Christopher Street Liberation Day (1970): The First Pride March

Christopher Street Liberation Day, held in New York City on Sunday 28 June 1970, is widely regarded as the first Pride march. On the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, gay men, lesbians and their supporters marched openly from Greenwich Village to Central Park. The event replaced quiet, formal pickets with a joyful public demonstration and began the tradition of June Pride marches now held in cities around the world.

Background: from Annual Reminder to liberation

Before 1969 the main public protest by American gay rights groups was the Annual Reminder, a picket held every 4 July from 1965 outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Participants followed a strict dress code, with men in suits and women in dresses, and marched silently to show that homosexuals were respectable citizens.

The Stonewall riots of June 1969 changed the mood. New groups such as the Gay Liberation Front rejected the cautious approach and urged people to come out openly. At the Annual Reminder on 4 July 1969, some participants broke the rules by holding hands, angering the organisers.

In November 1969, at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in Philadelphia, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes proposed replacing the Annual Reminder with a yearly march in New York to commemorate Stonewall. The resolution called it Christopher Street Liberation Day and stated that no dress or age rules would apply.

Planning the march

A Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee met at Rodwell’s Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, one of the first bookshops devoted to gay and lesbian writers. Volunteers raised money, printed leaflets and organised a week of events leading up to the march. Brenda Howard, a bisexual activist, helped coordinate the march and the surrounding programme, which is why she is often called the “Mother of Pride”.

The organisers obtained a permit for a route up Sixth Avenue. Many expected trouble: marchers feared attacks or arrests, and some worried that being seen in public would cost them their jobs.

The march

On 28 June 1970 the marchers assembled on Christopher Street, near Sheridan Square and the Stonewall Inn. They set off up Sixth Avenue with only a few hundred people, but the crowd grew as spectators joined in, chanting slogans such as “Say it loud, gay is proud”. The march covered about 50 blocks to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park, where participants held a “Gay-In”.

Estimates of the crowd vary widely, from a few thousand to as many as 20,000. Newspapers including The New York Times reported the march the next day. The march passed without serious violence, which itself surprised many participants.

Marches in other cities

The idea spread quickly. In Los Angeles, activists including the Reverend Troy Perry and Morris Kight won a court fight for a permit and held the Christopher Street West parade on Hollywood Boulevard on 28 June 1970. In Chicago, gay rights activists marched through the city centre on 27 June, and in San Francisco small events took place the same weekend.

In the following years Pride marches were held in more US cities and abroad. London’s first Pride march took place on 1 July 1972, and in Germany and Switzerland Pride events are still called Christopher Street Day after the New York street.

Key people

• Craig Rodwell (1940–1993) had campaigned for gay rights since the early 1960s, took part in the 1966 sip-in at Julius’ bar and opened the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967. He is widely credited as the driving force behind the first march.
• Fred Sargeant, Rodwell’s partner, co-authored the proposal and helped organise the march.
• Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes, student activists, co-sponsored the resolution in Philadelphia.
• Brenda Howard (1946–2005), a bisexual rights activist, helped organise the march and the week of events around it.

Legacy

Over the decades the marches changed in name and tone, from “liberation” to “pride”, and many became large parades with floats and sponsors. They also became important moments of protest and remembrance, for example during the AIDS crisis, when groups such as ACT UP marched to demand action.

New York’s annual march, now NYC Pride, still takes place on the last Sunday in June and starts near Greenwich Village. In 2016 the area around the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park became the Stonewall National Monument.

Timeline

• 1965, 4 July: The first Annual Reminder picket takes place in Philadelphia.
• 1969, 28 June: The Stonewall riots begin in Greenwich Village.
• 1969, November: A homophile conference in Philadelphia approves Christopher Street Liberation Day.
• 1970, 27 June: Gay rights marchers rally in Chicago.
• 1970, 28 June: The first Christopher Street Liberation Day march in New York; a parade is held in Los Angeles.
• 1972, 1 July: The first Pride march in London.
• 2016, June: The Stonewall National Monument is designated.

Why it matters

The first Pride march turned the memory of Stonewall into a lasting public tradition. By marching openly through one of the world’s best-known cities, participants showed that gay people would no longer hide, and the model they created has spread to hundreds of cities worldwide.