done it, California's done it, Illinois has done it. Let every state follow.

Thank you, Mr. Solomon--we stand on the shoulders of giants, those men and women who took the first steps for the rest of us, no matter where we are, where we come from or who we are--there is a greater force that unites us..the fight is not over; what we have gained could systematically be taken away for us..must remain vigilant and tenacious in our goals, for us and for those that come after us.

Thank you Andrew. Great and brave article.

The photos are fantastic. I'm an old guy, same age as the young people in these photos. Maybe that's why I find these people, boys and girls, so amazingly alive, appealing and sexy.

Hi Andrew. Two things. I just came from listening to a brilliant panel of 8 Gay Liberation Front panelists at the LGBT Community Center, with many other GLFers in the room. It was spectacular, fierce and funny. And they are having other reunion events this weekend. And second, some of them will be foregoing their place as Grand Marshals in the Pride Parade to join the Queer Liberation March on Sunday, a revival of the original people's marches--no corporate floats, no contingents of police, just people marching up Sixth Ave. again to a big Rally on the Great Lawn of Central Park. You should march with us, too. It'll be far more exhilarating and a much better experience for your first Pride March. Details at reclaimpridenyc.org.

As a gay Singaporean man living in San Francisco now, I am grateful for the civil rights that I enjoy that are not existent in Singapore. The Singapore Prime Minister continues to sit on the fence and refuses to repeal 377a claiming that the society is not ready to accept LGBTQIA people as it is a conservative one. And a repeal would upset harmony in the society. The criminal code was a remnant of its British colonial past, criminalizes consensual sex between two men in the private. Furthermore there is zero protection against any sort of discrimination against non-hetersexual Singaporeans. And more recently, he tries to pink wash the discrimination that LGTBQIA people face there: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/not-san-francisco-singapore-pm-112635441.html The government actively tries to curtail the LGBTQIA movement. First by not allowing non-Singaporeans from attending Pink Dot. Then more recently, it bans non-Singaporean companies from providing any financial support. The reason given was to prevent foreign agents from influencing local politics. When the second assault failed, as many Singaporean companies stepped forward to provide financial support, the government claimed that this showed that the LGBTQIA community can find support within the country. This is the current state of the LGBTQIA situation in Singapore.

this is a great essay. however, not enough credit is given to the African American trans women that actually started gay pride. many people are just finding out about these women. more credit should be given to them. my parents died before I told them. they would have locked me up just as one of my classmates was locked up to be "converted"

I was at that 1970 parade, so I definitely appreciate Andrew Solomon’s essay about it. So great to see all those wonderful pics. But I don’t think the tall dark handsome guy carrying the banner is Jim Fouratt. At that date Fouratt was a cutish round-faced dirty blond with a button nose. Can anyone provide a better identification?

It was serious business, and so were my comments and thoughts about it then. I thought, good, finally, best use of a parade I'd seen in a long time, what parades are for. If I can, i'd like to offer a bit of encouragement; keep fighting and don't ever give up. Thanks for the example of guts and decency of committment to do the right thing. Thanks for the memories.

I was in high school then. My folks would have had me locked up in a mental asylum if I had gone any where near the parade. So once I was out of the house in college I went to the parades. I demonstrated. I worked on defeating the Briggs Initiative in California. So glad to see so much positive change since then. The liberation and freedom day verbiage was replaced in the early 1980s by the Pride Parades. It was hard times with the killing of Harvey Milk and the AIDS epidemic. But we rallied and then renamed the parades PRIDE. May their memory be eternal for all those that have passed.

So many young people. The pictures are great.

"...and I can only think that if I had been 20 when that first march took place, I’d have been peering at it anxiously from a distance". You don't give yourself enough credit. You don't know at all that you would've been on the sidelines. Perhaps the day, the sunshine, the happiness, the relief would have given you the kick; one never knows. Enjoy your first march this year and Happy Pride!

“THE most persecuted, harassed minority group in history”? Lets leave the hyperbole aside (although I can understand a comment spoken with great fervor). There are not 4,00+ lynchings of gays recorded. I relate to that as a gay man, but I TOTALLY don’t relate to that comment as a BLACK gay man.

If only the younger generations got a ..... clue.

This is a great essay, Andrew. I too admire these pioneers for their courage. If they had not had courage when I had little or none, I would be riddled with doubt and secrets. You are a beacon for me personally as well as light for so many by way of your writing. In this time, when we need courage and integrity, it is heartening to think of you, our Task Force, and our other heroes. Thanks for doing the article.

I always stand in awe of people who, by choice, put themselves in danger to do the right thing. Whether that is democracy activists in China, women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia or these marchers. I would like to think that I would have their courage, but I fear that I would be the one silently supporting them from a position of anonymous safety.

Thank you, Mr. Solomon. I was lucky enough to march in that first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in New York in 1970. I clearly remember that intoxicating feeling of joy and limitless possibility. As for the Annual Reminders held previously in Philadelphia, please do note that we have no "Liberty Hall." We do, however, have "Independence Hall."

Absolutely no one came out in high school in the 60's. I didn't know one gay person although I'm sure there must have been. We got to tour our high school ten years ago during my 40th reunion and to my surprise there were gay/straight alliance posters hanging in the hall. Loved it! That is progress!

I marched in my first gay pride demonstration in of all places, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the winter of 1971. There were 12 plus people besides myself. As I recall, we marched close to the Milwaukee Art center at the end of East Wisconsin Ave. I was neither brave and in hindsight, proud, but we did do it!

It's staggering to think of how far we have come in 50 years. But it's not just the gay community that has seen progress. All of society has. Because when group in society rises, We all rise.

often forgotten is the overall upheaval in this society fifty years ago marked more appropriately by Woodstook's 50th anniversary almost in the same month as Stonewall. everyone was tired of the constraints and limits of fear and war and hate. sounds a lot like today frankly

Such a beautiful piece. I love Andrew Solomon!

Thank you for this, Mr. Solomon; a thoroughly enjoyable read. Side note: prefer "marriage equality" over "gay marriage." To my mind, there is no such thing as "gay marriage." Marriage is simply marriage, whether one is gay or straight.

You have a voice of experience, pain, loss, and yet victory. But please share it in a way that teaches our youth. I cannot believe how much you have to share, but please do.

In the late 1990s I was a teenager repressed to such a degree that I thought I was asexual. (A whisper of autism complicated this, and continues to color my queerness a bit.) (And I type this with no disrespect to people who are in fact asexual. More power to them! But I was not—I was confused.) One Saturday on my way downtown to get some things from the Farmers' Market, I stumbled across Boston Pride, which at the time I didn't know existed. It took a while, a few years in fact, but that brush with visibility and authenticity left an impression that eventually grew to shake me from continuing to deny my own feelings. I am not a conventionally religious person (I call myself an ecumenical agnostic), but I remember seeing liberal/progressive church groups march in the parade. This helped me frame the celebration, which did indeed seem to be about liberation. Pride parades get flak these days—and some of the criticisms are fair, in a time when rainbow capitalism too often equates money with speech—but at their heart they are profound. Our becoming whole humans, in a sea of humanity, may continue to threaten certain retrograde conservatives and others, but we will not retreat from the integrity we have achieved, thanks to so many passed and some still with us.

Thanks for this article. I am 70. I was born in NYC and in a very Jewish home. When I told my father I was a homosexual ( in my teens) he said, You can't be homosexual. You are Jewish. We are not like that. Later, realizing that the Jewish community would not accept people like us as we were, I started (1976) the third gay and lesbian synagogue in Chicago. During the whole time I was in Chicago the local Jewish paper refused to accept our ads or notices, no synagogue would rent us space ( we met in the Barry St Unitarian Church). Over 30 years thousands of people joined us there. When I was in medical school in Kirksville, Mo in the 80's, I began the first gay and lesbian support group in the heart of the Bible belt there. 20 people came to our first meeting. I always knew that I was not alone in this and that I had to find others to join with to make our own world, a world that met our needs instead of catering to the needs and opinions of those who had no idea of our lives. One of the reasons that I am supporting Pete Buttigieg is that I lived in South Bend, IN. in 1988 when I did my internship at South Bend Osteopathic Hospital. I know what life was life for gay people there was like and I realize how brave and courageous he was to come out to his community on the verge of running for reelection ( he won by 80%+). Courage is something that each of us can live if we are only willing to do the right thing at the right time regardless of the consequence.

It always amazes me that it was a mere 9 years between Stonewall and when I turned 18 and became a WeHo-frequenting gay boy from Orange County. I came out to my father then ("oh thank god you didn't get a girl pregnant!") and lived my life quasi-openly back then -- that is I didn't try to hide anything, but I didn't volunteer anything either. These are the heroes that made my life in the late 70's possible. In the years since, I've been trying pay things forward just like these brave pioneers did, but nothing compares to their courage. Happy Pride Everybody!

Thank you for this article. It is an important reminder of L.G.B.T.Q. history for all of us. Like Mr. Solomon, I am touched by the faces of the marchers, many of whom look simply joyful. I can imagine the feeling of strength and belonging the march must have given them. I am grateful to be living in a time of greater understanding and acceptance, though there is still work to be done! I hear jokes about homosexuals on TV in places where you wouldn't necessarily expect them, like Blackish, one show that should know better. Fear and distrust of homosexuality, and the dumb jokes and insults that stem from these, should be put to bed already. These marchers were marching to eradicate that kind of ignorance that still persists. We should remember that and continue to stand up for equality.

In 2014 I was in Tel Aviv to visit a cousin of mine who was dying. I didn't know that I was arriving shortly before the annual gay pride parade. Tel Aviv was covered with rainbow flags to an extent that I had never seen anywhere before, even though I live in New York.

The L.G.B.T. experience is unique in that hatred and violence often begins in the home, with family, and continues with strangers on the street. It's because of this unique experience that places like the West Village are/were important. Pride events are about L.G.B.T. solidarity; it's about forming a collective "chosen family" to lift each other up.

Preparing for a massive Stonewall 50 hangover after that event has been mega-fetishized, a theater foundation -- The Playwrights Sanctuary--directed by Dr. Larry Myers (40 years university professor/30 lately at St. John's U) is helping newer & younger writers pen LGBTQIA history plays. Myers has interviewed Randy Wicker, Perry Brass, Jim Fourat & other notables . His "Marsha P. Johnson Mirror" & "F (l) a g" about Gilbert Baker serve as models. Based on a service/learning manifesto the Sanctuary was endorsed by the late Edward Albee.

These people are the picture of real courage

I am so proud of my brothers and sisters who took the huge step of coming out for these early marches. You have no idea how difficult that was at a time when you were officially characterized as having a psychiatric disorder. It is not easy today in much of this country. Keep evolving.

What a moving article and images! I'm not gay or lesbian but have extreme respect for these amazing pioneers, as well as the millions of other people who have the courage to just be who they are. Thank you!

To be clear in much of America these Parades and celebrations are still an act of civic courage. While in SF and NYC stakeholders fight over mind numbingly trivial symbolisms, in the other America these events are truly a coming together. They can still be very fresh and touching.

Marvelous article. In 1978 there was a gay parade in Boston along Charles Street. Police were polite but far too quiet. On lookers stared and a few had some things to say. It was exhilarating and fearful. Many were seen in the parade and in the next few weeks were fired from jobs or ordered to move out of apartments and the Mayor, Kevin White expressed regret and that was that. We all know that Boston changed and so did America. In time the world will change for the better.

I was there! It was quite unnerving for all of us assembling at Sheridan Square, not knowing if we would be pelted with stones until we started up Sixth Avenue and we then knew something magical was happening. There were rumors that workmen on the construction sites were throwing things down on the parade. since it was a Saturday, they were still working. People either laughed at us or joined us and by the time we got to Central Park we had the first "Gay In". A very heady time for me at age 24. I went to the Stonewall quite often as it was the only place you were allowed to dance with a person of the same sex, and was there the night before the raids. I'm 73 now and single and I survived AIDS. But so many of my friends from that day did not. Thank you for reading this.

Wonderful pictures and commentary. It's important to note this 50th anniversary with great pride, remembrance, and celebration. It's also a good time to remember how important it is to stay vigilant.

As a happily married gay man who has been gratified to feel more acceptance by others during his lifetime, I want to simply say "thank you" to these brave early LGBTQ marchers and protestors. They helped pave the road to greater equality for our community, and make us realize that there's still much more work to be done in this regard...

"The parade stretched for 15 blocks as the marchers made their way from Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village up Sixth Avenue to Central Park. " Not sure how this is possible. Sheridan Square to Central is way longer than 5 blocks. Unless they mean the density of the marchers was 15 blocks long?

By accident, I arrived in Greenwich Village for a one year visiting position at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Scienes, just weeks after the Stonewall uprising. I stayed five years and gradually gave up the pretense of heterosexuality. I wish now that I could say I marched at first, but it's untrue. The article is a reminder of that period of my own life.

“We’re probably the most harassed, persecuted minority group in history,” Michael Brown, a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, told The Times, I cannot agree with this. Unless you are a person of color, you have not been the recipient of every stereotype of blacks, browns and then some. This follows a black/brown person from birth to death. I drove to a meeting to represent my department at work at another worksite. The team member who greeted me at the door said, "You do not look like you belong on this project." When I go into stores, I always keep my hands visible at all times. Attendants follow you through the store and never giving you a moment's rest. It is almost an unpleasant feeling to go shopping. I live in a predominantly white conservative suburb where the women, children and teens stare at me and my children like we are going to suddenly strip off all of our clothes and swing through trees. When I was a student in Germany, skinheads spotted me then proceeded to follow me and my friends the entire day, hollering all kinds of racial obscenities. At elementary school, each of my children had another child say that they did not want to sit by a black person. I worry that my son will make ONE mistake and be shot by some police officer who does not know that he is a brilliant and beautiful human being. I know that gays are persecuted, but you are not the most persecuted group. I'm sorry.

Thank you for this history lesson! This is a liberation movement that’s not taught in schools (at least not when I was in middle and high school in the mid- and late 2000s) for some reason, but it is so important for the LGBTQ kids of today to know whose shoulders we’re standing on when we advocate for ourselves. I’m in the generation where the idea of coming out in high school was still rather uncommon (I kind of “eased into it,” telling everyone I was probably bisexual for a while before coming out as lesbian), although there were gay-straight alliances. But there were a few kids that did, and it’s thanks to that first brave generation that marched at Stonewall. Now I see the generation after mine unafraid to be themselves and I’m so glad that the world is safe enough now for that. Not perfect, but safe enough. We can’t stop fighting for what the Stonewall marchers believed in because we’re still in evident danger, but we’ve still made so much progress in such little time that it’s an encouraging reminder.